Biden looks to address shipping crisis ahead of holiday season

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- If you already have holiday gifts in mind, business owners are saying you shouldn't wait to buy them, because they might not be there later.

Businesses are continuing to feel the squeeze in what U.S. officials are now calling a shipping crisis that President Biden said he wants to try and address.

"Pretty much everything across the board, we're seeing either delays or 'we're not going to have that by the time you need it,'" said the general manager of Ben's Cycle in Milwaukee, Alex Zacher.

He said usually the hooks on the ceiling are full of bikes, but now, many are empty, and it doesn't stop there.

"It's not just bikes that are being affected, everything from tires to gloves, locks and lights, everything in between," said Zacher.

Bikes are just one of many things being impacted by a shipping bottleneck. Thousands of containers, waiting to be unloaded at the Port of Los Angeles, but the trucks to do it aren't there.

"If this issue is not addressed, the American consumer is going to see price increases across the board," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce V.P. of Supply Chain Policy John Drake, "The business community can't simply continue to absorb the types of increases in transportation costs."

Zacher said they've already seen the concerns Drake expressed come to light.

"Shipping containers used to cost around $4,000 to get from Taiwan to the U.S. These days it's about $30,000," said Zacher.

Zacher said that's driven costs up anywhere from 20-30% in the last year.

Wednesday, President Biden said after meeting with industry leaders, they have a plan to address the issue.

"We have some good news, we're gonna help speed up the delivery of goods all across America," said President Biden.

The Port of Los Angeles, UPS, FedEx, Walmart and others all expanding their hours, in some cases operating 24/7 to try and address the bottleneck.

"Any progress is good progress, we're happy to see any initiative that's going to help move the supply chain along," said Zacher.

Shipping companies like UPS and FedEx are able to move faster at night due to less traffic, and they're some of the biggest suppliers to stores.