Danbury, Conn.-based Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corporation, a global 3PL with a $3 billion-plus freight network, said this week that it is rolling out a new Laredo, Texas-based location, a main truck crossing point between the United States and Mexico.
Odyssey Logistics said that this location which is located at 4106 Airpark Drive, Building 6A—near Laredo International Airport, Highway 59 and the Loop 20, will offer various services, including a bonded container freight station, a hub for customs transactions and a warehouse to hold goods that haven’t cleared customs on the U.S. side. And they also noted that roughly 8,500 trucks cross through the Laredo gateway on a daily basis.
“The expansion into Laredo powers up our logistics services to run door-to-door supply chain from Mexico into the U.S. with seamless control and transfer,” said Bob Shellman, president and CEO, Odyssey, in a statement. “Shippers of goods crossing the Southern border will now see our presence and can use our logistics services to grow their imported goods businesses.”
A company spokesperson told LM that while there were many drivers that prompted Odyssey to expand into Laredo, a couple trends were top of mind.
“The first: nearshoring seems to be expanding and we think Mexico has an opportunity to capitalize on this by growing its manufacturing sector,” the spokesperson said. “Second: Businesses in the U.S. are becoming less reliant on a single country or supplier, so in order to mitigate risk, many companies are diversifying their supply chains. And finally, the proximity of Mexico and the U.S., makes this area ideal for future growth as approximately 50% of the volume of goods shipped from Mexico into the U.S. through Texas today comes through Laredo. By adding Laredo, TX to our broad network of locations, it allows us to be nimble, collaborative partners to our customers with even more access to scalable, expert logistics solutions.”
This is not Odyssey’s only Texas-based location. It also serves customers out of El Paso, where it handles small import volumes than the new Laredo location. The company explained it plans to leverage its regional knowledge and expertise gained in El Paso at the new Laredo facility, offering north and south bound freight forwarding, cross docking, bonded container freight station and customs brokerage services.
“We have served customers in El Paso for 12 years,” the spokesperson said. “During that time, we have gained an incredible amount of market knowledge and regional experience to confidently expand our service with this new of location, which will offer expanded border presence and custom brokerage services for customers that are meeting the demand to diversify their supply chains.”