INDUSTRIAL CAPSULE: ROAD PASSENGER AND

FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN MEXICO

01 Feb 2012
OVERVIEW
 The Mexican market for road passenger and freight transport grew by 98% over the review period, in line
with the rising spread of road transportation services. In 2008, Mexico’s road transport was ranked sixth by
the volume of goods transported by road vehicles, measured in millions of metric tonnes times kilometres
travelled, and eighth in the world by the number of passengers transported by road times kilometres
travelled.
 The road network in Mexico has an extent of 366,095km, of which 132,289km is paved, making it the
largest paved road network in Latin America. Of these, 6,279km are multi-lane expressways. The reviewed
market was valued at Mx$1.2 trillion in 2011, representing 7% annual growth over the review period.
Households’ expenditure constitutes the majority of the market – 73% in 2011 – and doubling in value
terms since 2000. Businesses, with a 23% market share in 2011, represent a rather less lucrative business
segment for road freight service providers, although road freight services remains one of the principal
means of transporting goods within the country, especially to more remote areas. The 2008-2009 recession
forced many people to reduce their expenditure on personal mobility and change their means of
transportation. According to the Commuter Pain Survey 2009, about 60% of Mexico City residents changed
their behaviour due to the crisis. They started to car pool with other members of the family, friends,
colleagues and neighbours and to switch from cars and taxis to cheaper means of transport, such as buses,
electric buses and trains. Furthermore, travelling by car will continue to be the most convenient and safest
way for people to get around, despite traffic congestion and the rising costs associated with the ownership
of a car, including gasoline, parking permits, parking services, car insurance, repair services and federal
taxes. In the near future, Mexicans will continue to favour compact cars because of their lower prices, but
vans will continue to grow in popularity among families because they can accommodate larger families.
 The Mexican industry for road passenger and freight transport has three categories: passenger services;
freight services; and other transport services. The most lucrative category is freight services, generating
63% of the total turnover in 2011. Scheduled transportation generated a 37% share of the revenues, whereas
non-scheduled routes were almost non-existent in 2011. All in all, total turnover of the industry was
Mx$1.2 trillion in 2011, an increase of 102% since 2000. With Mexico, after Brazil, being the second most
populous country in Latin America, with more than 113 million inhabitants in 2011, up from 103 million in
2004, combined with the recovering Mexican economy, this suggests that there is tremendous potential for
all of the categories of the industry over the medium term. Road freight services play a huge role in the
region’s economy as trucks are the most abundant type of freight transportation.
 The Mexican industry of road passenger and freight transport numbered 26,311 companies in 2011. During
the review period, this figure decreased by 6%. The total number of employees working in the industry
went the same way, decreasing by 6% to 1,733,026 by the end of 2011. The fall in both company and
employee numbers was mainly due to the global economic downturn in 2008-2009. Companies faced
financial difficulties and therefore had to sack employees, while some smaller companies terminated their
activities altogether. Most abundant in the industry are micro-sized companies (73%). The largest share of
turnover is generated by large enterprises, accounting for 48% of total turnover, followed by medium-sized
companies with a 30% share in 2011. Given that 1% of companies pocketed nearly half of the industry’s
total revenues, it can be concluded that the industry is heavily concentrated. Nevertheless, this 1% makes up
261 companies, which suggests the industry is a lot more competitive than an oligopoly. Some of the
companies in the reviewed industry are ETN, UNO, ADO and Estrella Blanca, mostly associated with
passenger transportation, and Empresa de Servicio Público Federal de Transporte de Carga General Lauro
Villar (TGLV), dealing with freight transportation.

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 MARKET DEMAND

PRODUCTION OUTPUT

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 PRODUCER SHARES

PRODUCER PROFITABILITY

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 PRODUCTION FORECASTS

DEFINITIONS
 Category: I - Transport, storage & communications
 Division: 60 - Land transport & pipelines
 Group: 602 - Road passenger and freight transport
This group includes:

Scheduled transportation:
 activities providing urban or suburban transport of passengers on scheduled routes following normally a
fixed time schedule, picking up and setting down passengers at normally fixed stops. They may be carried
out with motor bus, tramway, streetcar, trolleybus, underground and elevated railways, etc.
 activities providing interurban transport, except by rail, of passenger on scheduled routes following
normally a fixed time schedule, picking up and setting down passengers at normally fixed stops
 operation of school buses, town-to-airport or town-to-station lines, funicular railways, aerial cableways, etc.

Non-scheduled routes:
 other non-scheduled passenger road transport: charters, excursions and other occasional coach services
 other renting of private cars with operator

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 Freight transport by road:
 freight transport operation by road: logging haulage; stock haulage; refrigerated haulage; heavy haulage;
bulk haulage, including haulage in tanker trucks including milk collection at farms; examples are (bulk)
transports of waste from transhipment locations to final treatment locations, transport of manure, sludge or
polluted soil
 furniture removal
 renting of trucks with driver
 freight transport by hand or animal-drawn transport
Exclusions: ambulance transport; operation of terminal facilities for handling freight; post and courier
activities; waste transport as indissoluble part of waste collection activities carried out by specialised
enterprises; passenger transport by inter-urban railways; log hauling within the forest, as part of
logging operations; crating and packing services for transport.

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