Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Cargobot sees big opportunities with global cross-border trade; Lineage Logistics expands cold chain footprint in Texas; Stitch Fix closes Dallas logistics hub, lays off 558 workers; and Mexican seaport blocked as truckers protest wait times.

Cargobot sees big opportunities with global cross-border trade

Fernando Correa, CEO and cofounder of Cargobot, sees increasing opportunities for business in Mexico, as well as other parts of the world, as the global supply chain continues to adapt to new technologies and digitalization.

Founded in 2016, Miami-based Cargobot is an international freight technology firm that connects shippers and carriers via its data-driven platform. The platform provides a process for managing truckload, less-than-truckload and partial truckload freight.

“The United States, Germany and China are the top producers in the world; they are activating import and export transactions constantly,” Correa told FreightWaves. “Now, we are seeing the government of the United States activate trade directly to Latin America, South America, because we are receiving more transactions from there.”

Through the first eight months of the year, Mexico was the top trading partner of the U.S. with $533 billion, ahead of Canada at $518 billion and China at $370 billion.

Correa said increasing demand for warehouse and logistics space in northern Mexico has also raised the need for more cross-border logistics providers and transportation capacity.

Mexico has a 2% vacancy rate for industrial space across the country, while its northern border states have vacancy rates of less than 1%, according to Mexico City-based real estate firm Meor.

“This is one of the reasons that we are looking into Mexico as another expansion, because 150 miles away from the borders, all the different kinds of warehouses are completely sold out,” Correa said. “That is the reality and it has never happened in the past.”

To help expand, Cargobot recently raised $6 million in a Series A funding round, which the company will use to expand its products and solution offerings for shippers and carriers.

“At Cargobot, we have two different components; first, we are a tech company — we operate with our own strategy using our own technology,” Correa said. “The second is our software-as-a-service (SaaS), where we have given the opportunity for freight forwarders to be on top of the digitalization locally in different countries.”

The Series A funding has also allowed the company to expand its SaaS business footprint to Colombia, Chile, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Spain.

“We recently started an operation in Spain; that is another important market that we want to operate in. We project an important volume of transactions with Spain and other European countries,” Correa said. “The importance of our network that we are building with our business-type model and the countries that we really want to operate in is the network, because at the end of the day in this industry, if you have different freight forwarding networks in different countries, then you can facilitate different options and different integrations for inland freight services.”

Lineage Logistics announced the opening of a 343,250-square-foot logistics facility in Lancaster, Texas. 

The addition expands Lineage’s footprint in Texas to 19 facilities totaling 192 million cubic feet of capacity, according to a news release. Lancaster is about 18 miles south of Dallas.

Novi, Michigan-based Lineage is a real estate investment trust that specializes in temperature-controlled logistics.

The facility is creating 65 jobs and includes more than 25,000 pallet positions and a rack configuration designed to handle high SKU counts and intensive case-picking for customers, the company said.

The facility will also offer cross-docking, order management, case picking, electronic data interchange, redistribution, freight consolidation, managed transportation, transloading, drop trailers and an on-site generator.

Lineage Logistics operates more than 400 facilities on three continents, employing 17,000 workers.

Stitch Fix closes Dallas logistics hub, lays off 558 workers

Stitch Fix, an online personal styling service, will close a Dallas distribution warehouse and lay off 558 employees, according to a recent notice sent to state officials.

The layoffs will begin Dec. 1 and continue in six phases until April 2024. Company officials did not provide a reason for the facility’s closure in its notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.

In recent months, the company has also announced the closure of two logistics operations in Pennsylvania, eliminating almost 800 jobs.

San Francisco-based Stitch Fix, founded in 2011, has over 5,000 employees. The company also has distribution centers in Atlanta, Indianapolis and Phoenix.

Mexican seaport blocked as truckers protest wait times

Truck drivers have blocked roadways around Mexico’s Port of Lazaro Cardenas to protest long wait times for loading and unloading cargo.

The protest, which began Thursday, has increased to several hundred truck drivers who said they spend hours waiting to pick up or drop off containers at the port, according to news outlets Reforma and T21.

Located along the Pacific Coast, the Port of Lazaro Cardenas is one of the largest commercial seaports in the country. During the first eight months of the year, it handled 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units, according to Mexican authorities.

The protesters sent a letter to authorities asking to “extend work schedules for the import of motor transport cargo … and expedite the loading and unloading of containers in a timely manner.”

The port has suffered from congestion in recent months, partly due to a surge in car shipments, as well as problems with its rail system that have affected container processing, according to The Loadstar.

Port authorities have begun negotiations with the truck drivers, but no agreement had been reached as of Friday.

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