Zach Rogers

It's still a relatively competitive industry with lots of other potential modes of transportation where people can now get Uber or Lyft pretty easily and get around lots of places.

And that pushes the price up further and that creates a spiral that is the squeeze.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, don't know what's coming through the Strait of Hormuz or when, so they're trying to get everything they need to fill those orders on hand now.

Zach Rogers researches operations and logistics at Colorado State University.

He says it's not unlike last year when U.S.

firms stocked up on imports ahead of tariffs.

Rogers says buying in bulk can also reduce how much manufacturers spend on fuel, the price of which is way up.

But it tends to be the larger manufacturers that have enough cash to do this.

There is, of course, risk in hoarding months' worth of materials, says Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.

Like if rising inflation or a sinking job market causes consumers to buy less of the stuff you make?

Meaning those manufacturers could end up with a bunch of unsold goods later this year.

I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace.

This year, we've been running inventories very lean.

And so even if transportation is very expensive, there will really still have to be some replenishment.

And so a lot of companies are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place because of these counteracting pressures of tariffs and surging fuel costs.