New behaviour brings new opportunities

EM Logistics was founded in 2020 by romantic and business partners Miguel and Estefania.

With a shared family background in mid-mile logistics, the couple were no strangers to the delivery industry when they spotted a significant shift in consumer behavior during the pandemic. While in-person shopping used to be popular in Mexico, an increasing number of people were now opting for online shopping, and demand for doorstep delivery had begun to rise.

Seeing this opportunity, they launched into the last mile delivery market with a single vehicle and a modest storage unit in one Mexican state. Demand for their service was high, and the duo quickly needed to expand operations across four states: Jalisco, Guadalajara, Puebla, and Tlaxcala, which contain some of the most challenging and competitive delivery environments in the country.

Winning their first client wasn’t easy. Many companies flatly refused to enter into a discussion with them and required a minimum of ten trucks and ten active routes before they would even consider sparing the time for a meeting, but Miguel and Estefania were determined. Through persistent cold calls and emails, they landed an opportunity with Paquetexpress, a major logistics partner for Amazon and Mercado Libre.

Starting on a trial basis with just twenty packages daily, they took on the difficult out-of-city routes others didn’t want. Their performance proved reliable, and as Paquetexpress placed more and more trust in them, they quickly increased their workload to one hundred and twenty packages a day per route with five active drivers.

"It was very difficult in the beginning, many companies just said no because we were a start-up. They would say, If you want to work with us, we need you to have 10 trucks or to manage at least 10 routes already."

Finding the right tools to scale

In the early days, they handled route planning using Google Maps and spreadsheets, which were then printed out and provided to drivers. However, as deliveries increased, this manual and piecemeal approach became unsustainable.

Finding a last mile management solution that could scale with their business was challenging. Many were only suitable for larger enterprises or had prohibitive pricing. Beginning with just two vehicles in their fleet, Circuit Route Planner was ideal, but as they grew, they quickly realized the need for more robust and operational functionality as they added a third truck to their fleet. That’s when they took the leap and transitioned to Circuit for Teams.

"We’ve grown very fast. Going from delivering in one to now four states and from one to five vehicles in just eight months."

A unique challenge EM Logistics faces when delivering in Mexico is address accuracy. Many small towns developed on the city's outskirts have no formal naming convention or signage, and multiple streets can share the same popular name, making it hard to find the correct location.

Being able to enter the longitude and latitude coordinates for a stop in Circuit helps EM Logistics specifically pinpoint the correct destination for a package and meet the 96% successful delivery rate target set by Paquetexpress.

Route optimization has also helped them scale efficiently, thanks to the bird's-eye map view of all routes. An overview of all operations is invaluable when it comes to decision-making for their day-to-day logistics. They can now determine which drivers will be assigned specific stops depending on the day’s workload and geographical spread.

Building a better business

After several years of experience, EM Logistics plans to expand its operations further by leveraging its top-quality service to attract additional clients. By providing exceptional customer service and ensuring that packages are maintained in excellent condition, the company aims to outperform its closest competition.

“Our main goal is to give top-quality service to the clients that we have today, and then expand further in order to dominate in this sector. Circuit has helped us with this, it has made it a lot easier."

Their goal is to scale smoothly while maintaining a high standard of service and remaining flexible to their clients' preferred ways of working. They use Circuit to offer a tailored service that meets the unique demands of each client. Throughout their growth journey, they aim to improve delivery and enhance the well-being of their team by creating job opportunities and fostering a supportive and nurturing workplace culture.

Note: Circuit for teams is saving thousands of businesses at least 20% on delivery costs. Try it free for 7 days.