Colombia just released its cargo-truck registration figures for the first half of 2026, and they come with strong growth that almost everyone is reading as good news for logistics. Here we are going to argue the opposite, or at least add a caveat: the number filling the headlines matters far less than a detail almost nobody is looking at, and that detail is the one that will move your freight next year.
Every time these figures come out, almost everyone reads them the same way: the sector is recovering, more vehicles are being bought, good news. And yes, some of that is true. But when you move cargo every day, the number that matters is not how many trucks came in, it is what kind of trucks they are. That is the conversation that actually hits the importer’s and the exporter’s wallet.
The figures reported by Fenalco and the Andi for the first half of 2026 are nice to look at. Nationwide, 9,641 new cargo vehicles were registered, almost double the 5,082 from a year earlier. In Bolívar, the department of Cartagena, registrations rose 17.1%, and in June the jump was huge: from 6 to 23 units. As a signal of installed capacity, it is welcome news. More new trucks on the road means more muscle to pull cargo out of the ports toward the interior and less risk of running short on fleet during peak season.
EThe data almost nobody looks at: 98% diesel
That is where the applause ends. The figure that makes us raise an eyebrow is a different one: 97.7% of those new vehicles run on diesel. Natural gas, barely 1.7%. Electric, 0.5%. In other words, the sector is renewing itself, but renewing itself tied to the same old fuel. And that has a direct consequence worth stating plainly: buying more trucks does not make freight cheaper or more stable. It leaves it just as exposed to the price of diesel, or more.
That nuance completely changes the optimistic reading. In a country where diesel prices are under upward pressure because of the fiscal hole in the fuel price stabilization fund, having a fleet that is new but 98% diesel means armoring yourself in capacity while staying uncovered on cost. The “more trucks” picture is reassuring; the fine print says the cost of moving your cargo next year will be decided at the fuel pump, not at the dealership.
What this means for anyone moving cargo
For importers and exporters, the practical conclusion is that the size of the national fleet does not protect your margin. What protects it is how you structure the transport contract, how you plan routes, and how far ahead you anticipate fuel adjustments before they reach the rate. Celebrating the unit count is easy; planning around diesel is what separates an operation that withstands a price hike from one that suffers it.
At Fenix Global Cargo we see this news less as an automotive-sector bulletin and more as a reminder. The useful question is not how many trucks were bought, but what they will run on. As long as that answer stays almost entirely diesel, the serious work in logistics is not adding vehicles: it is managing the cost those vehicles drag along.
