Con-Way launches Mexican service network

Staff report -- Logistics Management, 8/1/2005

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In an effort to establish seamless LTL transportation between the United States and Mexico, Con-Way Transportation Services Inc.'s Mexican operating company, Con-Way Mexico Express, has opened a network of six logistics centers to serve major commercial shipping markets in that country.

The service facilities, located in the major business and manufacturing centers of Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, San Luis Potosí, Guadalajara, Querétaro, and Mexico City, opened their doors last month. The new centers give the LTL carrier its own infrastructure for offering logistics and warehousing services throughout Mexico. They also will allow Con-Way to raise the bar for service offerings south of the border. "We eventually want to provide the same service in Mexico that we currently provide in the United States and Canada," says Con-Way President David S. McClimon.

According to José Antonio González, managing director of Con-Way Mexico, the new network of logistics service centers allows the carrier to provide next-day and second-day service to major Mexican markets once shipments clear customs at Laredo. "But the logistics network gives us a new dimension," he adds. "It allows us to better manage a customer's shipments from the U.S. or Canada all the way to the final destination in Mexico." He cites the example of a U.S.-based customer that ships a full trailer each day into Mexico. Con-Way can take half of the items in that trailer and distribute it to consignees throughout Mexico, and delivers the other half to the customer's manufacturing facility. The quality of service for those activities, he says, is the same as it would be in the United States.

The new facilities will be linked to Con-Way's computer system. According to González, customers will have full visibility of shipment movements and storage details.