The transport of goods on Mexican highways remains one of the most vulnerable aspects of business activity . This was confirmed by the 2025 survey of members of the Mexican Employers’ Confederation (Coparmex) , based on 3,850 surveys administered to companies of various sizes, where cargo theft in transit once again emerged as the most frequent crime.
Of the total surveys collected, 40.7% corresponded to micro-enterprises with one to 10 employees, 32.7% to small enterprises with 11 to 50 employees, 16.7% to medium-sized enterprises with 51 to 250 employees and 9.9% to large enterprises with more than 250 employees, which offered a broad overview of the perception and experience of the productive sector.
In this universe, 25.6% of Coparmex members reported having suffered theft of merchandise in transit during 2025, a figure that exceeds the 25% registered in 2024 and that confirms the persistence of this crime as the main risk for logistics and transport operations.
Extortion or protection rackets followed with 17.3% (compared to 16% in 2024), cybercrime with 10.4% (12% in 2024), theft of company vehicles with 16.1% (15% in 2024), and damage to facilities with 9.1%, a figure practically stable compared to 9% in 2024. They also pointed to bank fraud with 7.6% (9% in 2024), consumer fraud with 4.7% (previously 6%), and the category of other crimes , which reached 8.8%, above the 7% recorded in 2024.
When the victimization rate by crime was analyzed , cargo theft again topped the list at 16.9%, followed by extortion at 12.9%, and theft of company vehicles at 12%. Further down the list were bank fraud at 8.7%, cybercrime at 7.8%, damage to facilities at 6.8%, the “other” category at 6.6%, consumer fraud at 3.5%, and kidnapping at 0.2%.
The frequency of these crimes also increased. In 2025, 33.5% of Coparmex members reported having suffered two crimes, compared to 24% in 2024; 15.5% reported having faced three crimes, compared to 9% in 2024; and 9.6% indicated having suffered more than three crimes, a significant jump from the previous 3%. In contrast, only 4.4% reported having suffered a single crime, whereas in 2024 this proportion was 57%.
This climate of insecurity has had a direct impact on operating costs. According to the results, 15.5% of partners stated that spending on security measures has increased significantly, while 39.9% indicated that it has only increased. For 42.9%, spending remains unchanged, while 1% said it has decreased and 0.6% said it has decreased significantly.
Despite this context, 39.5% of Coparmex members considered that today is a good time to invest, although this perception represents a decrease of 0.07 percentage points compared to the same period in 2024.
At the state level, the highest levels of investment enthusiasm were recorded in Michoacán (55.9%), Coahuila (54.7%), and Veracruz (52.8%), followed by Jalisco (48.3%), Chiapas (48.2%), Guanajuato (46.1%), Hidalgo (44.3%), Guerrero (44.0%), Sinaloa (43.3%), and San Luis Potosí (42.6%). In contrast, the lowest levels were observed in Querétaro (29.8%), Chihuahua (30.5%), Tamaulipas (30.9%), Nayarit (31.2%), and Baja California (32.9%). The states of Zacatecas, Campeche, and Tabasco were not included due to low statistical precision.
Among the main obstacles to business growth in 2025 , Coparmex members identified uncertainty about the economic environment at 26.1% (25.1% in 2024), followed by insecurity at 20.4% (21.9% previously), and political uncertainty at 18.4% (22.5% in 2024). Other obstacles included lack of resources or credit at 8.5%, high input costs at 6.8%, taxes at 5.9%, and bureaucratic red tape at 5.5%.
In regulatory matters , 48.9% of Coparmex members reported having problems with government procedures during 2025. The highest incidences were recorded in Hidalgo (73.3%), San Luis Potosí (70.6%), Quintana Roo (67.6%), Baja California Sur (67.2%) and Baja California (66.3%).
Of the total number of companies that faced problems, 36.2% did so at the municipal level, 33.4% at the state level and 30.5% at the federal level, while 16.6% reported difficulties at all three levels of government.
Furthermore, regulatory compliance continues to consume significant time: on average, companies spent 82 hours per month dealing with the regulatory framework, micro-enterprises 54 hours, small businesses 76 hours, medium-sized businesses 93 hours, and large companies up to 219 hours per month.
Finally, when evaluating the performance of state governments, Coparmex members pointed to insecurity (23.7%), infrastructure and services (18.6%), corruption (15.1%), and lack of support for businesses (10.8%) as the main shortcomings, confirming that security, particularly in the transport of goods, remains one of the major challenges for the country’s economic development .
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