Dallas to El Paso , up 53¢ to $2.40/mile. We're just a few days away from Easter and Passover, which coincide with the close of the first quarter. It's common for shippers to hustle freight out the door before the quarter ends, and this is the deadline. Plus, a lot of businesses close early on Good Friday, and some drivers will be reluctant to leave home over a holiday weekend, so that adds to the pressure. MORE

Reuters has reported that “the reshuffling of border agents, announced last week to process the record number of migrant families entering the United States from Mexico, prompted delays of up to 12 hours for trucks crossing from Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas.”. Logistics Alert: The Gridlock Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Mexico Border. According to recent reports, trucks crossing the border between Mexico and the United States are currently hitting delays of up to 12 hours. MORE

The Paso del Norte Biomedical Cluster , a trade group of medical device makers that formed last year with 10 members , is building links between various groups around Juarez, El Paso, Texas, and southern New Mexico. Mexico may become the global manufacturing nerve center if the country plays its cards right. According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, Mexico ranks number eight out of 40 countries including Canada, Sweden, and Vietnam. MORE

Upgraded highways and bridges in Mexico make Texas border towns like El Paso and Laredo more accessible and more popular than Nogales, AZ, the previous volume leader. Laredo and El Paso are also border-crossing areas, with 800 to 1,200 load posts and a pronounced shortage of available trucks, driving load-to-truck ratios well above normal levels—above 131, in the case of El Paso. MORE

DHL opened a location at El Paso International Airport in west Texas to expand its foreign trade. Borderlands: Truck Capacity Tight Near Mexican Border. This week in logistics we are taking a look at an article published in. Freight Waves. Noi Mahoney. , “Borderlands: Truck capacity tight near Mexican border; millions in drugs found in shipments of ketchup and onions”. MORE

Higher volumes in Southeast and Northeast have been driving the results, but higher volumes on a couple lanes associated with oil production have also been key: Pittsburgh to Houston , and Houston to El Paso , which is related to the drilling activity in the Permian Basin. At the beginning of the year, DAT Pricing Analyst Mark Montague declared that the freight recession was over. A month later, others analysts from around the industry started to come to the same conclusion. MORE

Phoenix to El Paso, TX gained 32¢ to $2.08/mi. While van and reefer rates saw a decline in March compared to February, flatbed bucked the trend, making gains in both freight volumes and rates. Flatbed rates have risen for 5 consecutive weeks, and the national average rate ended March at $2.34/mi. In the top 78 flatbed lanes, rates moved higher on 36 lanes, while 42 were lower. Even so, rates have increased 4% overall in the past two weeks. MORE

began development of a $41 million facility in El Paso, Texas, to expand its work in the cross-border market along the Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico corridor. MORE

I had an opportunity to speak with a number of executives from various organizations, including the Port of Houston, El Paso Exploration, Baylor College of Medicine, Pioneer Natural Resources, AXIP Energy Services, LyondellBasell Chemicals, and others. I was in Houston yesterday evening, speaking to a large group of procurement executives at a roundtable held by KPMG’s Procurement Advisory Group, at the fabulous Brennan’s restaurant on Smith Street. MORE

20 El Paso – 685 K (Border crossing location). #48 Much of the goods bought and sold move through Texas, which has the 3 of the 5 biggest customs districts in the USA – #1 Laredo, #2 El Paso and #5 Houston. The other day I was talking with my friends, Kevin and Wayne at Loadtex and they kept referring to the “Texas Triangle.” Being a Yankee from the great state of Michigan, I had never heard of the Texas Triangle, so I asked what it was. MORE

This means that an 18 to 20-year-old driver can drive 745 miles within Texas from Houston to El Paso, but they cannot drive the 45 miles from El Paso, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico. The American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI) recently published its annual Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry for 2019. From ATRI’s top 10 list of critical issues, FreightCenter has identified four issues on the list that should be of particular interest to our customers. MORE

“ It’s probably the most difficult recruiting environment…I’ve seen in my 26 years in the business ,” said Scott McLaughlin, president of Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution LP, a family-owned firm in El Paso, Texas. . Last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported that employers added 288,000 jobs in June, which lowered the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008. MORE

A handful of lanes spiked last week, but many settled down post-Christmas: The lane from Los Angeles to El Paso, TX, climbed 48¢ to $2.42/mile. Flatbed rates saw a spike in the week before Christmas, but otherwise they’ve stayed pretty close to where they were before Thanksgiving. Not that flatbed rates have been low – they just haven’t continued to climb like van and reefer rates have over the past month. MORE

– El Paso Times. On March 27, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a notice detailing the re-assignment of over 750 officers from various ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico Mexico border to help process people crossing the border. This past weekend, rhetoric increased significantly regarding the potential of closing the border completely. MORE