Data report · FMCSA Company Census File · Updated October 2, 2026

Where new trucking companies are starting

Every new for-hire carrier that registered a USDOT number in the last 24 months, by state and by month, from FMCSA’s own census of motor carriers. Refreshed from the source, sortable, downloadable and free to cite.

About 130,000 new trucking companies start a year: 130,187 new for-hire carriers registered a USDOT number from October 2025 through September 2026, +4.3% from the 12 months before (124,817). Texas, California and Florida had the most. These are new USDOT registrations by for-hire carriers, not new operating authorities (MC numbers).

Find your state Download the data (CSV)

By Sam Alishahi, independent insurance broker · Data through 2026-10-02

The last 12 months

October 2025 through September 2026, nationwide

130,187new for-hire carriers registered a USDOT number, +4.3% from the 12 months before (124,817)

66%of them listed a single power unit: most new trucking companies are one truck

35%were based in Texas, California and Florida

22%of the for-hire carriers that registered in October 2024 are already inactive

By state

The 15 states with the most new for-hire carriers

New USDOT registrations by carriers that list for-hire operation, October 2025 through September 2026, by the state of the carrier’s physical address.

By month

Registrations rise in spring and fall off at year-end

New for-hire registrations per month nationwide. The last 12 months are in blue. The busiest month in the last year was March 2026 (12,641); the year before it was March 2025 (12,340). The slowest month in the last year was November 2025 (8,084).

Survival

How many new carriers are still active

Share of each month’s new for-hire carriers whose USDOT status is inactive today. Of the carriers that registered from October 2024 through September 2025, 16% are already inactive.

What the data shows

New carrier formation is up 4.3% on the year. 130,187 for-hire carriers registered from October 2025 through September 2026, against 124,817 in the 12 months before.

Three states account for 35% of new carriers. Texas (18,366), California (14,279) and Florida (12,792) lead by a wide margin; next are Georgia (6,477), Pennsylvania (5,390), Ohio (5,109), Illinois (5,073).

Fastest growth: among states with at least 500 new carriers in the prior year, Nebraska (+20.3%), Pennsylvania (+13.3%), Louisiana (+12.8%), Michigan (+12.7%), Missouri (+12.5%). Declines: Arkansas (-4.9%), Alabama (-4.5%), North Carolina (-3.0%), Florida (-2.6%), Washington (-1.9%).

Most new trucking companies are one truck. 66% of new for-hire carriers listed one power unit on their registration, and 9,864 said they haul hazardous materials. A one-truck company still needs the same federal liability filing as a fleet before its authority goes active: what insurance a new trucking company needs.

Many don’t last. 22% of the for-hire carriers that registered in October 2024 show an inactive USDOT status today. The file doesn’t record why. Two causes a carrier controls: a USDOT number can be deactivated for a missed biennial update (find your update month), and for-hire authority depends on liability insurance staying on file with FMCSA (how the BMC-91X filing works).

The exit side of the same story, by state and year: trucking companies that lost their operating authority.

Use this chart

Free to use with a link back. Paste this into your page or article:

<a href="https://alishahiinsurance.com/new-trucking-companies-by-state"><img src="https://alishahiinsurance.com/data/new-trucking-companies-by-state.svg" alt="New for-hire trucking companies by state, October 2025 through September 2026" width="720" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><br><small>Source: <a href="https://alishahiinsurance.com/new-trucking-companies-by-state">Alishahi Insurance analysis of FMCSA data</a></small>

All states

Every state, sortable

Click a column to sort. Counts are new for-hire USDOT registrations; “One truck” is the share with a single power unit; “Hazmat” is the number that said they haul hazardous materials (both for the last 12 months).

