U.S. Border Freight Transportation Resiliency

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Data spotlights are static stories that represent data and statistics for a specific time period. They do not reflect ongoing data collections. Individual spotlights are static stories and are not subjected to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS) website standards. They may not be updated once they have been published. Please contact BTS for updated information.

In 2023, BTS (Bureau of Transportation Statistics) will participate in a data-based study of the U.S. Canada border with Transport Canada. The binational working group’s primary task was to identify the land border ports most vulnerable to disruptions in international freight flows and transportation. The group used border crossing counts and freight dollar values to 1) rank order the land ports in order to identify potential bottlenecks along the U.S. Canada border crossings and 2) develop a framework to measure risk to help promote a resilient border.

In 2023, the U.S. will have $773.9 billion total freight flows with Canada via all modes of transport. Trucking accounted for the largest share (56%) of total bidirectional cargo with Canada, with $435.7 billion. Rail was in second place (15%) at $113.9 billion.

BTS’ Office of Transportation Analysis used in-house resources, including the North American TransBorder freight and Border Crossing databases to develop objective statistics for freight to analyze and rank ports along the Northern Border with Canada.

BTS, after further analysis, found that the dollar amount of U.S. cargo flows with Mexico in the year 2023 was higher (798.8 billion dollars) than the dollar amount with Canada. BTS therefore expanded its analysis framework to include ports along the Southern Border at the same capacity. Trucking accounted for 70.2% of the $798.8 Billion in total bidirectional cargo flows with Mexico in 2023. Rail was in second place at 11.9%, at $95.4 Billion.

The following figures and table provide a combined view from BTS’ TransBorder data and Border Crossing that was used by the Joint Border Working Group to develop the port ranking. TransBorder data started to show an interesting trend since 2022. The dollar value of freight between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as its weight, was increasing faster than that between the U.S. and Canada.


U.S. Canada Freight by Truck and Rail

Top Ten Land Ports Along the U.S.-Canada Border: 2022-2023 (Truck + rail, Millions USD)






Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services





Top 10 truck ports along the U.S.-Canada Border: 2022-2023 (Millions of USD)






Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services





Top 10 rail ports along the U.S.-Canada Border: 2022-2023 (Millions of USD)






Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services





Risk Assessment Ranking: Top U.S. – Canada Freight Crossings: 2023


U.S. Mexico Freight by Truck and Rail

Top 10 Land Ports Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: 2022-2023 (Truck + rail, Millions USD)






Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services





Top Ten Truck Ports Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: 2022-2023 (Millions of USD)






Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services




Top 10 rail ports along the U.S.-Mexico border: 2022-2023






Note: Rail shipments of Mexico to St. Louis, Port Huron and other districts are marked with CBP customs clearance districts.









Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services





Top 10 Commodities in U.S. – Mexico Freight by Rail 2023






Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services





Risk Assessment Ranking: Top U.S. – Mexico Freight Crossings: 2023






Note: Colors indicate levels of risk: red is high; yellow is moderate; and green is low. Estimates of two-way truck crossings are based on the doubling of one way counts.




Sources: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Freight Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/myhq-rm6q, adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade in Goods and Services, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Border Crossing/Entry Data, available at https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/jswi-2e7b

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