Transportation and supply chain management provider Echo Global Logistics today said it is expanding its cross-border solutions with local offices and personnel in Mexico, and has hired an industry veteran to run the effort.
Echo has already been managing shipping solutions along the southern border for some eight years, but it has been running that operation from its Chicago headquarters. The new approach establishes operations based in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Laredo, Texas, and it names logistics industry executive Troy Ryley as President, Echo Mexico.
With that existing infrastructure already in place, Echo says it has been able to make rapid advancements in the process of navigating border crossings, an often daunting and difficult task.
The new investment is primarily intended to serve Echo’s existing customers—such as the engine manufacturer Cummins—who collectively relied on the company to provide “well over” 100,000 truckload shipments crossing the border in 2023, counting both northbound and southbound traffic.
Echo’s expanded presence in Mexico will now add additional services such as customs brokerage and cross docking, in order to help its customers return to the just-in-time operations they had used before the pandemic, Ryley said in an interview.
“Companies in general are trying to reduce their risk,” Ryley said. “Covid taught us that extended, long supply chains can create problems for sourcing. So who better to work with than your own neighbor?”
Echo makes the investment at a time when many U.S. truckload carriers are tightening their belts to cope with an extended freight recession as the government uses elevated interest rates to cool off an overheated economy. Despite that tough climate, the cross-border sector of the industry has enjoyed good stability, since shippers moving goods between the U.S. and Mexico tend to rely more on contract than spot market rates, in pursuit of greater reliability, he said.
Echo’s strategy follows similar recent moves by other transportation providers and freight brokers, such as expansion of Mexico services by Ryder System Inc., Arrive Logistics, and BlueGrace Logistics.
