With nearshoring remapping North American supply chains, Averitt has bulked up in San Antonio to pull cross-border freight handoffs farther from the bridges and closer to customers. The carrier’s latest Borderlands update details a substantially enlarged terminal and connected warehouse designed to stage and deconsolidate Mexico-origin freight, then push it quickly into U.S. LTL and final‑mile lanes. The company’s pitch is simple: “move the border” north to San Antonio, cut touches in Laredo, and absorb variability at the crossing in a purpose-built facility with more doors and floor space to flex.
For truckers and shippers, the expansion matters less as a ribbon-cutting and more as a signal of how U.S.–Mexico networks are evolving. San Antonio sits on the I‑35 spine between Austin and Laredo; building out cross-dock capacity and an attached distribution footprint there gives LTL carriers room to buffer bridge delays, build multi-stop linehauls that aren’t hostage to a single crossing, and support e-commerce and retail replenishment that increasingly originates from maquila clusters around Monterrey and Saltillo. Averitt’s added space and doors in San Antonio are aimed squarely at those flows.
Near-term operations around the Alamo City will be dynamic this week. TxDOT’s continuing work at the I‑10/Loop 1604 interchange prompted night and weekend closures on Oct. 31–Nov. 2, forcing detours that can add minutes to runs across the northwest side. Carriers staging in or routing around San Antonio to connect with southbound dray or northbound distribution should plan for intermittent lane restrictions and temporary frontage‑road U‑turns tied to the project.
The macro backdrop supports Averitt’s bet — with caveats. Fresh purchasing managers’ reports out today show global factory activity stabilizing but export orders still soft in key buyer markets. Europe’s manufacturing PMI printed exactly at 50.0 for October, with export demand falling for a fourth straight month. That combination—steady output but weaker external orders—tends to widen imbalances in cross-border trucking: northbound (Mexico→U.S.) remains tight thanks to nearshoring and retail replenishment, while southbound backhauls can soften. Capacity and pricing strategies in San Antonio, Laredo and along I‑35 will need to reflect that split.
Bottom line for fleets: more doors and an on-site warehouse in San Antonio aren’t just creature comforts; they are a control tower. They let carriers (1) transload and clear north of the choke points, (2) smooth volatility from CBP inspections and bridge backups, (3) consolidate Mexico-origin freight into denser linehauls for Dallas, Houston and the Midwest, and (4) support value‑added services—light pick/pack, returns, and compliance—that shippers increasingly expect. For shippers, it’s a chance to shorten order cycles from Northern Mexico, shift SKUs closer to U.S. consumption, and avoid tying inventory to a single border gate. Averitt’s move suggests the cross-border market is maturing beyond “get it across” toward “design for resilience.”
Sources: FreightWaves, KSAT, Reuters
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