Lanes & Local
The Texas Produce and Border Freight Calendar
May 2, 2026 · 10 min read
Texas moves more refrigerated freight than almost any other state, and a large share of it never grew here — it crosses at Laredo and Pharr and gets reloaded through Dallas–Fort Worth. If you ship anything temperature-controlled out of Texas, the border and harvest calendar sets your rates.
Laredo is the busiest land port in the United States, and the produce crossing season there drives reefer capacity across the entire Texas triangle.
The rough seasonal shape
Winter and early spring bring the heaviest Mexican produce crossings — tomatoes, peppers, berries, avocados and citrus — through Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley. Late spring adds Texas onions, melons and leafy greens. Summer is defined less by harvest than by heat, which pulls trailers onto continuous-run freight. Fall is retail peak, when dry van and reefer compete for the same tractors.
- December–April: peak Mexican produce crossings at Laredo and Pharr
- April–June: Rio Grande Valley onions, melons, citrus and greens
- June–September: heat-driven protect-from-heat freight and beverage volume
- September–December: retail peak pulls capacity toward dry van
What it does to capacity and rates
During peak crossing weeks, reefer trailers get pulled toward whichever commodity is paying the most that day. Non-produce shippers who need temperature control — beverage, dairy, pharma, protect-from-freeze — are competing with fresh product for the same trailers.
The practical response is to book earlier, widen pickup windows, and lock recurring lanes under dedicated agreements before the season rather than during it.
Planning moves that work
- Contract winter and spring reefer capacity in the fall, not in January
- Widen pickup windows to two days during peak crossing weeks
- Consolidate into full truckloads instead of frequent partials
- Pre-book dedicated trailers for facilities with fixed weekly volume
- Have set point, run mode and pre-cool specs in writing to avoid dock rejections