Mexpress Transportation’s business is up 25%-30% year-over-year, fueled by demand for its speedy road feeder services between airports in the United States and Mexico, said Michael P. Gamel, vice president of sales.
While airfreight capacity has declined in recent months as airlines slashed their schedules, Gamel said the coronavirus pandemic has introduced them to more new customers.
The foundation of Mexpress Transportation’s business has been its cross-border, airport-to-airport road feeder service, which uses bonded less-than-truckload (LTL) and full-truckload (FTL) operations to offer cargo solutions to and from the interior of Mexico.
“We’re one of the best-kept secrets in the business because we don’t call on direct customers, but the freight forwarders know us,” Gamel said. “We’re a road feeder service to and from the interior airports of Mexico.”
Mexpress, which started in 1998, developed its bonded trucking operations as a solution to clearing customs at the U.S.-Mexico border and move cargo in-bond in Mexico. The company clears freight at the destination airport, bypassing standard border clearance.
To obtain the bonded Mexican trucking authority, Mexpress collaborated with officials in Mexico, including the Mexican customs authority, Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT).
“We can have more than one shipment on a trailer, which means more than one Mexican broker with a load on one of our trailers,” Gamel said. “Our account base is international freight forwarders, airlines, other third parties.”
The company has offices in 14 airports in the U.S. and Mexico, including Houston, Dallas, Laredo and El Paso, Texas; Los Angeles; Nogales, Arizona; and the Mexican cities of Monterrey, Guadalajara, Queretaro, Toluca, Silao, San Luis Potosi, Ramos Arizpe and Mexico City.
Mexpress runs daily scheduled LTL departures, including “second day, second morning” from Dallas (DFW Airport) to Mexico City,” Gamel said.
“We run daily schedules Monday through Friday to Monterrey, Mexico, and overnight afternoon delivery in Monterey, then we run the same schedules northbound,” Gamel said. “From Los Angeles (LAX), we run LTL scheduled deliveries three days a week, to Guadalajara, and the service is 48 hours. We can run FTL truckloads to and from on any of those days, with 24 hours notice.”
Mexpress is headquartered in Santa Clarita, California, with around 120 employees in the U.S. and Mexico.
Carlos Duron, president of Mexpress, said recently the company has been servicing major airlines that are flying wide bodies from Asia and Europe to airports in North America.
“They are coming to airports in Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and now quite a bit from Columbus, Ohio,” Duron said.
Mexpress recently transported personal protective equipment loads from Columbus’ Rickenbacker International Airport to the airport in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Another recent shipment included around 15 truckloads from Monterrey to Los Angeles for a client in the electronics industry to move parts to China. With factories in Mexico closed due to the pandemic, the client shipped the parts to Asia, Duron said.
“We still continue to move quite a bit of aeronautic products that are considered essential and a lot of electronics that are for the communication industry,” Duron said. “We are moving quite a bit of loads both northbound out of Mexico and southbound to Mexico, the raw material for factories to assemble, and then the finished goods to return.”
Duron and Gamel said they expect business to be steady for the rest of the year, with automotive plants beginning to operate on both sides of the border again.
“Now the automotive is cranking up right now; there’s like 17 out of the 23 original equipment manufacturers already up and running. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers have to start up to supply them with products. That’s when we start ramping up as well,” Duron said.
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