Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Statistics 2026: Fleet Size, Costs, and Earnings
The defining number for American trucking: 91.5% of US carriers operate ten trucks or fewer. A verified, citable data page on small-fleet size distribution, operating costs, earnings, and insurance, with primary sources and access dates.
The one number that defines small-fleet trucking
91.5% of US motor carriers operate ten trucks or fewer.12 That single figure, from FMCSA's carrier census and published in ATA's American Trucking Trends 2025, describes how freight actually moves in the US better than any headline about total tonnage or industry revenue. American trucking is not a business of giants. It is roughly 580,000 small companies, and the median one owns exactly one truck.2
That is also why small-fleet numbers are so hard to find. Most published trucking statistics describe the industry in aggregate, where a few hundred large carriers skew every average. A single-truck owner reading that the industry earned $906 billion in 2024 learns nothing useful about their own cost per mile, their insurance bill, or what they can expect to take home. The real small-fleet data exists, but it is scattered across the FMCSA carrier census, ATRI's annual cost study, BLS wage tables, and private accounting datasets. This page collects those figures in one place and cuts every one of them to the owner-operator and small-fleet view.
Fleet-size distribution: how 91.5% of carriers operate ten trucks or fewer
This is the defining statistic, and the census data backs it up. FMCSA's Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) census, reflected in ATA's 2025 Trends report, breaks the carrier population down by fleet size. The distribution is heavily weighted toward the smallest operators.
Table 1. US carrier population by fleet size (91.5% operate ten trucks or fewer). Source: FMCSA carrier census, December 2023, via ATA American Trucking Trends 2025.12
| Fleet size (power units) | Share of registered carriers | Cumulative share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 truck | ~53% | ~53% |
| 2 trucks | ~16% | ~69% |
| 3 to 10 trucks | ~22% | 91.5% |
| 11 to 100 trucks | ~7% | 99.3% |
| More than 100 trucks | ~0.6% | 100% |
The cumulative column shows the pattern. Roughly two-thirds of all carriers operate two trucks or fewer, 91.5% operate ten or fewer, and 99.3% never cross 100 power units. Fewer than 1% of carriers are the large fleets that dominate the revenue charts. If you run one to twenty trucks, you are a typical US carrier, not an outlier.
If you are still weighing whether to get your own authority, our how to start a trucking business guide walks through the registration, insurance, and capital steps behind these numbers.
How many owner-operators and small carriers exist, and how fast they turn over
There is no official government tally of owner-operators, because FMCSA registers carriers, not business models. The closest proxy is the single-truck bucket, about 53% of all carriers. On top of those independents with their own authority, hundreds of thousands more drivers own a truck but lease it to a larger carrier, so they never appear as a separate carrier in the census.12
The population also turns over hard, especially during the freight recession that began around mid-2023. FMCSA operating-authority data reported by Trucking Dive shows the for-hire carrier count still shrinking into late 2024, with a net decrease of 2,636 for-hire carriers in the third quarter of 2024, even though the active population remained roughly 92,000 firms above its February 2020 level.5 Gross revocations run far higher than that net figure, because new-authority grants offset most of them, but the direction is clear. For a prospective small-fleet owner, that context matters: entering during a downturn is survivable, but only with a firm handle on cost per mile and cash flow.
Small-fleet economics: cost per mile and where the money goes
The authoritative cost benchmark is ATRI's An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update, built from 2024 data covering 178,091 truck-tractors over 14.08 billion miles.3
Table 2. Average marginal cost per mile, 2024. Source: ATRI 2025 Update.3
| Cost component | Cost per mile (2024) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total marginal cost | $2.260 | Down 0.4% year over year |
| Non-fuel operating cost | $1.779 | Record high, up 3.6% |
| Fuel | $0.48 | ~21% of total; down 7 cents from 2023 |
| Truck & trailer payments | $0.39 | Record high, up 8.3% |
| Driver benefits | $0.197 | Up 4.8% |
Two things matter for a small fleet here. First, non-fuel cost is at a record even though fuel eased, so a rate that pencils on cheap diesel can still lose money once payments, insurance, and maintenance are counted. Second, these are industry averages that include large carriers with fleet discounts. Small fleets routinely run above them. That is why controlling your own numbers matters: run your figures through our cost per mile calculator, and if cash flow is the constraint, compare factoring and fuel cards, the two levers small operators use most to get through tight-rate cycles.
What drivers and owner-operators earn
Company driver wages and owner-operator net income are different measurements and should never be quoted interchangeably.
Table 3. Driver pay vs. owner-operator net income. Sources: BLS OES 53-3032 (May 2024); ATBS benchmarking (2024-2025).46
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Company driver, median annual wage | $57,440 | BLS, May 2024 |
| Company driver, mean annual wage | $58,240 | BLS, May 2024 |
| Heavy/tractor-trailer drivers employed | ~2.07 million | BLS, May 2024 |
| Owner-operator gross revenue (typical) | $200,000 to $350,000 | Industry |
| Owner-operator net income (average) | ~$64,524 | ATBS, 2024-2025 |
| Owner-operator net income (typical range) | $60,000 to $120,000 | Industry |
The gap between a $250,000 gross and a $65,000 net is where fuel, maintenance, insurance, the truck payment, and deadhead miles all come out. For the full breakdown, see owner operator salary and owner operator expenses.
Small-fleet insurance costs
Insurance is one of the largest fixed costs a small carrier carries, and new authorities pay the most.
