A carta porte is Mexico's mandatory digital waybill, issued as a complement to the CFDI electronic invoice through the SAT. Every load moving on Mexican federal highways must travel with a stamped carta porte listing the goods, origin, destination, vehicle, and driver.
A carta porte (formally the complemento Carta Porte, or CCP) is the digital waybill Mexico's tax authority, the SAT, requires for freight moving on federal roads. It attaches to a CFDI electronic invoice: the carrier stamps it onto a CFDI de Ingreso when hauling for a customer, and a company moving its own goods stamps it onto a CFDI de Traslado. Version 3.1 has been in force since July 2024.
The document lists what is being hauled, where it starts and ends, intermediate stops, the vehicle, and the driver. If the truck gets stopped and the carta porte is missing or wrong, the carrier faces fines and the load can be held, so Mexican carriers treat a correctly stamped (timbrada) carta porte as a hard gate before wheels turn.
For cross-border loads, the carta porte covers the Mexican leg. Northbound, it rides alongside the pedimento and the U.S. e-manifest in the document stack; southbound, the Mexican carrier issues it once the load clears into Mexico. Brokers do not file it, the Mexican carrier or freight owner does, but you should confirm your carrier can issue one before dispatch. A carrier that cannot stamp a CFDI with the Carta Porte complement is telling you something about their fiscal standing. For the full northbound document walkthrough, see the Mexico 101 Guide.
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