(Natural News) The White House announced Wednesday, Oct. 13, that Walmart, UPS and FedEx are moving to work more shifts to deal with global supply disruptions that have contributed to a surge in inflation. The announcement was made ahead of President Joe Biden's meeting with the heads of those companies to address the supply chain bottlenecks before the Christmas season.

Lower-than-expected Christmas sales could hurt U.S. companies and consequently pose a political risk for Biden.

A fact sheet released by the Biden administration notes that Walmart will "increase its use of night-time hours," projecting that the company could increase throughput by as much as 50 percent in the next several weeks.

UPS says it will use its 24/7 operations "and enhanced data sharing with the ports" around the country to move more containers out of ports. FedEx says it will work to combine an increase in nighttime hours with changes to the trucking and rail use to increase the volume of containers it can move from ports.

In 2020, UPS and FedEx combined to ship approximately 40 percent of U.S. packages by volume. A White House official told news outlets on Wednesday that FedEx, UPS and Walmart will move toward a 24/7 working schedule.

With that schedule, over 3,500 additional containers can be moved per week at night through the end of the year. "Those boxes contain toys, appliances, bicycles and furniture that Americans purchased online or at their local small business, and pieces and parts that are sent to U.S. factories for our workers to assemble into products," the White House fact sheet states.