Trucking by State: Where Small Carriers Cluster

Why this matters. When you bid on a lane, you compete with every truck that can reach it. In some states most of those trucks belong to one-person businesses. In others, employers with drivers on payroll set the pace. The Census Bureau counts both, and the split is lopsided.

The national picture

In 2023 the data shows 879,215 nonemployer trucking firms next to 170,286 employer establishments. That makes 83.8% of the firms in the count businesses with no employees. The average payroll per employee across employer establishments was $61,111, and the average receipts per nonemployer firm were $114,222. Those are averages across every size, from a part-time operator to a large employer, so neither is a benchmark for a 10-truck fleet.

Where the one-truck businesses are

By count, three states stand out. Texas has 129,002 nonemployer trucking firms, California 104,485 and Florida 102,102. By share, Florida and Texas are also near the top, because the number of employers is small next to the number of owner-operators.

Source: Census County Business Patterns 2023 and Nonemployer Statistics 2023, NAICS 484. Share = nonemployer firms divided by nonemployer firms plus employer establishments.

Where employers carry more weight

The share runs from 94.1% in the District of Columbia, where the count is small, down to 59.9% in Hawaii.

The District of Columbia (94.1%) is left out as it is not a state. Source: same Census tables.

What receipts and payroll show

Receipts per nonemployer firm range from $84,997 in Rhode Island to $163,078 in North Dakota. Payroll per employee runs from $54,545 in South Dakota to $80,286 in Alaska. A fleet that sits in a high-receipts state is not automatically paid more per load, because Census assigns a business to the state of its tax address, and a carrier registered in one state can run most of its miles in another. These are tax-record averages, so a state number is a place to start a question and not a rate.

What it means for a 5 to 15 truck fleet

• Know who you compete with. In a state with a nonemployer share near 90%, many of the trucks near you are single-truck businesses. In a state near 60%, employers carry more of the freight.
• Check pay against the state. If your payroll per employee is far under the state figure, drivers have a reason to leave. Far above, see what it does to your cost per mile. The Census figure includes office staff and mechanics, so it is not a driver wage.
• Do not use an average as a rate. Receipts per firm blend a part-time operator and a full-time one. Your own cost per mile is the number that matters.
• Mind the year. These are 2023 counts and Census publishes about a year or more after the reference year. Re-check when a newer release is out.

How to read your own state

Look up your state in the sortable table and write down three figures: the nonemployer share, the payroll per employee and the receipts per nonemployer firm. Then put your own numbers next to them. If you run 8 trucks with 10 drivers and office staff, divide your yearly payroll by your headcount and compare it with the state figure. A gap in either direction is a prompt to check your pay and your cost per mile, not a verdict. Do the same for a neighbouring state where you load often, since a lane that crosses a border puts you in both labour markets at once.

Census assigns a business to a state by its tax address. Where a carrier registers and where it runs its miles can differ, so treat the state as the place the firm is counted, not the place it works.

Common questions

• What is a nonemployer firm? In Census data it is a business with no paid employees that is subject to federal income tax and has receipts. Many are owner-operators who work alone. The count comes from tax records, not a survey.
• Does this include private fleets? No. NAICS 484 covers for-hire and some contract trucking. Trucks run by a retailer or manufacturer for its own freight count in that business, not here.
• Can I compare my pay with the payroll per employee? Only loosely. The Census figure divides all payroll of trucking employers in a state by all their employees, including office staff, mechanics and part-year workers. It is not a driver wage.
• How small are the employers? In Illinois, 85.2% of employer trucking establishments have fewer than 5 employees, and in Florida 83.0%. In Hawaii it is 47.0%. Establishments are locations, not trucks, so this says little about fleet size.

Our trucking by state page has all 50 states and DC in one sortable table, a tile map and a calculator that puts your payroll and revenue next to your state. Want to know how your own loads compare with what you billed? Send us your last 20 loads.