Maersk has fixed its temporary inland fuel surcharge in Mexico at 2% of the inland haulage rate, passing higher fuel-related costs on to shippers moving containers to and from Mexican rail and road legs.

The carrier attributed the adjustment to rising fuel costs linked to the evolving situation in the Middle East. The surcharge is explicitly framed as temporary, but Maersk will review it monthly and may introduce further changes depending on market conditions — a signal to shippers and forwarders that the 2% level should be treated as a floor rather than a fixed number.

For shippers, the immediate commercial effect is a direct increase in landed door-move costs for any Mexican booking that includes Maersk-arranged inland transport. Importers and exporters using third-party trucking or rail under their own contracts will not see the charge. Forwarders booking on behalf of clients should flag the surcharge in quotations now, given the monthly review cycle leaves little certainty beyond the current billing period.

How the charge will appear

Maersk will show the surcharge on invoices under two codes: EFS (Export Fuel Surcharge) for outbound cargo and IFS (Import Fuel Surcharge) for inbound moves. Shippers reconciling invoices should watch for both line items on Mexican door shipments.

The timing rules differ by regulatory regime.

For non-FMC shipments, the Price Calculation Date is the estimated departure date of the first vessel shown in the latest booking confirmation. That means any booking revision that changes the first vessel can shift the calculation date and, with it, the applicable surcharge level — a detail freight buyers with volatile rolling schedules should track closely.

For FMC-regulated shipments, Maersk said the surcharge applies from 1 May 2026. In that case the Price Calculation Date is when Maersk or an authorised agent takes possession of the final container listed on the transport document — a later trigger point that gives US-bound or US-origin cargo with Mexican inland legs a longer lead time before the charge bites.

Import moves booked late

Maersk also closed a gap for import shipments where the inland leg is arranged only after the cargo departs its origin. For those moves, the price calculation will use the import shipment creation date. In practice, this means shippers who defer inland arrangements until cargo is already at sea will have the surcharge fixed at the level in force when the import shipment is created in Maersk's systems, not when the vessel sails.

The carve-out matters for Mexican import supply chains, where late inland booking is common on cargo with unresolved final destinations or warehouse slots. Those shippers effectively take monthly review risk on the surcharge until they commit the inland leg.

What it means commercially

The move follows a familiar pattern among carriers: geopolitical cost pressure in fuel markets converts quickly into mode-specific surcharges, in this case targeting the inland component rather than ocean freight itself. Because the surcharge is calculated as a percentage of the inland haulage rate rather than a flat per-container fee, its dollar impact will scale with distance and mode — heavier on long-haul rail and trucking moves into and out of Mexico's interior than on short port drayage.

Shippers with Mexican door moves should model the 2% against their inland spend now and monitor Maersk's monthly announcements for revisions. With the carrier explicitly reserving the right to change the level as market conditions evolve, the surcharge's trajectory will depend on fuel costs tied to Middle East developments and any further escalation that feeds through into diesel and bunker-adjacent pricing.