Stay ahead of market shifts with this week’s cross-border intelligence. Our experts break down capacity trends, volume patterns, and carrier activity across Mexico and Canada lanes to help you price competitively and serve customers better.
Post your freight on Cargado to tap into current market conditions—both spot and dedicated loads welcome.
Cross-border Mexico
1. Capacity recovery continues Unique carriers bidding climbed ~27% WoW, marking a 7-week high. As anticipated, carrier engagement continues to improve through mid-January as our network returns from holiday slowdowns. Now’s a good time to get freight on the board and capture the momentum.
2. Southbound volume rebounding Southbound posting volume more than doubled WoW as freight demand picks back up. Carriers are repositioning equipment into Mexico. If you’re moving loads south, posting early helps you get in front of available capacity as it returns to market.
3. Northbound holding strong Northbound coverage remained solid at 66% postings with bids with carriers actively competing on loads moving out of Mexico. Bid density is healthy and carriers are engaged. Post your freight and let bids come to you.
Dry van spotlight
Collectively, dry van freight moving out of Ciudad Juárez, CHH, is at a 93% bid rate. These are the hottest destinations in the last two weeks, all ranging from 3-9 bids per posting.
- Louisville, KY
- Toronto, ON
- Dallas, TX
- Los Angeles, CA
- Toledo, OH
- Cleveland, OH
Collectively, dry van freight moving out of Tijuana, BCN, is at a 78% bid rate. These are the hottest destinations in the last two weeks, all ranging from 5-12 bids per posting.
- Ontario, CA
- San Antonio, TX
- Houston, TX
- Louisville, KY
- Dallas, TX
Collectively, dry van freight moving out of Toluca, MEX, is at an 85% bid rate. These are the hottest destinations in the last two weeks, all ranging from 4-10 bids per posting.
- Atlanta, GA
- Charleston, SC
- Dallas, TX
- St. George, UT
- Elizabeth, NJ
Mexico Northbound Market Index
When the Supply Index is trending above the Demand Index, we have excess capacity in a given marketplace. This is an indicator that freight posted will be successful in receiving bids.
Domestic Mexico
1. Post-holiday demand surge Broker posting activity jumped nearly 9x as the market snaps back from holiday lulls, with over 3x more carriers actively bidding WoW. If you’ve been waiting to post domestic Mexico freight, now’s the time—carrier engagement is heating up fast.
2. Northern and Central MX freight exploding Outbound demand from Northern and Central Mexico has surged almost 20x compared to year-end levels, with reefer, dry van, and straight truck all seeing dramatic volume increases. Carriers looking for loads in these regions will find no shortage of opportunities as shippers ramp back up.
3. Strong carrier engagement across key corridors Outbound Northern Mexico is holding strong at 74% of postings with bids, while the Bajío region saw a dramatic improvement, climbing from 30% to 85% bid coverage for dry van. Carriers are re-engaging fast, and brokers posting in these corridors are seeing competitive bidding action.
The following dry van Domestic Mexico lanes saw 80% of postings with bids or better in the last week:
- Santiago de Querétaro, QUE → Saltillo, COA
- Nuevo Laredo, TAM → Monterrey, NLE
- Monterrey, NLE → Saltillo, COA
- San Luis Potosí, SLP → Monterrey, NLE
- Monterrey, NLE → Cuautitlán Izcalli, MEX
- Puebla, PUE → Monterrey, NLE
Cross-border and domestic Canada
🧭 Northbound First full week back from the holidays and northbound demand is dominating with 83% of active postings last week.
While demand was hot, supply lagged, especially early in the week as carriers worked to get trucks back into position after the break. Expect northbound carrier activity to pick up this week.
Where carriers were most active heading north: Dry van and reefer from the South Central → ON, and dry van from the Midwest → ON/QC.
Nogales, AZ, to Toronto, ON, reefer freight saw a 69% increase in amount of bids in the last month, while Minneapolis, MN, to Montreal, QC, and Huntsville, AL, to Toronto, ON, both dry van, saw a 30%+ increase.
⬇️ Southbound Even with lighter posting volume, southbound lanes saw stronger carrier engagement—7% more unique carriers bidding with nearly 3x the bids per posting compared to northbound.
Carriers were most active on dry van freight from ON to the Southeast and Midwest.
Reefer capacity remains tighter southbound, with reefer carriers prioritizing repositioning into hotter northbound markets in the South Central and Southwest.
Dry van freight coming out of Toronto, ON, to Forth Worth, TX, saw a 63% increase in amount of bids in the last month.
Dry van spotlight
Windsor, ON, leads with an 86% bid rate and the highest carrier intensity at 7.1 bids per posting. Top destinations (2-16 bids per posting):
- Kansas City, MO
- Chicago, IL
- Dallas, TX
- Baltimore, MD
- Port Huron, MI
Toronto, ON, is running at an 81% bid rate with strong interest to Mexico. Top destinations (2-12 bids per posting):
- Santiago de Querétaro, MX
- Saltillo, MX
- Chicago, IL
- Dallas, TX
- Laredo, TX