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Shippers eye transloading to ease truck constraints at US-Mexico border

Pressures at the US's southern border, from rising volumes and diminished trucking capacity, are causing shippers to evaluate transloading. According to Uber Freight, this is turning from an emergency solution into a structural network element. Uncertainty about the future of Mexico's free-trade agreement with the US has not made a dent in the rise of truck border crossings. Trade between the neighbours rose to $94.8bn in July, up 27.5% from a year earlier, and more than 70% of this crosses the border on trucks. While volume kept growing, capacity has been hit by US enforcement of trucking regulations, notably English language proficiency rules and cabotage restrictions. The pool of B1 drivers, who pick up freight in Mexico and deliver it to the US, has been reduced by 25,000 between April of last year and this month. The strain has been building: Uber Freight has counted three occasions this year so far when shippers, reliant on B1 drivers, "got stuck with backlogs of 30, 40, sometimes 50 loads, when that capacity wasn't there". All of these blockages occurred at the Laredo crossing, which handles about 40% of US-Mexico commercial traffic. Official numbers of daily crossings at the bottleneck vary between 17,000 and 21,000 trucks a day. CANACAR, Mexico's national trucking association, has acknowledged the importance of combating illegal cabotage, but warned of operational challenges for Mexican operators, and additional delays at the border due to increased inspections and documentation requirements that complicate driver scheduling, equipment positioning, and delivery times. Washington appears unlikely to ease its enforcement drive on the trucking industry. Logistics providers like CH Robinson have warned customers that cross-border capacity could tighten further this quarter. The driver shortage is not a temporary setback but a structural issue, said Kyle Toombs, SVP of capacity solutions at Uber Freight. "Some of these drivers may requalify over time, but losing a visa is hard to come back from, and in the meantime that capacity isn't paused, it's gone," he commented. On top of the driver shortage, rising operating costs, higher interest rates, and tighter lending conditions are discouraging new trucking companies from entering the market. Now, the disparity between capacity and volume is causing a growing number of cargo owners to look at transloading as a strategic measure to limit the impact of border disruptions and driver shortages, Mr Toombs reported. Historically the concept has been viewed as a stopgap measure used by smaller shippers, but it is now getting attention from larger firms as well, including industries like automotive and electronics that eschewed transloading. Mr Toombs said: "A lot of large, middle-market enterprise-type companies are now looking at it." And the concept itself is being viewed in a new light, he added. "Over the past year, transloading has shifted from an emergency workaround into something shippers deliberately design into their networks from day one. It isn't a reaction to a rough patch. It's a structural response to a labour pool that isn't coming back the way it was," he said. Transloading serves as a pressure valve to deal with disruptions to cross-border flows, tapping into a larger pool of drivers, but it can be elevated to become a plank in a shipper's transport strategy. "If a product can transload, it can also run through trailer. That means transloading isn't a trade-off against existing through-trailer capacity; it's incremental volume added on top of it. The shippers getting this right aren't treating it as either-or. They're building both capabilities, putting the right controls around the warehouses and cross docks they use to protect product integrity, and making the cost-versus-service call lane by lane. Often, they don't have to choose at all," Mr Toombs explained. According to him, capacity for transloading is "fairly sufficient", as it does not require much warehouse capacity and there is an ample labour pool available. The cost differential between transloading and end-do-end trucking fluctuates, but on balance through-trailer cost is "a bit higher", he said, adding that transloading charge at the border is about $150-$200. Companies that want to build up a transloading leg should start out by mapping their network lane by lane, tracking the regulatory signals, and building the necessary relationships and warehouse controls, he advised. "Make sure your customs broker is looped in and that you use C-TPAT-certified carriers," he added. In terms of mixing transloading with through-trailer use, Mr Toombs recommended "at least 10-15% of total volume" to the former. " You can increase this if, and when, you want," he said. While most transloading is happening at Laredo, firms are also using other border points like El Paso, and a growing number are using more than one location for transloading, he noted.

DHL lifts outlook on express momentum and peak season outlook

DHL Group has raised its operating profit outlook for the year thanks to the strong performance of its express division and expectations for a good peak season. The logistics and express giant now expects to post earnings before interest and tax (ebit) for the year of €7bn, compared with its previous forecast of €6.5bn. "In light of the ongoing earnings momentum, in particular within the express division and indications of a robust seasonal peak in the fourth quarter, management has decided to raise its outlook for the full year," the company said. Preliminary results for the third quarter show a 12% year-on-year increase in third-quarter revenues to around €22.6bn. Meanwhile, ebit for the quarter is expected to reach €1.7bn, up 16% year on year. The express division is expected to report a 49% increase in ebit for the third quarter to €1bn. "This is driven by continued benefits from yield and cost measures as well as operating leverage from weight growth," DHL said. "This result had a limited support of around €100m from capacity constraints in the airfreight market." The forwarding division generated ebit of €260m compared to the prior year's result of €195m, which included €14m cost of change in the third quarter of 2025.

Gemini relaunch likely to add to congestion pressure at Khor Fakkan

Gemini may be relaunching connections between the Far East and Middle East this weekend, to restore direct ocean links, but after replacing Jebel Ali calls, Khor Fakkan appears to be showing signs of buckling under the pressure. As reported by The Loadstar yesterday, the relaunched service, marketed as AGX by Hapag-Lloyd and FM1 by Maersk, is set to operate under a revised rotation that sees Khor Fakkan replace Jebel Ali, because of the US-Iran war, but warning signs of congestion have appeared at the Emirati gateway. A Kuehne+Nagel update that Khor Fakkan and Fujairah "taking on a lot of the volumes shifted to ports outside the Strait of Hormuz in recent months" had led to congestion across the UAE's corridors, with the two ports now the "main pressure points in the region". It added: "Through Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, transit times vary by destination, while final-mile delivery and corridor connectivity remain under the control of UAE government-affiliated logistics providers. "However, as congestion in Jeddah decreases, we expect cargo flows to redistribute towards alternative gateways, including Jeddah, Aqaba, and Salalah. Looking ahead, we expect Khor Fakkan and Fujairah to remain under significant pressure in the coming weeks." This was also recognised by Maersk, which said in its latest operational update: "Vessel congestion and limited berth availability at Khor Fakkan, together with high yard utilisation, road congestion and extended truck waiting times, are delaying cargo clearance." Meanwhile, Expeditors has somewhat downplayed the extent of the problem, noting that "UAE gateways remain largely unaffected and outside the Strait risk area", but nonetheless added that Khor Fakkan and Fujairah were "showing signs of congestion". With Gemini's relaunched service scheduled for 17 October, on its Qingdao-Ningbo-Tanjung Pelepas-Khor Fakkan-Singapore-Qingdao rotation, the congestion issues have raised questions as to how beneficial the additional capacity will prove for shippers. Maersk said that it would be relocating some boxes to an inland container depot at Sajja, which it hoped would help ease pressure on the port, while it is planning for the possible redirection of some shipments to Jebel Ali. Even so, cargo arriving at ports still needs to reach its final destination, and hauliers and logistics operators have been crying out for support to provide additional hinterland connectivity, with trucking the most obvious solution. However accessing that capacity has become a key hurdle, with forwarders telling The Loadstar that, since the outset of the war, this capacity was being "hoovered up" by "forwarders with the biggest pockets, rather than shipments with the most need".