Rank	State	Last 12 months	Year before	Change	Sep 2026	One truck	Hazmat
1	Texas	18,366	17,754	+3.4%	1,552	64%	1,097
2	California	14,279	13,848	+3.1%	1,139	72%	701
3	Florida	12,792	13,127	-2.6%	1,020	69%	1,173
4	Georgia	6,477	6,475	+0.0%	460	65%	469
5	Pennsylvania	5,390	4,758	+13.3%	462	67%	429
6	Ohio	5,109	4,745	+7.7%	425	67%	371
7	Illinois	5,073	4,549	+11.5%	420	68%	311
8	North Carolina	4,527	4,665	-3.0%	341	64%	335
9	New Jersey	4,277	4,049	+5.6%	331	68%	251
10	New York	3,675	3,404	+8.0%	308	58%	307
11	Indiana	2,872	2,917	-1.5%	200	67%	247
12	Michigan	2,780	2,467	+12.7%	219	63%	236
13	Minnesota	2,580	2,310	+11.7%	239	63%	124
14	Arizona	2,532	2,287	+10.7%	216	66%	222
15	Virginia	2,505	2,339	+7.1%	206	64%	219
16	Colorado	2,354	2,167	+8.6%	180	64%	217
17	South Carolina	2,351	2,323	+1.2%	184	67%	229
18	Maryland	2,348	2,291	+2.5%	185	64%	239
19	Tennessee	2,245	2,188	+2.6%	185	66%	217
20	Washington	2,010	2,048	-1.9%	172	64%	170
21	Missouri	1,976	1,757	+12.5%	136	61%	178
22	Wisconsin	1,833	1,658	+10.6%	139	61%	127
23	Alabama	1,807	1,892	-4.5%	154	66%	141
24	Massachusetts	1,692	1,519	+11.4%	152	64%	177
25	Oklahoma	1,546	1,423	+8.6%	110	63%	131
26	Kentucky	1,490	1,430	+4.2%	103	63%	171
27	Mississippi	1,213	1,198	+1.3%	99	66%	104
28	Louisiana	1,175	1,042	+12.8%	94	66%	86
29	Connecticut	1,159	1,151	+0.7%	114	65%	85
30	Iowa	1,084	981	+10.5%	82	65%	69
31	Utah	1,081	1,024	+5.6%	79	65%	117
32	Nevada	1,064	1,011	+5.2%	71	66%	88
33	Oregon	1,050	945	+11.1%	84	61%	116
34	Nebraska	849	706	+20.3%	67	62%	70
35	Arkansas	796	837	-4.9%	53	63%	55
36	Kansas	743	753	-1.3%	54	67%	62
37	Idaho	735	666	+10.4%	50	64%	65
38	New Mexico	694	670	+3.6%	60	68%	70
39	Delaware	420	481	-12.7%	38	63%	39
40	Wyoming	409	329	+24.3%	34	54%	40
41	Montana	369	329	+12.2%	22	57%	38
42	Maine	359	308	+16.6%	24	52%	24
43	North Dakota	348	312	+11.5%	23	57%	40
44	West Virginia	343	347	-1.2%	28	55%	44
45	New Hampshire	290	243	+19.3%	25	54%	48
46	South Dakota	286	216	+32.4%	22	57%	28
47	Rhode Island	282	262	+7.6%	19	70%	21
48	Hawaii	204	267	-23.6%	22	56%	24
49	Alaska	170	175	-2.9%	18	46%	17
50	Vermont	94	89	+5.6%	8	52%	13
51	District of Columbia	84	85	-1.2%	3	50%	12

Method and source

All counts come from FMCSA’s Company Census File, published on the Department of Transportation’s open data portal (Motor Carrier Registrations – Census Files; queried through the public API, data through 2026-10-02). A registration is counted in the month of its USDOT add date, in the state of the carrier’s physical address. “For-hire” means the carrier’s classification includes Authorized For Hire. The census keeps inactive carriers, so older months are not reduced by carriers that later stopped; the survival chart uses each carrier’s current status code (A active, I inactive). A USDOT registration is not the same as operating authority (an MC number): some registrants never activate authority. The 50 states and the District of Columbia are included; territories and foreign carriers are not.

Free to use. Please cite “Alishahi Insurance analysis of FMCSA Company Census data” and link to this page. Download the monthly table by state: CSV, 24 months, every state. Questions about the data: sam@alishahiinsurance.com.

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