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In Mexico, the hours a truck-tractor remains engaged during a port operation have consequences beyond mere productivity. While the unit has not completed 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 revenue.
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 1.1663 billion pesos (mdp) monthly for road transport, considering the operational days of each facility.
Considering the daily losses obtained for each port in the referred month, monthly losses were projected based on the operational days of each port.
| Port | Total Costs |
|---|---|
| Manzanillo | 414.90 |
| Lázaro Cárdenas | 327.20 |
| Veracruz | 270.00 |
| Altamira | 154.10 |
| Total | 1166.30 |
Source:T21 Business Intelligence Created with Datawrapper
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 38.4 million pesos daily among the four facilities.
Considering the average number of units entering each port, the cost per hour of delays is projected to visualize daily losses.
| Port | Avg. Daily Units | Diesel (pesos) | Operators (pesos) | Truck-tractors (pesos) | Total (pesos) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manzanillo | 3,700 | 5,733,921 | 3,293,037 | 4,622,645 | 13,649,603 |
| Lázaro Cárdenas | 2,500 | 4,522,007 | 2,597,025 | 3,645,609 | 10,764,641 |
| Veracruz | 2,000 | 3,730,959 | 2,142,720 | 3,007,872 | 8,881,551 |
| Altamira | 1,000 | 2,129,432 | 1,222,950 | 1,716,733 | 5,069,115 |
Source:T21 Business Intelligence with ITPAP data Created with Datawrapper
Manzanillo accounts for the largest amount, with an estimated 13.6 million pesos daily, considering an average flow of 3,700 units. It is followed by Lázaro Cárdenas, with 10.8 million pesos and 2,500 vehicles; Veracruz, with 8.9 million pesos and 2,000 units; and Altamira, with 5.1 million pesos daily and around 1,000 vehicles.
Projecting these impacts based on the operational days considered during August, the associated cost amounts to 414.9 million pesos monthly in Manzanillo, 327.2 million pesos in Lázaro Cárdenas, 270 million pesos in Veracruz, and 154.1 million pesos in Altamira.
More than an effectively recorded accounting loss for companies, the exercise allows for dimensioning the resources committed due to delays. An additional hour not only prolongs a unit's stay: it keeps capital, operator, and operational resources occupied, while reducing the truck-tractor's capacity to complete other transport cycles. That relationship between time and cost is what allows us to understand why efficiency within ports transcends their facilities and ultimately impacts the rest of the logistics chain.
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 1 hour, 9 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 5 seconds less; while waiting time dropped from 3:31:13 to 3:09:04, a reduction of 22 minutes and 9 seconds.
The distribution, however, maintains a pattern that has been repeated throughout the year. In August, customs accounted for 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.
The most significant change occurred in Manzanillo. After registering the longest time among the four facilities in July, at 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 staged a turnaround 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 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 brought the indicator down.
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.
In Altamira, the average increased from 9:36:28 in July to 13:09:39 in August, an increase of 3:33:11, placing 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 once 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.
The reading becomes more relevant when hours are translated into economic resources. For road transport, port productivity does not end when an indicator improves or worsens: every minute a unit remains engaged conditions the utilization of an asset, the operator's available time, and the possibility of completing new trips. This relationship between time and cost is what allows us to understand why efficiency within ports transcends their facilities and ultimately impacts the rest of the logistics chain.
