Draylo Data · updated monthly from the federal census
How many trucking companies are there in the US?
As of July 2026, FMCSA's registration census contains 4,111,726 entities registered with a motor-carrier designation — out of 4,468,278 registered entities of all types. Of those, 26,448 also hold freight broker authority — the carrier-broker hybrids at the center of double-brokering risk.
Definition matters: this counts every registered carrier — interstate for-hire, private fleets, and exempt operations. FMCSA's commonly cited "active motor carrier" figures are a smaller operational subset; the FAQ below explains the difference. We recompute this from the complete federal file — 4M+ rows — on the 2nd of every month.
Monthly trend
| Month | Registered carriers | New registrations | hybrid at registration | New (frame diff) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 · to date | 4,111,726 | 4,684 | 8 | — |
| June 2026 | — | 15,398 | 40 | — |
| May 2026 | — | 16,055 | 68 | — |
| April 2026 | — | 16,065 | 108 | — |
| March 2026 | — | 16,734 | 98 | — |
| February 2026 | — | 14,006 | 83 | — |
| January 2026 | — | 14,132 | 78 | — |
| December 2025 | — | 11,023 | 65 | — |
How many trucking companies are there in the United States?
As of July 2026, FMCSA's registration census contains 4,111,726 entities with a motor-carrier designation — every registered trucking operation: interstate for-hire carriers, private fleets, and exempt haulers. This page recomputes the count monthly from the full federal census file.
Why is this number so much higher than FMCSA's 'active motor carriers' figure?
Different definitions, both correct. FMCSA's commonly cited active-carrier figures count carriers with recent operating activity and active interstate for-hire authority. The registration census counts every entity REGISTERED with a carrier designation — including private fleets hauling their own goods, intrastate and exempt operations, and registrations that have gone dormant without being purged. If you need 'trucks competing for freight,' the smaller figures fit; if you need 'entities registered as motor carriers' — the population that vetting, insurance, and fraud analysis draw from — it's the census count on this page.
Can a trucking company also be a freight broker?
Yes — and it's common: 26,448 entities in the current census hold BOTH carrier and broker authority. It's legal (they can haul freight on their own trucks and broker loads to other carriers), but it's also the classic double-brokering risk surface: when a carrier with broker authority accepts your load, verifying who actually hauls it matters. To our knowledge, this hybrid count isn't published anywhere else.
How many new trucking companies start each month?
In June 2026, 15,398 entities carrying motor-carrier authority were added to the federal census (counted by registration date), of which 40 registered broker authority at the same time — new carrier-broker hybrids. An entity registering both authorities appears in this count and in the broker formation count on our freight-brokers page, because it genuinely joined both populations. The trend table shows recent months, including the current month to date; formation varies with the freight economy.
Where does this data come from?
Directly from FMCSA's public registration census — the federal record of every registered motor carrier, broker, and freight forwarder. We archive the full multi-million-row file monthly and count entities by the authority designations their registrations carry. No estimates, no third-party aggregators.
Method: counts computed from FMCSA's public registration census (full file, archived monthly). "Carrier designation" = registrations whose carrier/shipper type includes motor-carrier operations; hybrids hold both carrier and broker authority. Citing this page? Link to it — the numbers update monthly. · See also: How many freight brokers are there? · More Draylo research