Braking, Bottles & Booming Gas
Good morning! ☀️
Today’s headlines are serving up a mix of hard stops, baby steps, and a gas-powered comeback.
🛑 Amazon’s self-driving unit, Zoox, just hit the brakes—literally. Turns out, their AVs were a little too eager to stop, leading to a recall. Maybe they just needed a coffee?
🍼 HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is speeding up infant formula safety. “Operation Stork Speed” aims to tighten regulations, but let’s hope it doesn’t slow supply chains to a crawl.
🔥 Natural gas is back, baby! After a year of low prices and production cuts, demand is soaring. The big question: Can pipelines keep up?
From robot roadblocks to baby bottle bottlenecks, let’s dive into today’s supply chain chaos.
“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs… one step at a time.”
Zoox's Sudden Stops Spark Recall
Amazon’s self-driving unit, Zoox, just hit the brakes—literally. A safety investigation flagged unexpected hard braking issues in 258 of its AVs, leading to a recall. The problem? The system was a little too cautious around cyclists and motorcyclists, slamming on the brakes unnecessarily. While Zoox has patched the software, this is yet another reminder that AV tech isn’t quite there yet.
🔗 Why This Matters for Logistics:
Autonomous vehicles are supposed to be the future of freight and delivery, but these incidents raise big questions. What happens when AV trucks start hitting the road at scale? Sudden braking = safety risks, liability nightmares, and major slowdowns. Imagine your freight getting delayed because a self-driving truck freaked out at an intersection. Not ideal.
🔥 Hot Take:
Self-driving hype keeps stalling out, and logistics pros should take note. If these small fleets are struggling, what does that mean for 80,000-lb freight haulers? AVs have a long way to go before they’re truly road-ready.
Operation Stork Speed: HHS Targets Infant Formula Safety
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just launched Operation Stork Speed, a new push to tighten safety standards for infant formula. The goal? More testing for heavy metals, updated nutrient regulations, and better research on formula-fed babies. Sounds good in theory, but in a highly regulated and fragile supply chain, even small changes can have big ripple effects.
🔍 Key Takeaways:
✅ More FDA testing for contaminants in formula & baby food.
✅ Manufacturers may need to reformulate ingredients.
✅ Personal imports of infant formula are still allowed.
✅ Research is ramping up on formula-fed infant health.
🚨 Why This Matters for Logistics:
If formula makers have to change sourcing or production, expect potential slowdowns, import challenges, and distribution shifts. We all saw what happened in 2022 when one plant shutdown led to a nationwide shortage—the supply chain cannot afford another crisis.
🔥 Hot Take:
Safety is critical, but if regulations slow production, parents could face higher prices or another shortage. Let’s hope Operation Stork Speed doesn’t end up more stork, less speed.
Natural Gas is Back—But Can Infrastructure Keep Up?
After a rough year of low prices and production cuts, natural gas is making a serious comeback. Prices at Henry Hubhave more than doubled in a year, jumping from $1.83/MMBtu to over $4/MMBtu. What’s fueling the surge? A brutally cold winter that drained storage levels, record-breaking LNG exports, and investors betting big on gas.
💡 What’s Driving the Boom?
✅ Lower inventories—down 12% from the five-year average.
✅ Higher demand—domestic use + LNG exports at record highs.
✅ More bullish investors expecting even higher prices.
✅ New pipelines increasing takeaway capacity.
With demand rising, producers like Expand Energy are ramping up output for 2025 and 2026. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is pushing for faster pipeline approvals to keep supply moving.
🔥 Hot Take:
The gas boom is real, but here’s the catch—if pipelines don’t expand fast enough, we’re looking at bottlenecks, price spikes, and supply chain headaches. Red tape has slowed infrastructure projects before… will this time be any different?
The Workday Dash is an aggregation of articles regarding the transportation logistics, trucking, and supply chain industries for March 21, 2025, from iLevel Logistics Inc.