Trucks carried 73.9 billion dollars of the freight that crossed between the US and Mexico in Aug 2026, according to figures the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) published on 21 Oct 2026. That's 78% of the month's 94.3 billion total, by our arithmetic. Freight in both directions was up 26.7% from Aug 2025.
US-Mexico freight by mode, August 2026
Billions of dollars, both directions
The figures are in current dollars, not adjusted for inflation, so some of the rise in value may come from prices rather than volume.
Rail a distant second
Rail carried 8.5 billion dollars of US-Mexico freight in Aug, ships 5.5 billion, planes 3.4 billion and pipelines 0.9 billion. The remaining 2.1 billion sits in BTS's other categories, by our arithmetic. Trucks also led over the full year. In 2025, they carried 73.6% of the 872.8 billion dollars of freight between the two countries, according to the BTS annual report published on 15 May 2026.
Two borders, two mixes
The northern border moves its freight differently. Of the 66.3 billion dollars that crossed between the US and Canada in Aug, trucks carried 35.2 billion, about 53%, by our arithmetic. Pipelines carried 9.3 billion there, against 0.9 billion on the Mexican border. US-Canada freight was up 17.1% from Aug 2025, a smaller rise than on the Mexican side.
Laredo first
BTS names Laredo, El Paso and Otay Mesa as the top truck ports for freight with Mexico. The port of Laredo, Texas, handled 37.7 billion dollars of freight in Aug across all modes, the most of any port on either border, according to BTS, and about 40% of all US-Mexico freight, by our arithmetic.
BTS publishes these figures every month; the next release covers Sep. The long record: why-mexico.com.
Sources
- BTS, North American Transborder Freight valued at 160.6 billion dollars in August 2026 (BTS 26-79), 21 October 2026
- BTS, Transborder Freight Data Annual Report: 2025, 15 May 2026
- Wikipedia, Laredo, Texas (context), 1 November 2026
Figures checked at their original sources on 1 November 2026. See an error? Corrections.