Stadiums, businesses, hotels, transportation, and avenues were jammed from mid-morning. A semi-trailer truck was stuck in endless lines while, a few kilometers away, thousands of people shouted “Goal!” wearing their favorite team’s jersey. This is how the 2026 FIFA World Cup will also begin  for Mexican logistics. 

A Deloitte analysis estimates that the tournament could raise Mexico’s economic growth from 1.3% to 1.4% in 2026, with an economic impact of up to four billion 050 million dollars.  

For 39 days, with 48 teams, 104 matches, and venues spread across Mexico, the United States, and Canada, the World Cup  will test the resilience of supply chains. Estimates indicate that the country expects more than 5.5 million visitors, which will increase the pressure on airports, highways, distribution centers, and urban delivery networks. 

Lockton Mexico anticipates that logistics activity could grow by up to 15% as a result of the tournament , especially in freight transport, warehousing, hospitality, food and urban deliveries, so companies are accelerating investments. 

In addition, the event will coincide with campaigns such as Hot Sale and  retail discount seasons , periods that historically increase the movement of goods. 

“We see a lot of activity in all consumer spending,” explains Pablo Ocampo, CEO of Grupo  MexAmerik . He says the company has experienced a significant increase in activity since the last week of May and throughout much of June.  

For  SimpliRoute , the World Cup will force companies to completely rethink their logistics operations. Álvaro Echeverría, the company’s CEO, believes that many Mexican cities are already operating at their limits in terms of mobility and supply, and adding millions of visitors in a short period will lead to longer travel times, traffic congestion, and difficulties in maintaining service levels .

“We should prepare for a Black Friday in a month. It’s going to be very painful, but also very positive for commerce,” he says. 

In response, companies began taking preventative measures , such as renegotiating expectations with customers and suppliers. There has also been an increase in searches for additional transportation and temporary storage capacity. 

One of the most visible trends is the expansion of  dark stores  and micro-  fulfillment centers . According to Echeverría, many companies are looking to bring inventory closer to urban areas to avoid long commutes during peak traffic days. 

“The problem is not just moving more merchandise, but moving it within cities that are already saturated,” he points out. 

At  Autotransportes de Carga Tresguerras,  preparations began months before the World Cup. The company is even directly involved in the logistics for some teams in Mexico, moving luggage, uniforms, and equipment between airports, hotels, and stadiums in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. 

However, the company acknowledges that the real challenge lies in the delivery times. 

“It’s a fact that there will be complications,” acknowledges María Guadalupe Mancera Pérez, the company’s CEO. She says that meetings are already underway with FIFA to discuss restrictions and closures in areas near stadiums. 

The strategy includes strengthening last-mile deliveries, leasing additional units, and maintaining constant communication with customers regarding potential delays. Operational uncertainty, he admits , will be unavoidable.

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El cargo Logistics “out of place” due to the World Cup apareció primero en T21.

In a context where highway insecurity continues to be one of the main challenges for trucking in Mexico, freight companies also face another blow to their operations: fuel theft and the increase in downtime of their vehicles .

In addition to the operating costs that fleets already face for fuel, maintenance and tolls, there are illegal practices such as so-called “diesel theft,” which can represent significant losses for transport companies, according to Ángeles Useche, Commercial Director of Total Protect.

The specialist commented that fuel represents up to 50% of a fleet’s operating costs, so any illegal extraction directly impacts the profitability of companies.

He said there are cases where units can lose between 80 and 300 liters of fuel in a single unauthorized unloading, a situation that is aggravated by the current price of diesel and the number of units that operate daily on the road.

Added to this is the operational pressure stemming from peak seasons or large-scale events that cause traffic congestion and downtime for the trucks. Under this logic, the phrase “stopped cargo, stolen cargo” remains prevalent within the sector, especially in corridors where trucks are held up by traffic , blockades, or circulation restrictions .

World Cup would increase operational pressure

According to Useche, during peak travel seasons companies operate virtually their entire fleets, increasing the number of trips by 15 to 20% .

The executive pointed out that this type of scenario requires strengthening prevention and constant monitoring of the units, since the increase in circulation also raises the risk of incidents and robberies.

“They have the advantage of knowing when they are going to act, and we simply have to be very vigilant,” he commented, referring to the criminal groups that operate on highways.

In this environment, the industry also faces the challenge of changing the perception of security as an operating expense and beginning to see it as an investment linked to business continuity.

Useche believes that some companies still limit the adoption of monitoring tools solely due to demands from their clients or insurers, even though daily operations demonstrate that immediate reaction and constant supervision can make a difference in an incident.

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El cargo Fuel theft and road congestion increase pressure on freight fleets apareció primero en T21.

More time on the roads, higher fuel consumption and an increase in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are the effects of the increased level of vehicular congestion in 2025, which has become a problem for major cities around the world, seeking to maintain an optimal flow in commutes.

Minutes that turn into hours and time lost in traffic jams is the scene that is repeated daily in various cities , whose traffic has exceeded the road infrastructure such as bridges and highways, generating chaos, in addition to other social factors such as the blockades in Mexico City.

According to the TomTom Traffic Index 2025 analysis , the country’s capital once again ranked first as the city with the most traffic congestion in the world in 2025 , with a level of 75.9% , which represented 3.6 percentage points less than in 2024.

This weighting represented the highest level among 492 cities analyzed by the Dutch company, which specializes in vehicle navigation systems, and revealed that the average speed of circulation was only 17.4 kilometers per hour (km/h) in Mexico City .

