How Tanteo Cut Cross-Border Transit Times With AI

Tanteo Tequila makes premium infused tequilas (jalapeño, habanero, chocolate) that ship from Jalisco, Mexico to their Tennessee distribution center. Every shipment crosses the US-Mexico border. 

And for years, that border was a black box.

Kevin Aznar, Tanteo's Supply Chain Manager, would watch shipments leave Jalisco on Monday. 

The carrier would confirm pickup. Then nothing. Complete radio silence until the truck either showed up in Tennessee or, more often, he'd discover there was a customs issue only after losing 48 hours.

Transit times averaged 10-14 days for what should be a 3-4 day drive. 

Document errors cost $50-$100 in re-filing fees per shipment. Hours each month went into vetting carriers, chasing status updates, and firefighting issues that should have been prevented.

After switching to Nuvocargo, an AI-native logistics platform for North America, transit times dropped to under a week. Freight costs fell 25%. The manual coordination work largely disappeared. And Tanteo didn't have to change how they work.

I spoke with Benjamin Santos and Sebastian Salgado from Nuvocargo's operations team, along with insights from Tanteo's experience, to understand exactly how they did it. 

The answer reveals something important: the border isn't actually a black box. It only feels that way because information moves too slowly through too many disconnected parties.

Here's how Tanteo solved it.

What’s Inside:

• Why Cross-Border Becomes a Black Box

• The Hidden Tax of Fragmentation

• Why the Obvious Solutions Don't Work

• The Tradeoff Tanteo Had to Make

• Meeting Teams Where They Work

• 6 Functions That Eliminate Manual Work

• What Changed Operationally

• Results in Context

• Evaluation Framework

• Implementation Playbook