I believe technology will change how freight moves. Building Cargado. Former founder/CEO of Forager đşđ¸ đ˛đ˝ đ¨đŚ (acq'd in Jan 2022 by Arrive Logistics).
Chicago, IL
Joined February 2009
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We're making our Mexico market update a monthly series. The September edition is out.
Once a month: where the trucks are, where they're tight, how I'd price it, and what to watch next month. đ§ľ
Mexico driver strike: Segob says CANACAR committed to lift its blockades, but some groups are still out. AMOTAC has the Chamapa-LecherĂa highway closed near Mexico City, and Guanajuato reports on-and-off closures on highway 45. Border waits are normal.
cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
Mexico driver strike, 7 PM CT: crossings are open, but routes to them are closing. Protests closed the Saltillo bypass and a highway near Ciudad JuĂĄrez. Laredo World Trade Bridge hit 60 min for trucks.
Freight in Mexico tonight? Tell customers now.
cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
Mexico's national driver strike starts today, with no end date.
Protests planned near Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Monterrey, Tijuana and Mexico City.
Brokers: call your shippers before pickups start, not after a window slips.
Live map and updates: cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
Mexico driver strike, 11:30 AM CT:
- Segob counts 38 protest points in 19 states
- TehuacĂĄn-Oaxaca closed at TehuacĂĄn
- Partial closure at TepotzotlĂĄn on Mexico City-QuerĂŠtaro
- No border closures. Pharr 45 min, Laredo no delay
Talks start at noon CT.
cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
3 PM CT update on the Mexico trucker strike:
⢠No USâMexico border crossings are closed. CBP truck waits as of 1 PM: Laredo World Trade Bridge 10 min, Pharr 50, Otay Mesa 30.
⢠Protests are peaceful on the shoulder of MonterreyâNuevo Laredo at km 20, per Guardia Nacional. No closure.
⢠CAPUFE lists 3 full road closures, all in southern Mexico: TehuacĂĄnâOaxaca, Cd. AlemĂĄnâTuxtepec and Nuevo TeapaâCosoleacaque.
⢠TepotzotlĂĄn on MĂŠxicoâQuerĂŠtaro is flowing again.
⢠Segob met with CONCAMIN, CANAPAT, ANTP and CONATRAM, and those groups say they don't back Canacar's strike. Canacar says it continues.
Expect slower regional moves, not a sealed border.
Stay updated:
cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
We've published wait times at the border that you can bookmark and watch:
cargado.com/border-status
Matt Silver retweeted
Updates on Cargado's website - cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
More from:
The Rio Times - riotimesonline.com/mexico-trâŚ
The Latin Times - latintimes.com/mexico-freighâŚ
Mexico's national driver strike starts today, with no end date.
Protests planned near Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Monterrey, Tijuana and Mexico City.
Brokers: call your shippers before pickups start, not after a window slips.
Live map and updates: cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
Matt Silver retweeted
Mexico driver strike, 11:30 AM CT:
- Segob counts 38 protest points in 19 states
- TehuacĂĄn-Oaxaca closed at TehuacĂĄn
- Partial closure at TepotzotlĂĄn on Mexico City-QuerĂŠtaro
- No border closures. Pharr 45 min, Laredo no delay
Talks start at noon CT.
cargado.com/news/mexico-drivâŚ
I asked @ChatGPT to rebuild MS Paint on a Mac and then asked it to draw our younger son.
Insane what Computer Use enables.
Even if you aren't running cross-border freight, if you're a carrier who wants to see what a modern freight marketplace actually looks like, you should check out @Cargado_ , register, and fill out your profile. It only takes a few minutes now to get through the majority of the flow (pending references).
You never know what might pop up that actually fits the lanes you like to haul.
It's free for trucking companies and you can set it up so that you save your favorite lanes and just get email or WhatsApp alerts when something fits your preferences.
Oh, and now you can email your trucks and our agent will send back freight, likely synced over directly from a TMS.
Matt Silver retweeted
Hierarchy of investors
Level 1: Actively sabotage portfolio companies
Level 2: Push bad ideas that lead founders down wrong paths
Level 3: Distract companies with random obligations, ideas, etc that have to be fended off
Level 4: Hands off, neutral, and generally supportive
Level 5: Contribute in big ways in small number of key moments
Level 6: Have sufficient context and experience to be an ongoing valuable member of the CEOâs team
You can get way more than this effort from a broker for way less Zyn.
Lance Oppenheim says he bribed Robert Pattinson into starring in âPRIMETIMEâ by sending him 200 canisters of Zyn with a letter saying âDear Chris Han-Zynâ.
âRob, at the time, was grappling with a Zyn addiction.â
(Source: vulture.com/article/lance-opâŚ)
AI should enable people to build or manage relationships and solve problems / put out fires.
Now, if someoneâs job is just copying data from one system and putting it in another system, that gets replaced by APIs or agents.
AI is not taking over customer service in freight brokerage.
Think about when you're at a restaurant and the manager comes over to the table. How was your meal? Are you getting everything you need? That's customer service. They're checking in on the people paying them.
Our customers are paying for a service. They pay us to get loads picked up on time, delivered on time, and communicated. So ask them how it's going. Ask what you can do better. Ask what they'd like to see change. That's truly lacking in freight brokerage right now.
Everything is AI this, AI that. Automation is supposed to buy you more time for customer service. If you're not using that saved time to talk to your customers, you're wasting it.
You've got hunters chasing new business and farmers growing the business you already have. There's automation on both sides now. Either way, whoever owns that account should be talking to those customers every day.
Some customers don't want to hear from you at all. I've got customers I could call a hundred times in a day and they wouldn't pick up once. But the goal is more customers you can serve well, communicate with, and build a real relationship with.
AI doesn't make a customer sticky. It takes the work and the minutiae off your plate so you can spend more time with them. You are the glue. Everything else is the service.
We've reached a point where using Claude feels like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".
You start digging into a problem and realize Claude can build something to make that problem go away.
Then you realize that someone was doing something tangentially related to that problem and they were doing it repeatedly -- maybe it was something kinda automated with Claude or Cowork but they were still running it on their laptop. So you realize that belongs in a new Claude Code tab and away you go.
You start thinking about this problem and how the other side of your marketplace could have a similar issue and you spin up another tab to take a stab at that problem too.
And on you go until you've had all the cookies and milk and read all the books and done whatever else you can possibly think of that you can build Claude Code.
Matt Silver retweeted
Cross-border + Mexico freight represents a major growth opportunity for freight brokers, but fear of the unknown often keeps them from pursuing.
Join Descartes @Tai_Software & Cargado for an educational conversation that separates outdated assumptions from legitimate risks.
What I'd do this month:
1. Lots of trucks? Price at the market mid. Don't start at the low.
2. Out of Mexico City and Guadalajara, post the day the load is tendered and price near the high.
3. Put the crossing, trailer, weight and pickup window on every posting.
Read the September update, and sign up on the page to get each edition by email, in English or Spanish:
cargado.com/market-update/seâŚ
What would make this worth opening every month?
