63.1% of trucking carriers operate a single truck
We analyzed the reported fleet size of 191,068 FMCSA-registered motor carriers in Texas and Utah. The median carrier runs one truck, and 91.1% run five or fewer. American trucking is an owner-operator business wearing a corporate logo.
Based on 191,068 carriers. Last updated June 2026. Free to cite (CC BY 4.0).
Key takeaways
- Of 191,068 carriers with a reported fleet size, 63.1% operate exactly one truck.
- The median U.S. carrier runs 1 truck. The mean is 3.9, pulled up by a small number of large fleets.
- 91.1% of carriers run five trucks or fewer. Only 651 carriers (about 0.3%) run more than 100.
- 28.7% of registered carriers run interstate; the other 71.3% operate intrastate only.
- 6.2% are hazmat-certified, and the most common cargo is general freight at 49.0% of carriers.
Methodology
We computed these figures from the public-domain FMCSA Company Census File, using every active carrier registered to a Texas and Utah address in our directory (211,751 records as of June 2026). Texas and Utah are the two state slices live on HaulAtlas, and Texas alone is one of the largest carrier populations in the country.
Fleet size is the carrier's reported power units, the count of trucks and tractors on its MCS-150 filing. We did not use the census fleetsize field, which is a bucketed letter code rather than a number. We excluded records with a blank, zero, or implausible power-unit count: anything above 3,000, or any count more than 40 times the reported driver total plus 60. That filter drops obvious self-report errors, like a two-driver hotshot outfit claiming six figures of trucks, and leaves 191,068 carriers (90% of records) with a usable fleet size. The 20,683 excluded records are reported separately and never folded into the percentages.
The median and the bucket shares are calculated only from those 191,068 usable records. Hazmat, interstate, and cargo shares are calculated against all 211,751 records, since those fields don't depend on a clean fleet count. Annual mileage uses the most recent MCS-150 figure, with values over 5,000,000 miles dropped as data-entry errors; we report the median rather than the mean because a handful of bad filings skew the average. Census data is self-reported and refreshed periodically, so treat it as a snapshot of registrations, not a real-time fleet census. The numbers recompute on every site build.
Fleet-size distribution
| Fleet size | Carriers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 truck (owner-operator) | 120,584 | 63.1% |
| 2 to 5 trucks | 53,538 | 28.0% |
| 6 to 20 trucks | 12,875 | 6.7% |
| 21 to 100 trucks | 3,420 | 1.8% |
| More than 100 trucks | 651 | 0.3% |
Counts cover the 191,068 carriers that report a usable power-unit count (of 211,751 total records). Power units are the trucks and tractors a carrier lists on its FMCSA MCS-150 form.
The trucking industry is mostly one person and one truck
Picture a trucking company and you probably picture a yard full of tractors. The data says otherwise. 63.1% of the 191,068 carriers we looked at operate exactly one power unit, and the median carrier across the whole sample runs a single truck. Half the industry, give or take, is one driver who owns one truck and answers to nobody.
The mean fleet size is 3.9, which sounds bigger until you see what's holding it up. A few hundred large fleets drag the average above the median, the way a handful of billionaires lift the average net worth of a room. 651 carriers run more than 100 trucks. They move a lot of freight, but they're a rounding error in the carrier count: about 0.3% of registered companies.
Five trucks or fewer covers almost everyone
91.1% of carriers run five trucks or fewer. That's the real shape of the market. The owner-operators and the two-to-five-truck shops that grew out of them are the customers, the competitors, and the capacity. If you sell factoring, insurance, fuel cards, or an ELD, you're selling to a micro-business, not a logistics enterprise, and the pitch that lands for a 200-truck fleet falls flat for a guy doing his own dispatch from the cab.
It also explains why the industry is so sensitive to fuel and rates. When 91.1% of carriers have no balance sheet to absorb a bad quarter, a spot-rate dip or a diesel spike doesn't trim margins. It parks trucks. The fragmentation that makes trucking competitive is the same thing that makes it fragile.
Most of these trucks never leave the state
71.3% of registered carriers operate intrastate only, against 28.7% that run interstate. The long-haul, cross-country image of trucking is the minority case in the registration data. Most carriers are running local and regional work, hauling general freight (49.0% of carriers) and other close behind. Hazmat is a specialist's game: only 6.2% carry the certification.
So who wins in a market this fragmented? Whoever makes life easier for the one-truck operator. The broker who pays fast, the insurer who underwrites a single owner-operator without a fight, the fuel-card that works at every truck stop. Scale lives with the shippers and the brokers. The carriers stay small, stay independent, and stay the hardest customers in freight to reach one at a time.
Most common cargo types
| Cargo | Carriers | Share of all carriers |
|---|---|---|
| General Freight | 103,715 | 49.0% |
| Other | 60,714 | 28.7% |
| Construction | 31,152 | 14.7% |
| Building Materials | 30,921 | 14.6% |
| Machinery, Large Objects | 22,484 | 10.6% |
| Grain, Feed, Hay | 13,609 | 6.4% |
| Logs, Poles, Beams | 12,754 | 6.0% |
| Metal: sheets, coils, rolls | 12,684 | 6.0% |
Carriers can select multiple cargo categories on the MCS-150, so shares add to more than 100%. Share is of all carriers in the sample.
Frequently asked questions
How many trucks does the average trucking company own?
The median FMCSA-registered carrier owns one truck. Across 191,068 carriers in Texas and Utah, 63.1% operate a single power unit and 91.1% run five or fewer. The mean is 3.9 trucks, but that average is pulled up by a small number of large fleets, so the median is the more honest figure.
What percentage of trucking carriers are owner-operators?
63.1% of carriers in our sample operate exactly one truck, the clearest proxy for an owner-operator. Counting everyone running five trucks or fewer, 91.1% of carriers are micro-fleets. Large fleets of more than 100 trucks make up about 0.3% of registered carriers.
How many trucking companies have more than 100 trucks?
In this sample, 651 carriers run more than 100 power units, roughly 0.3% of all registered carriers. They move a disproportionate share of freight but are a tiny share of the company count.
What share of carriers run interstate versus intrastate?
28.7% of registered carriers operate interstate and 71.3% operate intrastate only. The cross-country, long-haul image of trucking is actually the minority of registrations.
What is the most common cargo type for trucking carriers?
General Freight is the most common, carried by 49.0% of carriers, followed by other (28.7%) and construction (14.7%). Only 6.2% are hazmat-certified.
Where does this trucking data come from?
Every number is computed from the public-domain FMCSA Company Census File, the registration dataset the U.S. Department of Transportation publishes for motor carriers. HaulAtlas is an independent directory and is not affiliated with the FMCSA. The data is self-reported by carriers, so it reflects registrations rather than a real-time fleet count.
Cite this study
These numbers are free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). If you reference them, please link back so readers can check the method.
Explore the underlying data
These figures come from the carrier records behind HaulAtlas. Browse the full directory by Texas and Utah, or read the other research and the data methodology.