Bulk containers along Interstate 35

I-35 runs from Laredo at the Mexican border to Duluth, through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Des Moines and the Twin Cities. It splits in two at Dallas-Fort Worth and again at Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Its metros had 147,019 warehousing jobs in 2025, 7.7% of the US total, more than any other corridor we cover; Dallas-Fort Worth alone had 82,593 and Kansas City 20,676. Food manufacturing had 69,817 jobs. Meat and poultry plants in Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota sit within a few hours of the road.

Trade with Mexico gives the corridor its own kind of loop. Containers that cross the border full have to come back, and the cost of the empty trip over hundreds of miles is where a high return ratio pays. A tall collapsible at 3.3:1 brings back the empties of more than three trucks in one.

I-35 runs from Laredo on the Mexican border north through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Des Moines to Duluth. It is a trade route: trucks carry parts and finished goods between plants in Mexico and the US interior. Laredo's crossings handle a large share of that trade. Distances are long, so returning empties folded saves real money.

In Texas, it runs through Austin's tech and electronics plants. In Minnesota it splits into branches through Minneapolis and St. Paul before rejoining.

Oklahoma City, on the way, is where I-35 crosses I-40, a route running coast to coast from Barstow to Wilmington.

Along I-35 buyers run cross-border parts loops through Laredo, food plants in Texas and Kansas, and distribution centres in Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City and Des Moines. Long hauls make folded height the first question.

Through Oklahoma and Kansas it crosses wheat and cattle country, with beef and flour plants near the road.

Duluth, at the northern end, ships iron ore and grain through the Great Lakes, and Des Moines has insurance offices beside meat and egg plants. Between San Antonio and Austin the road is lined with new distribution centres built in the last few years. A loop that runs Monterrey to Minneapolis covers more than a thousand miles each way.