In Part 3 of this podcast series, our co-hosts continue the conversation with Asendia USA guests Leslie Foxhoven, Executive Director of Latin America & the Caribbean, and Michael DiVincenzo, Product Manager, break down how our all-ground network through Laredo, TX gives shippers an edge:
✅ Avoids airport congestion & delays
✅ Handles products like perfumes & cosmetics without DG restrictions
✅ Cuts risks of lost parcels
But it’s not just the network—it’s the team. Our IT, operations, and delivery experience groups work tirelessly behind the scenes assisting customers.
Check back next week for the final of this 4-part series.
Leslie is responsible for designing and establishing Asendia’s best in class e-commerce network solutions to Latin America. She has over 35 years of entrepreneurial experience in the e-commerce industry while living and working in Latin America, establishing companies and networks, including linehaul, final mile delivery, return centers, customs clearance, regional sales, and bottom line results.
Michael is responsible for the development, performance, and expansion of Asendia’s e-commerce solutions into Latin America. He has 9 years of experience in the e-commerce industry with prior experience working as a Pricing Analyst and Commercial Services Analyst for Asendia USA.
Also, by using only ground solutions, we have the ability to handle commodities that otherwise would be considered dangerous goods. So a good example of that would be perfumes.
We have the ability to handle perfumes from US to Mexico without technically calling them dangerous goods because they're not getting on a plane.
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This is Outside the Box with Asendia USA, a podcast educating US Based brands, marketplaces and e tailers on international shipping topics and how they can expand their global e commerce footprint.
Nick Agnetti:
Back to another episode of Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast, where we continue the conversation where we left off last week. So good job to you guys on that as well. Yeah. And then, okay, so we look at, you know, we taught. We, we. I think Jason might have just even brought up.
But when we look at. And, and I, I'm not asking for you guys to give away the secret sauce to everybody that.
All the listeners and viewers, but when we look at the, the network, the routing, if you will, too. How, how do we manage, you know, let's say like first mile, middle mile, final mile.
As much as you're able to, you know, discuss and, and things of that nature, I'd love to just be able to share with that. As long as it's helpful for, again, listeners and viewers.
Michael DiVincenzo:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to speak to as much of the. Of the product itself without, like you said, giving away the secret sauce.
Nick Agnetti:
Sure.
Michael DiVincenzo:
Yeah.
I would say some things that I think make it special is the first being that this solution is 100% ground, so we have zero air air transits involved from the US To Mexico.
And while this may seem like a slower option on the surface, using Laredo as the gateway and trucking the parcels over the border rather than flying them, keep us from injecting them in crowded airports within Mexico.
So we put them on a truck, they get on a line, they cross the bridge from the US Into Mexico, and then from there, once their customs cleared, they're free to go. Whereas a lot of times when you see people putting parcels on planes into Mexico, it gets stuck in an airport.
There's millions of parcels in this airport, and things can get lost in the shuffle. So I think that's one of the things where when people hear ground versus air, they automatically think that it's just a slower service.
But I think the way we have it set up for Mexico makes it actually puts us at an advantage. Also, by using only ground solutions, we have the ability to handle commodities that otherwise would be considered dangerous goods.
So a good example of that would be perfumes we have the ability to handle perfumes from US to Mexico without technically calling them dangerous goods because they're not getting on a plane.
So that's another advantage that we have from using on the ground solutions is that it really expands the amount of commodities we can ship from the US to Mexico as opposed to air.
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Nick Agnetti:
That's a great point. I mean that that's a huge market, right.
In terms of, and I don't want to speak out of turn, but you know, the fragrances, cosmetics, skin cares, are there different rules for, for those categories when it comes to some of them being potentially dg?
I know that, you know, like with health items, you know, like a nutraceutical, there's certainly a different category there, but I mean there's huge markets for those types of things as well. And, and you know, certainly the desire in Mexico for the, the skin care, cosmetics, those types of things is there. So that's great to know.
Michael DiVincenzo:
Yeah.
And, and just to, to piggyback on what I said before about the product, I know what Leslie and I have been able to set up has been really great, but the service would not be what it is without a lot of the people at Asendia and a lot of the teams we work with.
So I would be remiss not to mention that we have an incredible IT team that when anything breaks with our APIs between us and our vendors, they're always on top of things, fixing, tracking, things like that.
Our operations team and delivery experience teams, they work tirelessly to make sure the parcels are positioned in the best possible way to have successful deliveries.
For example, if we have customers that give us bad addresses, our delivery experience team and operations team work together to make sure they clean those addresses. And we do that free of charge, which I don't think you really see anywhere else in this industry.
If we get parcels that our customers say, forget to assign recipient tax IDs for, they'll work and work with Leslie and I and we'll work with the vendors and our partners to figure out what's that recipient's tax ID and get that entered into, entered into the data. So it's a lot of different groups within the company working together that makes the product itself really successful.
Leslie Foxhoven:
Yes, I told, I totally agree. And I just want to jump in and say absolutely. We are surrounded here with a team and it's, it's such a team.
And one other comment, something Mike and I are working on today is when you talk about a mile partner, is that at the final, you know, in, in Mexico or in the USA, we all know that there's not one company or one or two companies that can do everything right or the best.
So what we're constantly doing daily and today we're working on, on, on an add on as well, but we're constantly doing is checking, is checking how we are in the competitive market, how are we performing and what services are we missing and where's our price point. And we have a great team inside Assendia that helps us do that.
And where we find that we have holes, we try to fill those and where we're, where we're lagging, we maybe we need, we need a new funnel partner. So we're just constantly juggling that to try to be, to be the best we can be.
Jason Rowland:
Yeah. That's fantastic. Thank you for listening. Tune in again next week when we continue this discussion.
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