U.S. Xpress Enterprises, a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based provider of transportation services throughout North America, and Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines Limited (M-O), a top Canadian freight carrier, partnered to launch a cross-border North American shipping solution. Through the partnership, each company will leverage its dominant national network to move freight across the border and throughout each country, creating one seamless North American network that covers the United States, Canada and Mexico.

This partnership comes as a response to customer demand for a one-stop direct carrier option with the geographic footprint, ease of access and capacity needed to take freight safely across the border and to its final destination with no hassles, headaches or the need for third-party vendors.

Under terms of the agreement, M-O will carry the freight across the Canada/U.S. border, while U.S. Xpress will be responsible for Mexico/U.S. border crossings. The border crossings served through the partnership are Buffalo/Niagara and Detroit/Windsor. To ensure the security of the freight and facilities, M-O completed the requirements and testing necessary to earn its C-TPAT certification in Canada and PIPS certification in the United States; U.S. Xpress was recognized as C-TPAT compliant.

“The bottom line here is that cross-border shipping is not easy, and there are not many good options available to carriers who want one point of contact,” says John White, executive vice president of sales and marketing for U.S. Xpress. “This service brings together two like-minded, high-performing companies to give shippers the convenience and peace of mind that comes from dealing with one trusted carrier who can get their goods where they need to go safely and on time, effectively erasing the border and the issues associated with crossing it.”

The service has been designed to cover the widest possible range of needs and price points and will employ truckload, refrigerated, dedicated and some limited LTL options through team and solo arrangements. To take advantage of each company’s strong rail presence, intermodal services will also be used as appropriate.