Evans Transportation launches cross-border service amid trade boom
Delafield, Wisconsin-based Evans Transportation recently launched a brand new service offering for Mexico cross-border freight aiming to tap into the country’s expanding role as a worldwide manufacturing hub.
“Starting the Mexico service was really a straightforward decision. The largest a part of our business is the Evans experience, which is listening to our customers,” Ryan Keepman, president and CEO of Evans Transportation, told FreightWaves. “Something we’ve heard rather a lot about is the necessity for support between the U.S. and Mexico, or inside Mexico, because there are so many various firms on the market either moving operations to Mexico, or utilizing more suppliers which can be reshoring, when you will, to Mexico.”
Mexico was the US’ top trading partner in April, with two-way trade totaling $72.47 billion, a 15% year-over-year increase, in keeping with the most recent data from the Census Bureau.
It was the fourth consecutive month and 14th of the past 15 months Mexico has been No. 1 in trade with the U.S. Canada ranked No. 2 for trade with the U.S. in April at $65.5 billion and China ranked third at $43.2 billion.
Port Laredo, Texas, was the No. 1-ranked U.S. trade gateway in April among the many nation’s 450 airports, seaports and border crossings, in keeping with WorldCity. It was the thirteenth consecutive month the Laredo border crossing was the country’s top-ranked international business trade port.
Laredo recorded $29.1 billion in two-way trade within the month. The Port of Los Angeles ranked No. 2 at $26.5 billion, followed by Chicago O’Hare International Airport at $24.5 billion.
In April, Laredo handled 266,692 business truck crossings between Mexico and the U.S., a 15.7% year-over-year increase in comparison with the identical period last 12 months.
Related: US-Mexico trade tops $200B in first quarter of 2024
Keepman said officials at Evans Transportation spent about eight months researching cross-border Mexico logistics before launching the brand new service.
Evans Transportation is a full-service, third-party provider of custom logistics solutions for a variety of North American shippers. As a part of its recent service offering in Mexico, the corporate has added Marcelo Baptista as vice chairman of Mexico operations.
“We talked concerning the Mexico service internally, and truly went out and searched for the best resources to support that operation,” Keepman said. “It comes right down to people, our people drive our business. We took a protracted time on the people’s side of it and made sure we found the best individual to guide that operation that fit our culture. Someone that’s well versed and experienced within the Mexico market.”
Baptista, who is predicated in Orlando, involves Evans having led operations and sales efforts within the Latin American market with roles in logistics and trucking at R&L Carriers, technology at Gartner Inc. and environmental services at Matthews Environmental Solutions.
“We’ve officially launched now, we’re actually moving freight for our customers, and business is nice, it’s really good, even higher than what we had expected,” Keepman said.
The corporate is already handling diverse kinds of freight between Mexico and the U.S.
“Evans has got a fairly diverse customer base at once, anything from moving truck body parts to mining equipment,” Keepman said. “We also see numerous food ingredients and food manufacturing that takes place in Mexico, so a fairly diverse product line. We’re moving refrigerated to flatbed, dry van, all across the board.”
Evans is already planning to expand its Mexico service with more personnel and offices on each side of the border
“We’re within the strategy of hiring more people at once. We’re opening offices on each side of the border that can directly support the service, an office in Orlando, after which one in Mexico, most definitely in Monterrey,” Keepman said. “From a revenue perspective, we’re conservatively anticipating over $50 million in Mexican freight for 2024. Our first shipment happened in May, so Mexico goes to be a considerable piece to our business.”
TexAmericas Center receives Union Pacific ‘focus site’ designation
The TexAmericas Center was recently chosen as a Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) focus site, a designation geared toward increasing customers’ speed to market within the Northeast Texas region.
Union Pacific has greater than 30 focus sites across its network. Focus sites function hubs where the railroad can concentrate resources, manage logistics more effectively and supply targeted services to fulfill specific customers’ needs, in keeping with Union Pacific.
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The TexAmericas Center is a mixed-use industrial park positioned within the northeast corner of Texas, about 20 miles west of Texarkana, and 180 miles east of Dallas. The middle is positioned near Texas’ borders with Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
The middle has about 12,000 acres of development-ready land and three.5 million square feet of economic and industrial space for business tenants.
TexAmericas Center’s recent Union Pacific designation is anticipated to reinforce the middle’s logistics capabilities and reduce transit times, officials said.
“This designation comes with key advantages including rail design approved by Union Pacific, a large-scale development area, accessible industrial scale utilities, truck routes to the location, robust local development support and a single point-of-contact,” Eric Voyles, TexAmericas’ chief economic development officer and vice chairman, said in a news release.
Chemvest Holdings US acquires Texas rail-served industrial park
Chemvest Holdings US Inc. has acquired a 13.7-acre, rail-served site at Gulf Inland Logistics Park in Dayton, Texas.
The acquisition will expand Chemvest’s operations and accessibility to the Gulf Coast region for transloading its industrial products, in keeping with a news release.
The Gulf Inland Logistics Park is a 1,158-acre site positioned about 37 miles northeast of Houston. The logistics park totals 2,400 acres and goals to supply manufacturing, distribution, rail services, storage and transportation capabilities for firms within the Gulf Coast region.
Chemvest acquired Gulf Inland Logistics Parth from Liberty Development Partners. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.
DHL Express expands retail presence in Houston area
Logistics giant DHL recently expanded its network of U.S. retail locations with an organization owned and operated retail shipping store in Bellaire, Texas, about 9 miles from central Houston.
The retail store is DHL’s first ServicePoint store in Bellaire and is one among five ServicePoint locations throughout the Houston area.
“Houston is a thriving city known for its diverse culture, booming economy, and international trade and commerce,” Aaron Gallagher, senior vice chairman of economic for DHL Express, said in a news release. “This makes Bellaire … the perfect marketplace for the subsequent DHL-owned retail location to accommodate their growing international shipping needs.”
Germany-based DHL has 1,350 warehouses and offices in 220 countries and territories. The corporate employs 600,000 people.
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