NEW YORK — Walmart said Aug. 24 it will start farming out its delivery service, using contract workers, autonomous vehicles and other means to transport rival retailers’ products directly to their customers’ homes in as little as a few hours.

LONDON — McDonald’s says it has pulled milkshakes from the menu in all 1,250 of its British restaurants because of supply problems stemming from a shortage of truck drivers.

Pilot Freight Services has formed a strategic partnership with American Linehaul Corp. to expand its middle-mile expedited less-than-truckload capabilities, the companies announced Aug. 19.

Cowan Systems has implemented an incentive program that guarantees every newly hired driver a $15,000 bonus, the company announced Aug. 19.

Hedge funds piled into Amazon.com Inc. in the second quarter, putting themselves on the front line of losses as the stay-at-home trade began to unravel.

Although career opportunities in trucking are abundant, the driver shortage has been a thorn in the industry’s side for years, and it has only become more severe as freight demand has surged amid the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

As retailers ramp up inventory for a fast-approaching holiday shopping season, experts worry that an already overextended domestic supply chain will be further tested amid overseas ports’ struggles with the COVID-19 delta variant, rising shipping prices and trucking’s persistent and growing driver shortage.

News of Amazon .com Inc.’s department store plans sent a shudder through retail stocks just as some of the biggest names in the industry were reporting robust earnings, a signal that new challenges await in the beleaguered sector.

Imported goods continued to flood into the U.S. in July as the nation’s ports produced substantial container volumes.

The partial closure of the world’s third-busiest container port is worsening congestion at other major Chinese ports, as ships divert from Ningbo amid uncertainty over how long virus control measures in the city will last.