UPS on Wednesday, April 11, announced UPS CrossBorder Connect, a ground freight service between the United States and Mexico designed to ease heavyweight freight supply chain challenges for companies investing in cross-border trade. The service leverages UPS’s transportation and customs brokerage experience north and south of the border to help boost speed to market, drive cost efficiencies and reduce supply chain risk.
UPS CrossBorder Connect is a contractual service that utilizes the trucking network that supports UPS’s North American Air Freight service. UPS says that network has been connected with trusted carriers in Mexico at eight important points along the U.S.-Mexico border. By integrating UPS’s brokerage capabilities, the service helps companies with the brokerage process and is designed to help reduce customs delays associated with border regulations, inspections and lengthy paperwork. UPS also provides the option of bonded movements through the border to help enable faster crossing of goods.
“With the global rise in fuel and labor costs, near-sourcing has become an increasingly viable option for many businesses looking to reduce their production and supply chain costs and expand their market share,” says Steve Flowers, president, UPS Global Freight Forwarding. “Our research clearly revealed the gaps in service options that exist for today’s customers. With this product, we’ve improved visibility and predictability as well as reliability on one of the largest and most important U.S. trade lanes.”
As part of the company’s global freight forwarding offering, UPS CrossBorder Connect provides coverage through full transportation and brokerage services at eight major border crossings: Otay Mesa and Calexico, Calif.; Nogales, Ariz., and El Paso, Laredo, McAllen, Harlingen and Brownsville, Texas. Also, customers have visibility over UPS CrossBorder Connect freight shipments using Flex Global View, including key milestone updates.
