Mexican Customs Clearance Process Change at Laredo, Texas

Announcement Number: CN2019-43
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: June 10, 2019

To Our Customers,

We would like to inform you of the implementation of a new Mexican Customs online clearing system for the Laredo gateway beginning June 17, 2019. This online clearing tool, called Ventanilla Única de Comercio Exterior Mexicana (VUCEM), allows the sharing of information among the different Mexican governmental agencies. The VUCEM portal will be used by the Mexican broker community to transition to a paperless exchange of information to fulfill the clearance requirements for import or export shipments.

In preparation for the implementation at the Laredo gateway, we encourage you to reach out to your customers and their brokers to verify how their profile is registered with the Mexican railroad and/or Mexican customs. This is to ensure that the data on your shipping patterns matches with theirs in order to avoid clearance delays and additional charges that may potentially impact the movement of your shipments.

Based upon the implementation of VUCEM at other Mexican gateways, some of the most common errors include:

  • Incorrect broker/consignee/in care of party spelling
  • Different name versions of the above
  • Patente number should not be part of Mexican broker name
  • Incorrect or incomplete address for all parties
  • Invalid weight/no weight
  • Missing piece count or quantity

The waybill is the trigger for the start of the clearance process. Verifying parties to the bill, prior to shipping, will ensure that your rail cars move across the border seamlessly and without delay.

If you have any questions, please contact our International Customer Care & Support team at 800-877-0531 or your Union Pacific representative. You can also view a checklist for shipping to Mexico to adhere to the necessary requirements.

For more information on VUCEM, please refer to the following links: