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50 Trucking Industry Statistics for 2026

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Rules, prices and device details on this page were checked October 2026 against the official sources listed at the bottom. Where a provider doesn't publish a number, we say so instead of guessing.

Most trucking stat roundups recycle the same numbers without saying where they came from. We did it the slow way. Every statistic below comes from a primary source, like ATA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, NHTSA, FMCSA, CVSA or an SEC filing, and the source is listed at the end of each section. Numbers were checked October 2026. Where a newer edition of a report isn't out yet, we say so.

Industry Size

  1. Trucks moved 11.27 billion tons of freight in 2024, down from 11.41 billion tons in 2023.
  2. Trucks carried about 72.7% of all US domestic freight tonnage in 2024.
  3. The trucking industry's gross freight revenue was about $906 billion in 2024.
  4. That was down from $1.004 trillion in 2023, a drop of roughly 10%.
  5. Trucking accounted for about 76.9% of US freight transportation revenue in 2024.
  6. ATA projects truck tonnage will reach 13.99 billion tons by 2035.
  7. ATA projects trucking revenue will reach $1.46 trillion by 2035.
  8. Rail's share of freight tonnage was 10.6% in 2024 and is projected to fall to 9.9% by 2035.
  9. There were 14.89 million single unit and combination trucks registered in 2023, about 5% of all registered motor vehicles.
  10. Single unit and combination trucks traveled 329.86 billion miles in 2023.
  11. Combination trucks alone traveled 195.76 billion miles in 2023.
  12. There were almost 580,000 active US motor carriers with at least one tractor as of June 2025.
  13. 91.5% of those carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks.
  14. 99.3% operate 100 or fewer trucks.
  15. Trucks carried 67% of the value of surface trade between the US and Canada in 2024.
  16. Trucks carried 85% of the value of surface trade between the US and Mexico in 2024.
  17. ATA's for hire truck tonnage index rose just 0.1% in 2025, the first annual gain since 2022.

Sources: ATA Economics and Industry Data, ATA American Trucking Trends 2025, ATA Freight Transportation Forecast 2024 to 2035. ATA's 2026 Trends edition wasn't published on its site when we checked.

Year on year change

The headline story of 2024 was a freight recession. Tonnage fell about 1.2% and revenue fell about 10% as rates stayed low. The 2025 tonnage index was basically flat. If you're running a small fleet, that's why margins have been so tight. More capacity chased roughly the same freight.

Drivers and Wages

  1. Trucking employed 8.4 million people in industry related jobs in 2024, excluding the self employed.
  2. That included 3.58 million truck drivers.
  3. Driver employment fell 0.8% from 2023 to 2024.
  4. The median annual wage for heavy and tractor trailer truck drivers was $57,440 in May 2024, or $27.62 an hour.
  5. The lowest paid 10% of those drivers earned less than $38,640.
  6. The highest paid 10% earned more than $78,800.
  7. In the truck transportation industry specifically, the median was $59,570.
  8. The median for all US occupations was $49,500, so heavy truck drivers earn about 16% more than the typical worker.
  9. BLS counted 2,235,100 heavy and tractor trailer truck driver jobs in 2024.
  10. BLS projects that number to grow 4% from 2024 to 2034, about as fast as average.
  11. BLS expects about 237,600 openings for heavy truck drivers each year, mostly from people retiring or changing jobs.

Sources: ATA Economics and Industry Data; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. ATA's driver count and BLS's job count differ because they use different definitions.

Safety and Crashes

  1. 4,807 people died in crashes involving large trucks in 2023, according to FMCSA's crash data, down about 11% from 2022.
  2. NHTSA's broader count, which includes all trucks over 10,000 pounds, put large truck crash deaths at 5,472 in 2023.
  3. FMCSA recorded about 156,553 police reported large truck crashes in 2023.
  4. Those crashes injured about 74,001 people.
  5. During CVSA's 2026 International Roadcheck, inspectors did 54,575 inspections in three days.
  6. 19% of vehicles inspected during Roadcheck 2026 were placed out of service.
  7. 5.8% of drivers inspected were placed out of service.
  8. Inspectors placed 10,350 vehicles out of service during Roadcheck 2026.
  9. They also placed 3,184 drivers out of service.
  10. No medical card was the top driver out of service violation, at 27%.

Sources: FMCSA Analysis and Information Online, NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts 2023 Large Trucks, CVSA 2026 International Roadcheck results.

Technology Adoption

  1. Samsara ended fiscal 2026 (Jan 31, 2026) with $1.89 billion in annual recurring revenue, up 30%.
  2. Samsara had over 12,000 customers paying at least $25,000 a year.
  3. Motive reported nearly 100,000 customers as of Sept 30, 2025.
  4. Motive's 2024 revenue was $370.5 million, about 91% of it from the US.
  5. Geotab reported nearly 6 million connected vehicle subscriptions worldwide in early 2026.
  6. The FMCSA registered ELD list held 936 device entries on Oct 23, 2026, by our count.

Sources: Samsara earnings release and 10K, Motive S1, Geotab press release, FMCSA ELD registry. See our ELD market share analysis for more.

