Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnMatt HerrThu, June 25, 2026 at 5:19 PM GMT+2 6 min readWhat began nine years ago as a dinner gathering of roughly 20 people at a restaurant in Laredo, Texas, has grown into the largest U.S.-to-Mexico logistics event in the country. On June 9, 2026, the 9th Annual Modernization of Cross-Border Trade (MCBT) convened at the Laredo Country Club, drawing representatives from more than 500 logistics companies eager to navigate a rapidly shifting cross-border landscape."The event started with only 20 people," said Mark Vickers, founder of Borderless Coverage and Executive Vice President and Head of International Logistics at Reliance Partners, which hosts the event. "Now this is the largest U.S. to Mexico logistics event in the U.S."That growth mirrors the trajectory of Borderless Coverage itself. Vickers developed the company as an entrepreneurial venture. It was the first program to offer per-load, per-project, per-client cargo insurance coverage for shipments into Mexico. Reliance Partners, the largest privately held transportation and logistics insurance agency in the country, acquired Borderless Coverage in 2021. The MCBT event grew right alongside this acquisition, evolving from an insurance-focused gathering into a premier forum for shippers, freight brokers, carriers, customs professionals, and technology providers operating across both sides of the border.Where Tequila Met TruckingOne of the most distinctive threads of this year's event was the involvement of the tequila industry. The sponsorship story started with a feature article Vickers wrote for Tequila Aficionado exploring the risks of moving tequila between the U.S. and Mexico. The piece opened a conversation that led somewhere unexpected."I talked to the owners of Tequila Aficionado and asked if their network was interested in meeting logistics people," Vickers said. The answer was yes. Top tequila brands signed on as sponsors, and the conference featured a guided tequila tasting for the assembled logistics professionals. It was a hands-on demonstration of the kind of supply chain relationships the event was designed to foster.Tequila is the top import from Mexico into the United States, and the risks that come with moving that product across the border (cargo theft, insufficient insurance, unvetted carriers) are exactly what the MCBT event was built to address.The 2026 sponsor lineup spanned the full breadth of the cross-border supply chain, from Descartes Systems Group and Evans Transportation to Green Corridors, Kuehne+Nagel, Averitt, and Cargado, which hosted a happy hour following the main conference sessions. It's a far cry from the early years of the event.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info