There were many new transportation updates in the shipping industry last month. Check out some of the top stories and transportation updates of February 2021!

Biden’s DOL removes Trump administration’s sleeper berth guidance

Previous Department of Labor views regarding matters of pay and classification have been removed by the Biden administration. The Wages and Hour Division of the Department of Labor announced that it was withdrawing two previous letters of opinion that it had published in 2019. The most important withdrawal for the trucking industry was a letter published by Trump’s administration in 2019 about the compensation for time spent in the sleeper berth.

The WHD said the 2019 opinion was “inconsistent with long-standing WHD interpretations regarding the compensability of time spent in a trucker’s sleeper berth.” Read more here.

Hyundai becomes victim of a ransomware attack

On Monday, February 22nd, hackers leaked information related to Hyundai Motor America’s logistics operations and announced an apparent ransomware attack on Kia Motors America. The hostage data exposed information about Hyundai Glovis, the automaker’s global logistics firm, as well as documents related to a trucking partner.

“Last week, Hyundai Motor America experienced an IT outage affecting a limited number of customer-facing systems and the majority of those systems are now back online,” the company said in a statement. “We would like to thank our customers for their continued patience. At this time, we can confirm that we have no evidence of Hyundai Motor America or its data being subject to a ransomware attack,” – stated Hyundai Motor America. Read more here.

Vaccine distribution goes back to normal flow after snowstorms

The harsh winter storms that have ravaged Texas and other southern states have delayed the delivery of 6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.  “Obviously it is a setback because you’d like to see the steady flow of vaccines getting out there to get into people’s arms, but we can play pretty good catch-up. (…) 6 million doses got delayed. We’ve gotten 2 million out, and we project that by the middle of the week we will have caught up,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. Read more here.