Knight-Swift CEO says cabotage enforcement could tighten cross-border trucking capacity

Cross-border trucking capacity could get tighter as U.S. enforcement of cabotage rules ramps up, Knight-Swift CEO Adam Miller told FreightWaves in a report published Nov. 1. Miller spoke at the WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida.

Cabotage is the movement of domestic freight between two U.S. points by a foreign carrier or driver, which federal law restricts. A Mexican driver may deliver a load into the U.S. and return to Mexico, but may not pick up and deliver freight inside the country.

What Miller said

Miller told FreightWaves that Knight-Swift is seeing drivers lose U.S. visas over alleged violations committed while working for other carriers. Knight-Swift runs its Mexican operation through its TransMex subsidiary, and FreightWaves reports that the carrier keeps strict compliance policies. Miller said the extra scrutiny could discourage some Mexican drivers from entering the U.S. at all.

"We're seeing the enforcement really ramp up on cabotage," Miller said, according to FreightWaves. He added that this kind of capacity is likely to "get a little bit tighter," and he called tariffs "a big unknown" for customers who are adjusting their transportation plans.

How big the crackdown is

The numbers depend on who is counting. In a FreightWaves report dated June 23, Augusto Ramos Melo, president of Mexico's trucking chamber Canacar, said the U.S. revoked work visas for about 20,000 Mexican drivers between April 2025 and April 2026, a figure he attributed to the American Trucking Associations. In the same report, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said about 3,200 Mexican commercial drivers have lost visas since January for cabotage violations alone.

Those figures cover different periods and different violations, so they should not be added or compared directly. FreightWaves also reported that Canacar says the driver losses are already tightening U.S. capacity and adding upward pressure on rates, though the chamber has not put a number on the effect.

What it means for carriers

Carriers that run Mexican drivers should audit how those drivers are dispatched. A load that moves between two U.S. points can put a driver's visa at risk, even if the driver started in Mexico. Because Miller said revocations have followed alleged violations at previous employers, carriers should also ask about a new driver's history before putting them on a cross-border lane.

What shippers and brokers should watch

Border lanes that rely on drop-and-hook at the crossing, with a U.S. driver taking the trailer on, are less exposed than lanes where a Mexican driver runs deep into the U.S. Brokers booking the second kind of lane may see fewer bids and more fall-through. Ask carriers how they handle the U.S. leg before tendering, and build in extra time if the answer is unclear.

None of the sources quantify a rate impact yet, so treat the capacity warning as a risk to monitor, not a forecast.