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Inbound trucks from Mexico at the World Trade Crossing International Bridge in Laredo, Texas. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

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Trucking companies along the southern border faced increased freight and heightened uncertainty as the threat of tariffs loomed over the first quarter, according to industry experts.

President Donald Trump has made tariffs a cornerstone of his foreign trade agenda, but experts have warned of their potential economic impacts. The result was uneven freight demand as companies braced for his main round of global tariffs April 2. This also comes after recent years of heavy investments accompanying the nearshoring boom.

Businesses gained a reprieve April 9 when Trump announced that he was pausing all tariffs set in place two days earlier, with the exception of hiking the tax rate on imported goods from China to 125%.

“You’ve seen a large increase in overall volumes,” said Hamish Woodrow, head of strategic analytics at transportation management company Motive. “Then fast forward to the end of last year, what we’re seeing is obviously the acceleration of all this fear, in essence, of the tariffs coming in, driving people to try and lock in the current price arrangements that they have by bringing in as much inventory as possible.”

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Motive released a report showing trucking activity during the first quarter surged 48.5% year over year in Laredo, Texas, a city notable for cross-border trade. The report concluded this was driven by companies trying to beat the expected tariffs and ongoing nearshoring trends. The activity was even more concentrated toward the tariff deadline, with it peaking March 31.

“In essence, we’re bringing forward a lot of inventory,” Woodrow said. “That’s why, I think, overall this year, with the volatility that we’re seeing, seasonal trends are off. These decisions are being made in the light of current information available. Right now, we’re seeing a reactionary period where, especially through that first quarter, and especially in March, you saw as much inventory try and come in as possible.”

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Woodrow added that this caused what would’ve been a normal decline coming out of the holiday shipping period to remain stable. He also pointed out that this increase is being borrowed from future freight demand.

“The current rapid pace of tariff and trade policy changes is unrivaled,” said Kerry Byrne, president of Total Quality Logistics. “We’ve seen tremendous demand for our customs services from importers seeking guidance to ensure compliance and execute their supply chain strategies. We anticipate continued changes and are working closely with regulatory agencies and importers to move with agility in this fluid environment.”

The reported that the year started strong with transborder freight increasing 8.2% to $134.4 billion in January with the trucking segment representing $87.6 billion. The agency hasn’t released data for the following months, but demand increases and uncertainty reportedly continued.

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“Over the last two months, we have gone through one of the most stressful situations in years with uncertainty being the main factor, leaving companies with little clarity to plan properly,” said , managing director of cross-border operations for Sunset Transportation. “There was a huge desire from most of our customers for additional tariffs not to go into effect.”

Minarro added that many of these customers are in manufacturing and are struggling to prepare their value chains given the current environment. Some even faced problems with their own customers and suppliers being too optimistic the tariffs would be postponed last minute.

“We had to cross shipments prior to the deadline, and due to the difference in time zones, that was very tricky,” Minarro said. “We also saw longer lines than usual trying to cross trailers at the border. Our customs staff worked during the weekends to make sure that our customers’ trailers were not at the end of the waiting line on Monday before the due dates.”

Minarro also pointed out that customers stopped shipping at different points depending on when select tariffs were expected to land before the main round April 2.

“Everybody has been very nervous,” said Miguel Perez, senior director of cross-border operations for TA Services. “First quarter, we didn’t know what to make of it. We would read the news or see the news, and we would see one declaration from the government or the president, and then we would hear another one. We were always trying to get an idea of what was trying to be accomplished. Everybody didn’t know what to make of it.”

Perez stressed that uncertainty is the main problem, especially with the investments already made in nearshoring. Much of the confusion has centered on whether the tariffs would happen. He noted that the resulting rush of companies that were slow to move until the final days caused a backlog at Laredo.

“Everybody tried to export as much as they could,” Perez said, “so that just created a huge crowd for the customs on the Mexican side, the customs on the U.S. side, the roads being flooded. It was just a total traffic mess at the border.”