Picking the Best Mexico Partner

Inconsistent… complex... chaotic… Ask any shipper about their U.S.-Mexico cross-border experience and you’re bound to hear a long list of less-than-glowing descriptors like these. (And likely a few expletives for good measure.)

It’s not for nothing, either. I can attest that this collective frustration about the “black hole” at the border is warranted. Why? Because getting cross-border shipping right is hard — like, really hard — and few can achieve the same level of service shippers are used to stateside.?

Delivering a world-class cross-border Mexico experience requires so many complex parts moving in perfect sync — eight distinct parties are involved in your average northbound cross-border truckload shipment alone! Here’s the breakdown:

• Beneficial Cargo Owner (the customer)
• Pickup facility in Mexico
• Mexico carrier
• Mexico customs broker
• Border transfer carrier
• U.S. customs broker
• U.S. carrier
• Delivery facilities

Reflecting on where things can (and did) go wrong with the tens of thousands of Mexico shipments I’ve managed over the years, I can tell you it happened, well, just about everywhere.?

At any point before, during, or after each shipment milestone, if one document gets sent to the wrong person or you leave a ‘T’ off a trailer number, the entire thing goes sideways, and customs is holding your freight hostage until you pay a massive fine.

So what’s the secret to building a winning Mexico business strategy? It boils down to a few key themes that seem simple but are very challenging to execute.??

An Expert Team

First and foremost, you need a team of bilingual operators who have proven they can execute cross-border Mexico freight — and that doesn’t mean assembling every Spanish speaker in the office and calling them your cross-border department.?

With so many problems that can arise on every load, you need experts who have been there and done it well. A carrier mistakenly crossing the wrong trailer with the wrong paperwork can consume an entire team and cost you several days of productivity, so you need someone who can step in and untangle that mess fast and effectively.

Network Density

Building a reliable, resilient and enduring carrier network requires long-standing consistent volume and rock-solid relationships. Cross-border carriers typically do so with B1 drivers domiciled in a Mexican border city and can only take cross-border freight, unlike CDL drivers, who can take any domestic shipment.?

So, after a B1 driver delivers a load in the U.S., the next load they take has to get them back to the border or into Mexico. That’s why you need to have network volume in your network that keeps those drivers moving back down to the border. That southbound volume is your leverage to strong northbound capacity.

Purpose-Built Technology?

Nowadays, every shipper, carrier and brokerage has a home-grown TMS (Transportation Management System) or uses one of a handful of well-known off-the-shelf options — but none of the above are built to handle cross-border. Between multiple carriers, customs brokers, a border city, foreign addresses, and other Mexico-specific requirements, it’s really hard to find a TMS that stores and displays all that information.?

Most domestic brokers designed systems to support their bread and butter, domestic U.S. freight, so trying to move Mexico freight with the same systems is like fitting a square peg in a round hole. Until you have a load sitting at the border for two weeks because you couldn’t flag it, you don’t know how much your team and technology matter — it’s usually the difference between keeping and losing customers.

The Last Word

By now, you’re probably wondering, “What’s the point here, Matt?” Well, I’ve been moving Mexico freight for eight years, and from starting Coyote’s Mexico operations to building Forager and selling it to Arrive Logistics, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly side of cross-border shipping and what it takes to achieve flawless execution.

And while any logistics pro knows “flawless” is a relative term in this business, I promise that the Arrive Logistics team and I will get you pretty damn close.