Like cancer in the human body, the importation of used tractor-trailer trucks is expanding in Mexican transportation. It’s an activity where, according to sources consulted, organized crime is present, and its growth is devastating the heavy vehicle manufacturing industry, its value chain, and the transporters themselves, who are seeing the resale value of their vehicles depreciate.
2024 marked a record year for imports, with 29,790 used units entering the country. Between 2018 and 2022, the annual average was less than 10,000, and in 2023, it was 20,000.
For the January–July 2025 cycle, the ratio of imported units to new vehicle sales reached its highest level. “For every 100 new vehicles sold in Mexico, 60 used imported vehicles enter the market,” explains Rogelio Arzate, executive president of the National Association of Bus, Truck, and Tractor-Trailer Producers (ANPACT) .
According to the agency’s data, 23,926 new units were sold in Mexico in the first seven months of 2025, compared to 14,464 imported used units.
Old trucks, new environmental risks
The flood of used vehicles is contributing to the obsolescence of the vehicle fleet, which is now at 19 years old, according to Rogelio Arzate.
Public policy has exacerbated the problem of fleet aging. “The government is making a serious mistake by allowing these units into the country instead of providing tax incentives for truck drivers, who move more than 60% of the freight,” says Héctor Romero, president of Círculo Logístico.
Furthermore, the tractor-trailers arriving from the United States are equipped with outdated technologies: engines with emissions comparable to Euro 3, compared to the Euro 6 engines currently produced in Mexico, which offer 90% fewer polluting emissions.
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