CAAT

The CAAT, Código Alfanumérico Armonizado del Transportista, is the alphanumeric code that identifies a carrier to Mexican customs. It is issued by ANAM, requested through Mexico's single-window trade portal (VUCEM), and must be kept current, with validity granted in one-year terms that renew under the same code. The CAAT ties the carrier's identity to the pedimento and transit documents on every cross-border operation, and foreign carriers, including U.S. and Canadian ones that participate in cross-border moves, can and do register for their own CAAT.

Functionally, it is the Mexican counterpart of the U.S. SCAC code: one is how CBP systems know the carrier, the other is how Mexican customs does.

What this means when you move freight

An expired or missing CAAT is a quiet load-killer. Everything else can be perfect, carta porte stamped, pedimento paid, and the operation still stalls because the carrier code will not validate. When vetting a Mexican carrier for cross-border work, ask for the CAAT and its renewal date the same way you ask a U.S. carrier for authority status. Carriers with dual entities need the right entity's CAAT on the documents, a detail that trips up dual-entity operations regularly. Dispatchers should calendar the renewal a month out, since the renewal window opens before expiration and processing is not instant.