It took Daniel, a truck driver, eight hours to leave the Bajío region of Mexico, between the time it took to dispatch the client and the road conditions  along his route. He finally headed towards the port of Manzanillo with a full load of containers. But another obstacle still lay in store for him.  

Daniel’s commute between the cities of Tecomán and Manzanillo, both in Colima and 58 kilometers apart, which normally took him about two hours, turned into an eight-hour ordeal due to the traffic congestion caused by the highway expansion work on the road to Colima. When he finally managed to move forward and reach the port, his fate was sealed:  his appointment to enter the terminal had been canceled , and he would have to wait in a nearby yard or at least somewhere safe on the street for a new assignment. 

This story—which began on November 25, 2025, during the expansion phase of the Armería-Manzanillo section and has been repeated for the past four years since the start of the entire project—may change its name, route, or merchandise, but behind it all remains the same reality: the customer’s clock keeps ticking even when the truck stops due to circumstances that the carrier can hardly control.  

This scenario is all too common in Mexico.  Roadworks , accidents , military or police checkpoints , traffic jams , customs failures, and congested port access points can turn a plan built over days into a matter of hours. And missing a date also means keeping equipment and the operator idle, incurring costs, and jeopardizing the next trip. 

Stories abound: a CM Logistics unit  spent nearly 12 hours trying to leave Manzanillo. By the time it reached the capital of Colima, 14 hours had passed and there was still a long way to go to reach the north of the country, Eduardo Mendoza, the company’s general manager, told T21. 

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El cargo Trucking industry, caught between customer pressure and infrastructure failures apareció primero en T21.

ORIZABA, VER. – During one of the busiest times on the highway connecting Puebla with Orizaba, it was striking to see the entire highway body completely desolate past the La Esperanza toll booth. The reason: the landslide in the Cumbres de Maltrata area that occurred on October 25 and which has made traffic impossible on the aforementioned route, with serious effects on auto transport and therefore on logistics in the south-southeast region of the country.

“The situation is posing a challenge to the auto transport industry, collapsing the circulation for the double-articulated trucks coming from the port of Veracruz and the southeast, because they are having to take the route to the port and then go up to Xalapa. Normally the Veracruz-Puebla route could be done in 5-6 hours, but now we are doing up to 12 hours, with the fatigue that this implies for the operator,” a transporter told T21, describing the challenges faced by those who operate the route.

What is striking to the transport sector, not only in the Orizaba-Córdoba region, but also in other regions, is that after more than 15 days of dealing with what happened, the earth removal activities are not progressing with the required urgency. “Some authorities have informally told us that it will take eight to 12 months to reestablish the route, what is worrying is that they say this without recognizing the impact that is being had,” said another affected transporter.

“This is a reflection of the fact that road transport is not given the necessary importance and the impact it has on the economy, and where the government is not aware of it,” agreed various businessmen about the importance of the route and its reestablishment.

Based on the versions collected by T21 from business owners in the central region of Veracruz, this situation has led to a review with customers of the rates that must be implemented due to changes in routes or increases in traffic.

In a video shared by Grúas Grisa, taken last week, the severity of the collapse and the clean-up activities that are being carried out can be identified, but they seem insufficient for the seriousness of the situation, as can be seen in the following video.

With the most recent data available for the MEX-150D highway, on the Puebla-Orizaba route in the Acatzingo-Cd. Mendoza section, the Average Annual Daily Traffic (TPDA) in 2023 was 36,660 vehicles , but what stands out from the information from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT)  is the composition of the vehicular flow of the articulated tractor-trailer (T3-S2) and doubly articulated (T3-S2-R4) configurations, where the first averages 10.6% of the total in both directions, while the second is at 6.5 percent.

For reference, on the Mexico-Puebla route, the T3-S2 configuration averages 7% of total traffic, with a TDPA of 33,948 vehicles, while the T3-S2-R4 configuration averages 2.5%, according to SICT data.

On one of the alternate routes through the Cumbres de Acultzingo, the SICT recommended the transit of light vehicles and cargo units up to 3.5 tons of cargo, while for the rest of the configurations the option recommended by the institution is Veracruz-Xalapa-Perote-Puebla-Mexico City.

Comment and follow us: @DidierRT / Sent / @GrupoT21

El cargo Collapse on the Orizaba-Puebla Highway Highlights Lack of Attention to the Importance of Freight Transport apareció primero en T21.

ORIZABA, VER. – During one of the busiest times on the highway connecting Puebla with Orizaba, it was striking to see the entire highway body completely desolate past the La Esperanza toll booth. The reason: the landslide in the Cumbres de Maltrata area that occurred on October 25 and which has made traffic impossible on the aforementioned route, with serious effects on auto transport and therefore on logistics in the south-southeast region of the country.

“The situation is posing a challenge to the auto transport industry, collapsing the circulation for the double-articulated trucks coming from the port of Veracruz and the southeast, because they are having to take the route to the port and then go up to Xalapa. Normally the Veracruz-Puebla route could be done in 5-6 hours, but now we are doing up to 12 hours, with the fatigue that this implies for the operator,” a transporter told T21, describing the challenges faced by those who operate the route.

What is striking to the transport sector, not only in the Orizaba-Córdoba region, but also in other regions, is that after more than 15 days of dealing with what happened, the earth removal activities are not progressing with the required urgency. “Some authorities have informally told us that it will take eight to 12 months to reestablish the route, what is worrying is that they say this without recognizing the impact that is being had,” said another affected transporter.

“This is a reflection of the fact that road transport is not given the necessary importance and the impact it has on the economy, and where the government is not aware of it,” agreed various businessmen about the importance of the route and its reestablishment.

Based on the versions collected by T21 from business owners in the central region of Veracruz, this situation has led to a review with customers of the rates that must be implemented due to changes in routes or increases in traffic.

In a video shared by Grúas Grisa, taken last week, the severity of the collapse and the clean-up activities that are being carried out can be identified, but they seem insufficient for the seriousness of the situation, as can be seen in the following video.

With the most recent data available for the MEX-150D highway, on the Puebla-Orizaba route in the Acatzingo-Cd. Mendoza section, the Average Annual Daily Traffic (TPDA) in 2023 was 36,660 vehicles , but what stands out from the information from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT)  is the composition of the vehicular flow of the articulated tractor-trailer (T3-S2) and doubly articulated (T3-S2-R4) configurations, where the first averages 10.6% of the total in both directions, while the second is at 6.5 percent.

For reference, on the Mexico-Puebla route, the T3-S2 configuration averages 7% of total traffic, with a TDPA of 33,948 vehicles, while the T3-S2-R4 configuration averages 2.5%, according to SICT data.

On one of the alternate routes through the Cumbres de Acultzingo, the SICT recommended the transit of light vehicles and cargo units up to 3.5 tons of cargo, while for the rest of the configurations the option recommended by the institution is Veracruz-Xalapa-Perote-Puebla-Mexico City.

Comment and follow us:@DidierRT / @GrupoT21

El cargo Landslide on the Orizaba-Puebla route highlights a lack of attention to the importance of freight transport. apareció primero en T21.