Methodology & data sources

HaulAtlas search, city directories and enhanced carrier profiles are built from the FMCSA Company Census File, a public-domain dataset published by the U.S. Department of Transportation and refreshed regularly.

What we show

• Legal name & DBA, USDOT number, physical location
• Operation type (interstate / intrastate) and for-hire / private classification
• Fleet size (power units) and driver count, self-reported on the carrier's MCS-150
• Registered cargo types and most recent reported mileage

What we don't fabricate

MC/docket numbers, active operating authority status, safety ratings and insurance-on-file are maintained in FMCSA's separate licensing and safety systems, not the census file. HaulAtlas shows cached values only when the separate source was checked; otherwise it explicitly links to the carrier's official SAFER snapshot rather than treating missing enrichment as a negative status.

Data quality

Census fields are self-reported by carriers, so some are out of date or contain errors. We sanitize obviously implausible fleet numbers and always point you to the official source for decisions that matter. Data current as of October 2026.

City hubs and profile indexing

• Fleet sanitising. A power-unit count is treated as unusable when it is 0 or missing, above 3,000, or more than 40 × the reported drivers + 60.
• City grouping. Carriers are grouped by physical-address city: case-folded, punctuation dropped, "Ft" read as "Fort", a trailing state code dropped, and abbreviations expanded at the start of the name (St → Saint, Mt → Mount, N → North, S → South, E → East, W → West) and at the end (Cty → City, Spgs → Springs, Spg → Springs, Hts → Heights, Sta → Station, Mtn → Mountain, Vly → Valley, Vlg → Village, Pk → Park, Pt → Point, Jct → Junction, Cy → City, Hls → Hills, Grv → Grove, Brnch → Branch). Spellings that match once spaces are removed, such as "Sugarland" and "Sugar Land", are one city. These spellings are mapped by name: "BALCH SPRING" → Balch Springs; "BEAR RIVER" → Bear River City; "CARROLTON" → Carrollton; "CORP CHRISTI" → Corpus Christi; "DALLS" → Dallas; "DRIPPING SPRING" → Dripping Springs; "EDINGBURG" → Edinburg; "FORT FORTH" → Fort Worth; "FORTH WORTH" → Fort Worth; "FREDERICKSBRG" → Fredericksburg; "GAINSVILLE" → Gainesville; "GRAND PRAIRE" → Grand Prairie; "GRAND PRARIE" → Grand Prairie; "GRANDBURY" → Granbury; "HERBER CITY" → Heber City; "HOUTON" → Houston; "HUSTON" → Houston; "JARREL" → Jarrell; "NORTH RICHLAND" → North Richland Hills; "NORTH RICHLND HILLS" → North Richland Hills; "NORTH SALT LAKE CITY" → North Salt Lake; "ODESA" → Odessa; "PROVIDNCE VILLAGE" → Providence Village; "ROSENBURG" → Rosenberg; "ROYCE CITY" → Royse City; "SAN ANTONO" → San Antonio; "SEQUIN" → Seguin; "SLC" → Salt Lake City; "SOUTH SALT LAKE CITY" → South Salt Lake; "SULPHER SPRINGS" → Sulphur Springs; "WEST JORDEN" → West Jordan; "WEST VALLEY" → West Valley City; "WOODLANDS" → The Woodlands; "WVC" → West Valley City. A spelling joins a city only if at least 75% of its records use a ZIP code that the city's main spelling also uses. Each city page names the other spellings it counts, and the old pages for those spellings redirect to it.
• Shares. Fleet-size shares use carriers with a usable power-unit count; every other share uses all active carriers in the city.
• For-hire and private. For-hire counts every carrier whose classification includes authorized or exempt for-hire; "Private carriers" (shown as "Private only (not also for-hire)") counts carriers classified private and not also for-hire.
• MCS-150 currency. An MCS-150 update within 730 days of the census date.
• New registrations. Census add_date in the 30 days to the census date.
• Authority grants. FMCSA authority-history rows with reason "Granted" in the window, any authority type including broker and freight-forwarder authority, joined by USDOT number.
• Cargo. The census file publishes Building Materials and Construction as two columns with identical values in all 218,057 Texas and Utah records, so HaulAtlas reports them as one category. The census file publishes Refrigerated Food and Meat as two columns with identical values in all 218,057 Texas and Utah records, so HaulAtlas reports them as one category.
• Profile index rule. A carrier profile is indexable when the carrier is in the active census, has an MCS-150 update within 24 months, and has at least 1 verified field beyond the census, each checked within 60 days: active operating authority with a docket number, or BIPD insurance on file (both FMCSA L&I), or at least one roadside inspection in the SMS 24-month window. Profiles that do not meet it stay published and linked but are marked noindex. Profiles that do not meet it but showed search demand stay indexable: at least 1 click or 10 impressions in Google Search in the 120 days to October 3, 2026, from a one-time list that is not extended.
• Inspections and crashes. From the FMCSA Safety Measurement System: inspection totals from datasets 4y6x-dmck (interstate and hazmat carriers) and h9zy-gjn8 (intrastate non-hazmat carriers), crashes from 4wxs-vbns, over a 24-month window, re-checked every 28 days. Profiles show out-of-service counts as "N of M" inspections and add a rate only with at least 10 inspections. An out-of-service rate is the share of inspections in which a vehicle or driver was placed out of service. With few inspections, one result moves the rate a lot. FMCSA crash records include crashes regardless of fault. None of these figures is a safety rating.

Cargo-type pages

• Flatbed. For-hire carriers that list at least one cargo class usually hauled on open-deck (flatbed or step-deck) trailers: metal sheets, coils and rolls; logs, poles and beams; machinery and large objects.
• Refrigerated. For-hire carriers that list the cargo class Refrigerated food / meat. The census file publishes Refrigerated Food and Meat as two columns with identical values in all 218,057 Texas and Utah records, so HaulAtlas reports them as one category.
• Heavy Haul. For-hire carriers that list the cargo class Machinery, Large Objects, the closest census class to heavy-haul work. The census does not record oversize or overweight permits or trailer types.
• Oilfield. For-hire carriers that list the cargo class Oilfield Equipment.
• What the census records. FMCSA records the cargo classes a carrier ticks on its MCS-150, not its trailers or trucks, so these groupings are HaulAtlas's. A carrier can list many classes, so a listing shows what it says it will haul, not the equipment it runs. Building materials / construction is left out of flatbed: the census publishes it as one column with Construction, so it cannot separate building-material loads on open decks from other construction hauling.
• Which pages exist. A state page for each type, and city pages for the 31 Texas and Utah cities that people search for by name when looking for trucking companies (search-volume data from October 2026; the weekly refresh does not extend this list). A city page is built only with at least 10 carriers.
• Verified carriers and indexing. A verified carrier has a HaulAtlas profile that passes the profile index threshold: active in the census, an MCS-150 update in the last 24 months, and at least one record checked against FMCSA in the last 60 days (operating authority with an MC number, insurance on file, or roadside inspections). A cargo page is indexable with at least 5 verified carriers; others stay published and linked, marked noindex. A cargo page that is no longer built redirects to its city or state page.