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• 5 min de lectura
In Mexico, the hours a truck-tractor remains engaged during a port operation have consequences that go beyond productivity. While the unit does not complete its cycle, the transport company maintains resources allocated to fuel, the operator, and the equipment itself, while reducing its availability to perform new services and generate income.
An analysis by T21 Business Intelligence, based on the times recorded by the Average Road Transport Time in Ports Indicator (ITPAP), estimates that delays in Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, Veracruz and Altamira, the country's main ports for containerized cargo handling, represent a combined associated cost of 68.6 million dollars (mdd) monthly for road transport, considering the operating days of each facility.
The exercise considers three components directly linked to the immobilization of equipment: diesel, operators, and truck-tractors. By relating them to the average daily flow of vehicles entering each port, the potential impact reaches around 2.26 mdd daily among the four facilities.
Daily cost of delays to road transport
Manzanillo concentrates the largest amount, with an estimated 0.80 mdd daily, considering an average flow of 3,700 units. It is followed by Lázaro Cárdenas, with 0.64 mdd and 2,500 vehicles; Veracruz, with 0.52 mdd and two thousand units; and Altamira, with 0.30 mdd daily and around one thousand vehicles.
Projecting these impacts based on the operating days considered during August, the associated cost amounts to 24.4 mdd monthly in Manzanillo, 19.3 mdd in Lázaro Cárdenas, 15.9 mdd in Veracruz, and 9.1 mdd in Altamira.
More than an accounting loss effectively registered by companies, the exercise allows for dimensioning the resources committed by delays. An additional hour not only prolongs the stay of a unit: it keeps capital, operator, and operational resources occupied, while reducing the truck-tractor's capacity to complete other transport cycles.
ITPAP shows improvement in August
From this perspective, the behavior of the ITPAP during August takes on another dimension. The average time decreased from 11 hours, 50 minutes, and 23 seconds in July to 10 hours, 40 minutes, and 39 seconds in August, an improvement of one hour, nine minutes, and 44 seconds.
For August, the ITPAP —generated from information shared by GPS and road transport companies with T21— considered 2,273 road transport movements for import container loads in the four analyzed ports. The reduction in the overall average, however, did not mean a generalized improvement: Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas decreased their times, while Veracruz and Altamira registered considerable increases.
The three components that make up the ITPAP did show a reduction compared to the previous month. The time corresponding to customs went from 5:44:56 to 5:14:26 hours, an improvement of 30 minutes and 30 seconds; maneuvers decreased from 2:34:14 to 2:17:09, 17 minutes and five seconds less; while waiting time dropped from 3:31:13 to 3:09:04, a reduction of 22 minutes and nine seconds.
The distribution, however, maintains a pattern that has been repeated throughout the year. In August, customs concentrated 49.1% of the overall average time, while waiting represented 29.5% and maneuvers 21.4 percent. That is, practically one out of every two minutes of permanence continued to be associated with the customs component.
Manzanillo goes from last to first place
The most significant change occurred in Manzanillo. After registering the longest time among the four facilities in July, with 12:50:27, in August it reduced its average to 9:34:30, an improvement of 3:15:57 hours.
The adjustment occurred in all three components. Customs decreased from 6:11:30 to 4:40:22; maneuvers, from 2:45:48 to 2:03:35; and waiting, from 3:53:08 to 2:50:32.
With this, Manzanillo took a turn in the ITPAP ranking: it went from having the longest service time in July to registering the shortest among the four ports during August.
Lázaro Cárdenas maintains downward trend
Lázaro Cárdenas also managed to reduce its times, albeit more moderately. Its average went from 11:58:58 in July to 11:17:45 in August, an improvement of 41 minutes and 13 seconds. Customs dropped from 5:52:52 to 5:32:16; maneuvers, from 2:36:49 to 2:24:08; and waiting, from 3:29:17 to 3:21:21.
This behavior continues the recovery initiated after April, when Lázaro Cárdenas reached 16:53:10, its longest time in the first eight months of the year. Although July momentarily interrupted this trajectory, August again placed the indicator on a downward trend.
Veracruz reverses improvement
The situation was different in Veracruz. After leading the July ranking with 7:13:01, the average time increased to 11:31:59 in August, a difference of 4:18:58, the largest negative variation among the four ports.
The deterioration also affected all three components: customs went from 3:32:16 to 5:39:08; maneuvers, from 1:37:58 to 2:33:08; and waiting, from 2:02:47 to 3:19:43.
With this result, Veracruz went from first to third place in just one month, again demonstrating the volatility that service times for road transport can present between consecutive periods.
Altamira registers the longest time in August
In Altamira, the average increased from 9:36:28 in July to 13:09:39 in August, an increase of 3:33:11 that placed it as the port with the longest time of the month. Customs advanced from 4:36:02 to 6:38:48; maneuvers, from 2:06:48 to 2:46:23; and waiting, from 2:53:38 to 3:44:27.
This result also represents the second longest time recorded by Altamira during the first eight months of 2026, just below the 13:35:29 observed in March.
Thus, August again showed that the average tells only part of the story. While the overall ITPAP improved by just over an hour, Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas reduced their times, but Veracruz and Altamira moved in the opposite direction, again causing significant changes in the relative performance of the facilities.