Table 4. Typical annual insurance cost, owner-operator with own authority. Source: 2025-2026 market rate aggregates.8
| Coverage | Typical annual cost per truck |
|---|---|
| Primary liability ($1M) | $8,000 to $15,000 |
| Total premium (all required coverages) | $11,000 to $17,000 |
| High-risk / new-authority operations | $20,000+ |
Premiums swing on state of domicile, cargo, operating radius, driver record, and years in business. A three-year-old fleet with a clean record in a low-cost state can pay half what a brand-new authority hauling reefer in a litigious state pays. Compare current options on our commercial truck insurance page before you commit to an authority.
The market a small fleet operates in
For context, here are the whole-industry numbers a small fleet works within. In 2024, trucks moved 11.27 billion tons of freight, more than 72% of domestic freight tonnage, and the industry collected $906 billion in revenue.2 Separately, FMCSA's Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts 2022, the latest full edition, recorded 5,837 large trucks involved in fatal crashes.7 What a crash like that does to a small carrier's insurance and CSA score is broken down on our truck accident statistics page. For a one-to-twenty-truck operator, the size of these totals matters less than a simpler fact: this freight is available to small carriers who can find and price it. Where that freight gets sourced is covered on our load boards page.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What percentage of US trucking companies are small fleets?
- The vast majority. According to ATA American Trucking Trends 2025, drawing on FMCSA carrier census data, 91.5% of US motor carriers operate ten trucks or fewer, and 99.3% operate fewer than 100 power units. About 53% are single-truck operations. In practical terms, American trucking is roughly 580,000 small businesses, not a handful of mega-carriers. When a policymaker or reporter describes trucking as dominated by large carriers, the census data says the opposite: the median carrier owns one truck, and the small-fleet segment moves most of the freight.
- How much does it cost to operate a truck per mile in 2026?
- The most recent benchmark comes from ATRI's An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update, using 2024 data. The average marginal cost was $2.26 per mile, essentially flat year over year. Stripping out fuel, non-fuel operating cost hit a record $1.779 per mile. Fuel averaged $0.48 per mile, about 21% of total cost and down 7 cents from 2023. Truck and trailer payments reached a record $0.39 per mile. Small fleets often run above these averages because they lack the fuel discounts, maintenance contracts, and financing terms that large carriers negotiate.
- How much do owner-operators actually make after expenses?
- Gross revenue and take-home pay are very different numbers. Owner-operators commonly gross $200,000 to $350,000 per truck annually, but net income after fuel, maintenance, insurance, and the truck payment is far lower. ATBS, which manages the books for thousands of owner-operators, reported an average net of roughly $64,524 for 2024-2025, up about 2.5% year over year. Most independents land between $60,000 and $120,000 net, depending on freight type, fuel efficiency, deadhead miles, and expense control. For comparison, the BLS median wage for company heavy and tractor-trailer drivers was $57,440 in May 2024.
- How many owner-operators and small carriers are there in the US?
- There is no single clean government count of owner-operators, because FMCSA registers carriers, not business models. What the data shows is that about 580,000 authorized interstate for-hire carriers were active per ATA American Trucking Trends 2025, and roughly 53% of all registered carriers operate a single truck. That single-truck bucket is the closest proxy for owner-operators. Layering in leased owner-operators who run under a larger carrier's authority pushes the real count of independent truck owners into the hundreds of thousands, though those drivers do not appear as separate carriers in the census.
- How much is commercial truck insurance for an owner-operator?
- Insurance is one of the largest fixed costs a small fleet carries. An owner-operator running under their own authority typically pays $8,000 to $15,000 per year for $1 million in primary liability, the federal minimum for most general freight. Add physical damage, cargo, and other required coverages and total annual premiums commonly run $11,000 to $17,000 per truck, with some operations paying north of $20,000. Cost swings hard on state of domicile, cargo type, operating radius, driver record, and years in business. New authorities almost always pay the top of the range for their first few years.
- Why is small-fleet trucking data so hard to find?
- Because most published trucking statistics describe the whole industry, not the small operator. Headline figures like total freight tonnage or industry revenue are dominated by a few hundred large carriers, so they tell a single-truck owner very little about their own economics. The small-fleet numbers exist, but they are scattered across FMCSA's carrier census, ATRI's cost study, BLS wage tables, and private accounting datasets like ATBS. This page pulls those threads together and cuts every figure to the small-fleet and owner-operator view, so the numbers reflect the businesses that make up 91.5% of the industry.
Sources & References (8)
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), 2024 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics (carrier census data as of December 2023), fleet-size distribution and carrier counts.
fmcsa.dot.gov ↗American Trucking Associations (ATA), American Trucking Trends 2025: 91.5% of carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks; 99.3% operate fewer than 100 power units; ~580,000 authorized carriers; $906 billion in revenue; 11.27 billion tons; 72%+ of domestic freight tonnage (2024).
trucking.org ↗American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update (2024 data): $2.26 average marginal cost per mile; $1.779 non-fuel; $0.48 fuel; $0.39 truck/trailer payments.
truckingresearch.org ↗U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 53-3032 Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, May 2024: median annual wage $57,440; employment ~2.07 million.
bls.gov ↗FMCSA operating-authority (grants, revocations, reinstatements) data as reported by Trucking Dive, Q3 2024: net decrease of 2,636 for-hire carriers in the third quarter of 2024; roughly 92,000 more authorized for-hire firms than in February 2020.
truckingdive.com ↗ATBS owner-operator financial benchmarking (cited via industry reporting): average net income ~$64,524 for 2024-2025, up ~2.5% year over year; typical net range $60,000-$120,000.
truckstop.com ↗FMCSA, Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts 2022: 5,837 large trucks involved in fatal crashes (latest full edition).
fmcsa.dot.gov ↗Commercial truck insurance market rate ranges for owner-operators with their own authority (2025-2026 industry aggregates): $8,000-$15,000 annually for $1M primary liability; $11,000-$17,000 total per-truck premiums.
atob.com ↗