Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Samsara opens new office to focus on expanding cross-border trade; TriumphPay expands payments network to Mexico; China-based auto supplier to build $36M factory in Mexico; and Quantix acquires hazardous waste hauler in Houston.
Samsara opens new office to focus on expanding cross-border trade
San Francisco-based Samsara recently opened a new office in Mexico City aiming to support a growing customer base south of the border.
The telematics solution provider first entered the Mexican market in 2019 and has increased its customer base rapidly, collecting five of the top 10 trucking companies in Mexico as customers.
With the new office, Samsara officials expect to double the number of employees in Mexico by the end of the year to around 400 people. The company is also investing in business technology, operations, sales and support roles to meet the growing demand in the country.
“We are growing across the board with sales, support, and finance, so that our customers are very well covered throughout their journey,” Julia Monroy, Samsara sales director for Mexico, told FreightWaves. “Today we have around 200 employees based in Mexico, compared to two years ago, when we were only 10. It’s been a really great growth and we’re expecting to double the amount of employees over the next year.”
Samsara (NYSE: IOT), founded in 2015, provides a connected cloud to modernize physical operations, such as commercial fleets and industrial activities. The company has more than 20,000 customers in the energy, food and beverage, construction and manufacturing and transportation industries.
Sanjit Biswas, Samsara’s CEO and co-founder, said Mexico’s trucking industry has been focused on enhancing security and keeping drivers safe on the road.
“Our rapid growth in Mexico shows the strong return on investment we provide to our customers. Samsara’s new office will provide a space for in-person collaboration for our growing team as we continue to invest in new product innovations specific to the needs of the Mexico market,” Biswas said in a news release.
Samsara’s growth in Mexico has largely been driven by its focus on customers’ needs, Monroy said.
“It is very interesting how Samsara has tended to localize our products for the Mexican market. I love to share the story regarding the immobilizer,” Monroy said. “When we started our operation here in Mexico, we didn’t have the immobilizer for our customers. We would go to different meetings, present at different associations and companies, and they would say, “if you don’t have an immobilizer, we’re unable to use your product. This is critical because of security reasons.”
Samsara’s immobilizer stops vehicles automatically when tampering is detected, with the aim of keeping both truck drivers and the cargo safe from criminals.
“We were able to get with our product team, and they developed the first version of an immobilizer, within six months. So this was something that created trust among our customers, where we showed that we were committed to localizing our products,” Monroy said.
In the past year, Samsara has also released several new features specifically tailored to the Mexico market, including:
—Driver QR codes: pairs drivers with their vehicles through QR codes to lead to a better driver experience.
—AG52 Asset Gateway: a device which can be connected with cargo and door sensors to provide real-time alerts on door activities and the presence of cargo, to improve theft detection and prevention.
Trends in nearshoring have accelerated the trade partnership between Mexico and the U.S. Mexico was the top trading partner for the U.S. in 2023, the first year in over two decades that the U.S. bought more goods from Mexico than China.
Monroy said she sees cross-border trade between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. continuing to grow and adopt more and more cutting edge technologies. The company’s main product is its vehicle telematics gateway, but also offers technologies such as a smart dash camera that can capture more data.
“I think there are two main aspects of what I’ve seen within our Mexican customers. One is how important and critical security is here. Trucking companies began adopting technology that can support their operations to act in a faster way to have visibility in real time, which is critical today,” Monroy said. “The second piece that I’ve seen with the companies evolving is the adoption of safety measures, and how they want to really invest in their operators using technology. I was able to see that transition of pioneers in Mexico adopting our cameras, and how that evolved in today being something that most of the companies need today.”
TriumphPay expands payments network to Mexico
Dallas-based TriumphPay recently announced the expansion of its open payments network for the freight transportation industry to include Mexican pesos.
Company officials said the expansion is a significant step forward for the network which currently offers its payment services to shippers, brokers, carriers, and factors in U.S. dollars and Canadian dollars.
“Expanding our payments network to Mexico is critical for our customers as trade increases between the U.S. and Mexico,” Melissa Forman, president of TriumphPay. “Our expansion into Mexico clearly indicates TriumphPay’s commitment to providing brokers, factors, carriers and shippers worldwide with fast payments that offer security, efficiency and transparency.”
By the end of the second quarter, TriumphPay expects to have the ability to make standard term payments in Mexican pesos for carriers, provide customer service and support in Spanish, and offer the automation of payment processing in pesos.
TriumphPay is a payments network for freight brokers, factors, shippers and carriers in the trucking industry. The company also offers tools and services to increase automation, mitigate fraud, create back-office efficiency and improve the payment experience.
China-based auto supplier to build $36M factory in Mexico
UTAS-NOVA Automotive Lighting Systems Co. recently announced it is building a factory in the Mexican city of Aguascalientes to manufacture automotive parts.
The new factory will create about 220 jobs and will be dedicated to producing automotive lighting components such as headlamps, brake lights, license plate lights and tail lights.
UTAS-NOVA was founded in Danyang, China, in 1994. The company’s customers include General Motors, Stellantis, JAC Motors, Beijing Automotive Group Co. and AIC Motor Corp.
Quantix acquires hazardous waste hauler in Houston
Quantix recently announced the acquisition of Houston-based Space City Services, a company that specializes in the transportation of hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals and waste materials throughout the Gulf Coast region.
Quantix, which is based in The Woodlands, Texas, is a supply chain services company operating in the chemical industry. The company is part of a portfolio owned by Wind Point Partners, a Chicago-based private equity investment firm with approximately $7 billion in assets under management.
Quantix operates 30 terminals and 20 warehousing/packaging facilities nationwide and has a fleet of over 5,000 trucks, trailers and other highly specialized equipment.
“This acquisition is important for Quantix as we continue to lead the chemical industry in being a comprehensive provider of supply chain solutions for every need,” Chris Ball, president and CEO of Quantix, said in a news release.
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