Crating and export crates in Laredo

A freight town on the border

Laredo is the place where I-35 ends. North of the city the interstate runs to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and on to the Midwest, and south of the Rio Grande the road continues toward Monterrey and Mexico City. Commercial trucks cross on the World Trade Bridge, the main crossing for loaded trucks, and the Colombia Solidarity Bridge northwest of town takes commercial traffic as well. Railroads cross the river here too, and the international rail bridge is a main gateway for rail freight between the two countries.

A great deal of the work in town is handling freight that was made somewhere else: customs brokers, cross-dock warehouses, drayage carriers and trucking terminals. For that reason, crates ordered in Laredo often belong to loads that came from Texas, the Midwest or the Gulf and are being prepared for the last stretch.

What Laredo shippers crate

Machinery and equipment bound for Mexican plants make up much of it: presses, CNC cells, conveyors, pumps, compressors, electrical gear, and replacement parts for lines already running. Auto parts and tooling travel both ways. Texas leads the states in goods exports, and the BLS lists machinery manufacturing among its leading nonenergy export industries, which matches what moves through the city's yards.

Many Laredo crates are not for export in the formal sense at all. They are a shipper's stock being re-crated because the original packaging was damaged on the trip south, because the load was broken up at a cross-dock, or because the consignee asked for a stronger crate.

• Machine tools: skid-base crates with cross-bracing
• Electrical cabinets: sheathed crates with a roof drip edge
• Spare parts: bulk standard-size cleated crates
• Tooling and dies: heavy solid-lumber crates

The crate changes trucks

A load that crosses at Laredo is commonly transferred from a US carrier to a Mexican one, on a lot or at a transfer facility, because of carrier authority rules on each side. Every transfer is a forklift pick, and a crate with fork pockets on one side only will be picked on the wrong side at least once. We build the skid so forks enter from the long and short sides, and we stencil which sides are safe.

Strapping goes on tight after each transfer. Use rubbing strips or corner protection at the points where bands cross the crate, and put the heavy end low. We ask for the gross weight and tare separately so the broker can declare each correctly.

Customs paperwork meets the crate

Customs brokers work from the description on the invoice and the markings on the crate. A crate whose marks do not match the paperwork can be held for inspection and opened. Keeping the contents description, gross weight and destination on a panel, in plain stencil, and using ISO 780 pictograms for handling, avoids the delay.

Customs may open a sealed crate. Build for that: use screws or lag bolts at the lid so it can come off and go back on, and keep desiccant bags inside a barrier bag you can reseal, not a bag glued shut.

Wood rules and the Mexico lane

Wood packaging rules are set by the destination country, and APHIS and the plant-protection authority of Mexico are the places to confirm what applies to your shipment. Where the rule applies, a crate needs HT lumber and the IPPC stamp on two opposite sides, as NELMA describes. Plywood, particleboard and OSB are exempt from ISPM 15, which is one reason sheathed crates are common on this lane.

We do not guess at the rule for you. If you want a stamped crate every time, say so on the quote request, and the spec on file will carry it forward for each reorder.

Delivery to Laredo docks and yards

We build crates to order and deliver them to your dock in the Laredo area, assembled for a short pick or as a knockdown kit. We hold no yard or facility in the city. A knockdown kit suits a cross-dock operator who crates inside the warehouse: the panels are numbered, the hardware is bagged, and a two-person crew can close it.

Brokers who handle many importers and exporters can set up a standing spec for each of their customers, so the crate for one customer's casting is the same on every order.