Part 5: Dream Team! Best Practices for Overcoming Cross-Border Shipping Challenges

Welcome back to another edition of our Dream Team series. We’re halfway through our series, so let’s quickly look back at some of the insights our team has shared so far. First, we heard from Chris Bahr, our VP of Brokerage Operations, who shared insights on full-service 3PL providers and the future of the transportation industry.

Next, Brady Thames, our VP of Marketing & Sales, shared tips for shippers looking to get the most out of their relationship with a 3PL. And last week, David Bowers, our VP of Warehouse Operations[B1] , shared his best practices for efficient warehousing and fulfillment. Today, we’ve tapped Andrew Welling, our Director of Cross-Border Services, to share his own insights on cross-border shipping.

Andrew has 10 years of experience in the logistics industry, and he was recently named to Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s 2022 Pros to Know list. As a leader on our Cross-Border Logistics team, we asked Andrew to share his best practices to overcome cross-border challenges—whether you’re shipping to Mexico or Canada. Here’s what he had to say.

Leverage technology for supply chain visibility and automation

Visibility is key to efficiently manage your supply chain and shipping process. This is especially true for cross-border shipments, where increased dwell times can cause delays at the border. A Transportation Management System (TMS) connects everything, offering complete supply chain visibility across all modes. Implementing a TMS will allow you to better manage your costs and minimize downtime. In addition to in-transit visibility, a TMS will provide you with robust reporting, giving you actionable insights to improve your operations.

At TA Services, we created a Supplier Portal, which automates pricing and shipment processing — improving the overall customer experience. Now, shippers can build optimized loads with fewer communication touchpoints. When we’re spending less time on tedious data entry tasks, we can spend more time optimizing and routing shipments, helping to drive down costs for our customers.

Consider a multimodal transportation strategy for cross-border shipping

When creating a cross-border logistics strategy, it’s important to consider how potential capacity constraints will impact your operations. And the pandemic has only added to the capacity constraints facing cross-border shippers. A diversified strategy, with multimodal transportation solutions, will allow you to recover from potential supply chain disruptions more quickly — setting you up in the best position for success.

Over-the-road transportation may be the most common solution for cross-border shipments from Canada and Mexico, but in times of uncertainty, you don’t want to rely on only one solution. Depending on your lanes and delivery timelines, intermodal and ocean solutions can be preferred, cost-effective options. Whether you’re shipping full truckload (FTL), less-than-truckload (LTL), refrigerated, flatbed or intermodal shipments, TA Services has multimodal transportation solutions to help move what matters to you.

We offer a unique USMCA LTL Consolidation network for southbound LTL and volume LTL freight throughout North America. Depending on your needs, we offer dedicated, single-client LTL consolidations, multi-client customer consolidations, or a hybrid service offering for shipments going to common border crossing points into Mexico. 

It’s also important to determine whether direct shipping or transloading is right for you when creating your cross-border strategy. This often comes down to the type of freight you are moving. Palletized freight is better set up for transloading, compared to flatbed or heavy products that typically need to move direct.

Direct shipments keep your freight on the same trailer throughout the journey, so it requires carriers with an interchange agreement to move cross-border. On the other hand, transloading means your freight gets moved from one trailer to another — widening your pool of carriers on both sides of the border. With a larger multimodal transportation carrier network at your fingertips, you’ll have access to the most competitive rates.

Be strategic with your warehousing strategy

If cross-border shipping is a common piece of your logistics operations, consider utilizing available warehouse space near borders. This will allow you to shorten your transit times, limit delays, and increase your cross-border shipments.

At TA Services, we offer strategic warehouse solutions and partners located at the border in places like Laredo, TX; El Paso, TX; and Detroit, MI. Opening warehouses near the border also improves your solutions when it comes to transload shipments as it allows for an easier transfer of freight when shipping to Mexico or Canada — or vice versa .

Lean on a logistics partner that prioritizes cross-border solutions

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember you don’t need to handle your cross-border shipments alone. TA Services has a dedicated cross-border team that can help create a strategy designed for your North American logistics needs, including shipping to Mexico and Canada. We have more than 20 years of cross-border shipping experience, with strategic offices in both the U.S. and Mexico, bilingual team members, and a multimodal transportation carrier base.

TA Services prioritizes cross-border solutions, which is why we’re always innovating. Our team not only has solutions to help you today, but we’ll also supply you with ideas to grow with you in the future.

Interested in learning more about TA Services’ cross-border logistics solution? Reach out today to speak with a member of our team and discover how we can help you create a cross-border shipping strategy complete with supply chain visibility, multimodal transportation services, and strategic warehousing.

And be sure to come back for the next installment of our Dream Team series. David Branson, our VP of Managed Transportation Operations, will be sharing his complete guide to managed transportation service solutions.