Trucking companies may find out soon if they can recruit more long-haul drivers by getting them behind the wheel younger. Proposed legislation in Congress would test letting people as young as 18 years old drive big rigs across state lines, but the WSJ Logistics Report’s Lydia O’Neal writes that the plan is drawing fierce criticism and exposing a divide in the trucking sector. Opponents and researchers say the provision in the infrastructure bill awaiting action in the U.S. House misses the point of hiring problems facing the big fleets. They say there is no shortage of recruits to the business, but that many drivers quit because of the grueling work and extended time away from home. The difficulty in hiring and keeping drivers has only gotten worse during the pandemic, effectively putting a ceiling on capacity growth and leaving truckers and shippers looking for solutions.

U.S. oil and gas production is still staggering nearly 10 days after Hurricane Ida tore through Louisiana. Nearly 80% of U.S. production in the Gulf of Mexico remains offline, the WSJ’s Christopher M. Matthews reports, while oil and gas processing plants and other key onshore facilities try to recover from damage and the loss of power that has limited output. Operators have restored about 300,000 barrels of daily oil production, but most remains shut off. The impact on broader energy markets has been muted so far, but some of the country’s largest refineries remain offline and extended delivery delays could eat into inventories. The Port of New Orleans resumed full operations that include container and bulk handling only this week even as energy facilities were still struggling to recover. In total, Ida has kept about 20 million barrels of oil off the market, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

Shipping disruptions are triggering greater stresses at the source of many supply chains. Some Chinese exporters say they are rejecting orders and limiting production as delays at ports stretch out payment terms and create cash-flow problems. The South China Morning Post reports that the manufacturers are seeing inventories stack up because of coronavirus-related lockdowns that have slowed handling at China’s big ports. That is fracturing long-established structures of orders and payments, adding to financial woes at small and medium-size manufacturers as they cope with higher raw materials costs. China’s exports have remained robust even during the recent shipping slowdowns, including a 25.6% surge in outbound shipments in August. But measures of factory activity are slipping, which could mean fewer goods heading into global supply chains in coming months.

A Federal Reserve report says the U.S. economic recovery slowed over the summer on the impact of Covid resurgence linked to the Delta variant. (WSJ)

Demand for workers in the U.S. remained strong but leveled off due to an easing of job openings for in-person services work. (WSJ)

China's car sales declined for the third straight month in August. (MarketWatch)

The Covax international vaccine distribution program cut its forecast for deliveries to the developing world this year by about 25%. (Financial Times)

The U.S. Postal Service plans to hire 40,000 seasonal workers ahead of the holidays. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Luxury-goods buying club Beauty Pie raised $100 million in a funding round to back expansion that will include new warehouses. (TechCrunch)

Canada’s Enbridge will take control of one of the largest U.S. crude export terminals with the $3 billion acquisition of Moda Midstream. (Lloyd’s List)

Ship owner Euroseas struck a deal to charter a smaller container ship for a record $200,000 a day. (gCaptain)

Pacific Northwest ports are seeing backups in container shipping from vessels on the water to inland distribution networks. (KOMO)

The Port of Portland is gaining new shipping services four years after container lines left the Oregon port. (Journal of Commerce)

Oregon’s small Coos Bay port plans to build a full-size container terminal. (Maritime Executive)

A.P. Moller-Maersk invested an undisclosed sum in bio-methanol supplier WasteFuel. (S&P Global Platts)

Bimco’s Peter Sand is moving to Norway-based ocean freight analysis firm Xeneta as chief shipping analyst. (ShippingWatch)

Second-quarter revenue at supply-chain technology provider Descartes rose 25% to $104.6 million and net profit more than doubled to $23.2 million. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Amazon plans to open a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Delta Township, Mich. (Lansing State Journal)

Freight forwarder DSV is ditching the Panalpina name. (The Loadstar)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @jensmithWSJ, and @pdberger. and @LydsOneal. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.