How to find Mexico freight hiding in your book
Freight you already move through border cities is often one step from a door-to-door Mexico lane. How to find it.
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If you're moving freight to or from border cities, especially Laredo, El Paso, McAllen, Brownsville, Eagle Pass or Nogales, you're likely one step away from a door-to-door Mexico lane. Your own book is the fastest place to look. Chapter 3 covers three more ways to find Mexico freight: walk the store, call the supplier instead of the automaker, and pull customs data.
Step 1: Pull border-city loads from your TMS
Export the lanes that pick up or deliver in border markets:
- Laredo
- El Paso
- McAllen / Pharr
- Brownsville
- Eagle Pass
- Nogales
Step 2: Spot the handoff pattern
A load that picks up or delivers at a forwarder, customs broker or warehouse in a border city is very often one leg of a cross-border move. Someone else is running the Mexico side and handing the freight to your truck at the border.
Step 3: Use this simple talk track
Say to your customer, "I noticed this load delivers to a forwarder in Laredo. Can I take this door-to-door into Mexico? One team accountable end-to-end, better visibility, and less risk at the handoff."
Step 4: Qualify control and visibility
A CPG shipper is moving temperature-controlled product northbound from Mexico into Midwest DCs. The plan is, "We'll get it in Laredo and pick it up from there." But nobody can say when it will actually cross. A truck gets pre-booked, then sits because the load didn't clear when expected.
The root cause usually sits with a supplier, co-packer or forwarder that controls the Mexico-side transportation. The shipper gets a handoff at the border without the visibility or control it needs to plan.
That's why these questions matter. They tell you whether there's an opening to take the move door-to-door and fix the handoff. Ask:
- "Do you control the cross-border move, or does a supplier or forwarder handle it?"
- "Where do updates break down: on the Mexico side, at the crossing, or after clearance?"
What good looks like: the co-packer story
Before Cargado, our founder Matt Silver ran a cross-border brokerage. One of its customers was a food co-packer importing from Mexico.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| A Mexican carrier brought the freight to a warehouse on the border. A second carrier picked it up days later and delivered it in the U.S. Two carriers, two invoices, and nobody accountable for the whole move. The customer couldn't tell its own customers when product would arrive. | Matt's team took over the pickup in Mexico, the crossing and the U.S. delivery. One contract, one accountable party, one invoice, and a delivery date the customer could actually give out. In Matt's words: "We completely transformed how their freight operated." |
Why it worked
The lane was small, and it was the customer's most annoying freight. Solving it gave the customer one accountable party and a delivery date it could share, and gave Matt's team an opening to talk about the rest of its freight.
If the answer to your qualifying questions is that a co-packer, supplier or forwarder is making the arrangements, you've found your opening. Step in to take the full move and give the customer visibility they've never had. That's how you win sticky, recurring freight.
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