The average distance traveled in 15 minutes was 4.4 kilometers (km), which caused the population to lose 184 hours in traffic during 2025 , equivalent to seven days and 16 hours, although this represented a decrease of one hour and 16 minutes compared to 2024.

For a 10 km journey, the average travel time was 34 minutes and 29 seconds; the average speed during peak hours (a period when congestion and crowding occur, mainly in traffic and public transport) was 13.5 km/h, while the average speed on Mexican highways was 31.7 km/h .

According to TomTom’s analysis, May 28, 2025 was the worst day to travel in the country’s capital , as the congestion level at 3:00 p.m. was 167%, while the distance traveled in 15 minutes was only 2.6 km.

After Mexico City, Bengaluru, India, ranked second, with a congestion level of 74.4 percent. Dublin, Ireland, came in third, with 72.9 percent . “Dublin also ranked as the sixth slowest city in the world, with a travel time of three minutes and 27 seconds per kilometer.”

“These cities epitomize the challenge of traffic and congestion, and often rank highly in the Traffic Index. While traffic in these locations is among the densest on the planet, many cities exhibit far more alarming trajectories,” TomTom stated.

Traffic in other cities in Mexico

The analysis also revealed that other Mexican cities have high levels of congestion. After the capital, Guadalajara, Jalisco, showed a 2.9 percentage point increase compared to 2024, reaching 63.3% , equivalent to 126 hours lost on the roads during 2025.

Monterrey, Nuevo León, with a congestion level of 48% , registered an increase of 0.9 percentage points last year over 2024; the time lost on the road was 89 hours.

Tijuana, Baja California, experienced a congestion level of 47.4% , 2.2 percentage points higher than in 2024, with an average of 72 hours lost in traffic. León, Guanajuato, showed a traffic congestion level of 42.5% during 2025 , an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared to 2024. Residents lost 85 hours in traffic.

Ecatepec, State of Mexico, and Puebla, Puebla, showed congestion levels of 41.8% and 41%, respectively. Ecatepec saw a decrease of 1.1 percentage points compared to 2024. Drivers spent an average of 58 hours stuck in traffic jams. The city of Puebla showed a decrease of 2.4 percentage points in 2025 compared to 2024, with 94 hours spent in traffic.

According to the TomTom study, as in 2024, traffic continued to worsen in 2025, resulting in most cities around the world experiencing increased congestion and travel times , which translated into slower mobility.

With the aim of reducing the effects of vehicular traffic, specialists have indicated that one of the measures is the use of public transport and bicycles , so investment and improvement of the infrastructure for these means of mobility is necessary.

Another solution is the implementation of shared transport systems , which would help reduce the number of vehicles in large cities, whose chaos also affects the economy, since slow traffic causes significant losses in productivity.

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El cargo Traffic congestion in Mexico 2025: Green, yellow, or red? apareció primero en T21.

Minutes have stretched into hours on the Colima-Manzanillo highway . Traffic moves in fits and starts, then grinds to a halt, and drivers watch the line lengthen, uncertain of how long it will take to reach the port. Construction on the La Salada section has created a bottleneck that completely disrupts arrival times.

For trucking companies, delays mean more than just fatigue: they represent lost work and days that can’t be recovered. Yax Tzel Nolasco Gómez, president of the Manzanillo Freight Carriers Union (UTCM) , explained : “If you don’t arrive on time, they won’t take you. Even if you left early, if traffic is at a standstill, you’re not going to make it.” Uncertainty dominates every trip. “Sometimes it takes an hour, sometimes it takes three. When they’re doing roadwork, it creates a bottleneck.”

The direct consequence is the loss of paid service. “The operator left on time, but if they don’t come in, the client says they won’t pay. And that’s not how things work,” warned Nolasco Gómez. In Manzanillo, where every minute counts, delays become a financial blow. “You don’t know if you’re going to do two service calls or none at all. It’s a daily problem.”

In an interview with T21, he recalled that the backlog is not recent; he explained that the port’s growth has been constant, but the highway infrastructure has not kept pace. He pointed out that the Colima-Manzanillo highway has been operating under virtually the same conditions for decades, despite the increased cargo volume. In his words, “the highway is over 30 years old and it has never been finished properly,” which is now reflected in bottlenecks that can no longer handle the current traffic.

The logistical impact is even greater considering the size of the port. According to official figures from the Mexican Navy , the Port of Manzanillo registered a total of 111,602 truck entries in July 2025 , representing an average of 3,600 units per day .

From January to October 2025 , cumulative revenue reached 1,009,604 trucks , a 3% increase compared to the previous year. In a system of this scale, any disruption to the single access road ultimately affects the punctuality of appointments and the operation of thousands of containers.

Official data shows that the port operates with very high traffic volumes. In 2024, there were 32 days with peak truck traffic, and between January and October 2025 alone, there have already been 25 days with over 4,500 trucks . February 20, 2025, saw one of the highest peaks, with 4,626 trucks . These figures confirm that the pressure on access roads is constant.

The highway works are necessary, but while they progress, the pressure falls directly on the operators. Each closed or reduced section causes additional delays that aren’t reflected in the port’s appointment systems, but are reflected in the carriers’ bottom line. The road, which should be an efficient corridor, is currently operating at its maximum capacity during peak hours.

For truckers, the problem is neither new nor sporadic. Delays have become a daily occurrence, and the lack of alternative routes forces all trucks to pass through the same critical point. Operations become strained, maneuvers uncertain, and the logistics chain of the Pacific’s most important port is ultimately subject to the pace of a construction project that progresses in stages.

(Main image source UTCM)

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El cargo Long lines heading to Manzanillo: roadworks paralyze access and strain the trucking industry apareció primero en T21.