ELD and Compliance Stats

  1. Log falsification under 395.8(e) was cited 98,292 times at roadside in 2025, the third most cited driver violation overall.
  2. "No log or wrong type of log" was cited 82,616 times, and 59% of those led to an out of service order.
  3. ELD form and manner violations under 395.24 were cited 76,623 times.
  4. Failure to review and certify logs was cited 65,809 times.
  5. The 11 and 14 hour limits under 395.3(a) were cited 57,571 times.
  6. Hours of service violations made up 23.4% of driver out of service violations at Roadcheck 2026, and inspectors issued 146 out of service orders specifically for ELD tampering.

Sources: J. J. Keller's analysis of FMCSA roadside inspection data for 2025; CVSA 2026 International Roadcheck results. For a deeper breakdown, see our HOS violation statistics.

Context Behind the Big Numbers

Raw statistics can mislead if you don't know how they were built, so here's some context for the most quoted figures.

Why ATA and BLS driver counts differ

ATA's 3.58 million figure counts people employed as truck drivers across the economy, including drivers at retailers, manufacturers and construction firms who drive trucks as part of the job. The BLS figure of about 2.24 million covers one occupation, heavy and tractor trailer truck drivers, and doesn't include light truck and delivery drivers. Neither number includes most owner operators who are self employed. If you see a stat claiming "3.5 million truckers," it's the ATA definition. If you see "about 2 million," it's BLS.

Why two crash death totals exist

FMCSA counts fatal crashes involving large trucks, defined as trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating above 10,000 pounds, using its own crash file. NHTSA uses its Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which can classify vehicles differently and is revised as records are finalized. That's why FMCSA shows 4,807 deaths for 2023 and NHTSA shows 5,472. Both agree the 2023 total was lower than 2022. Most people killed in these crashes were occupants of other vehicles, not the truck.

Why revenue fell more than tonnage

Tonnage measures how much freight moved. Revenue measures what shippers paid for it. In 2024, tonnage slipped about 1% while revenue fell about 10%. That gap is the freight recession in one sentence: plenty of trucks, soft demand and rates that stayed low. Carriers that came into the market during the 2021 boom felt this the hardest, and many have since closed their authority.

Why small carriers dominate the count

When 91.5% of carriers run 10 or fewer trucks, almost any carrier statistic is really a small business statistic. It's also why rules like the ELD mandate have such a big impact. A $30 monthly subscription is a rounding error for a 1,000 truck fleet. For a one truck owner operator netting a thin margin, it's a real line item, and so is every out of service order.

How to read out of service rates

Roadcheck out of service rates come from a focused three day blitz, so they're not the same as the year round rate. Inspectors during Roadcheck mostly do full Level I inspections, which find more problems than a quick walkaround. Still, the year to year comparison is useful because the method stays the same. A driver out of service rate of 5.8% in 2026 versus 5.9% in 2025 tells you driver compliance was roughly stable, even as the mix of reasons shifted from hours of service toward medical cards and English proficiency.

Where to find newer numbers

FMCSA's Analysis and Information Online portal updates inspection and crash data regularly. ATA posts its headline figures on its economics page. BLS updates wage and employment data every spring, and the Occupational Outlook Handbook projections every fall. CVSA releases Roadcheck results a few months after each June blitz. We check these sources when they update and refresh this page, so the numbers here stay tied to the latest official release.

Numbers we left out

You'll see claims online about a "driver shortage" of a specific size, average owner operator profit, or the share of fleets using a particular ELD brand. We left those out because we couldn't trace them to an official, current source with a clear method. If a number matters to a decision you're making, ask where it came from before you rely on it.

Stats Worth Watching in the Next Year

  • ATA's next Trends report. The 2025 edition covered 2024. The next edition will show whether 2025's flat tonnage turned into a recovery in revenue.
  • English proficiency enforcement. It became an out of service violation on June 25, 2025 and already made up 9.1% of driver out of service violations at Roadcheck 2026. Watch whether that share grows.
  • ELD tampering. CVSA made it a 2026 focus area. Expect more scrutiny of unexplained edits and gaps.
  • Driver pay. BLS publishes new wage data each spring. With freight flat, pay growth has been modest.
  • Technology spending. Samsara and Motive both grew much faster than freight volume, which means fleets keep spending on safety and video even in a soft market.

What These Numbers Mean for Your Fleet

Three takeaways stand out. First, trucking is still overwhelmingly a small business industry, which is why low cost ELDs and simple compliance tools matter so much. Second, log and hours violations remain among the most common reasons drivers get cited, even years after the ELD mandate. Most aren't about driving too long. They're about missing certifications, missing documents and unassigned time. Third, freight volume has been flat, so the fleets doing well are the ones cutting costs and avoiding downtime from violations.

If you want to keep your own numbers clean, our hours of service guide and ELD violations and fines guide are good next stops.

For drivers, the numbers point the same way. Pay has kept pace with the broader job market, openings remain steady because of retirements, and most roadside trouble comes from documents you can fix before you leave the yard. Keep your medical card, CDL and log records current and you avoid the three biggest causes of driver out of service orders.

Sources and How to Use These Stats

You're welcome to cite these statistics. Please link to the original source listed at the bottom of this page and to this page as the compiler. If you'd like a chart, the simplest one to build from this data is ATA's tonnage and revenue for 2023 and 2024 side by side. We'll update this list when ATA publishes its next Trends report and when FMCSA's next crash facts are released.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many truck drivers are there in the US?

ATA estimates 3.58 million truck drivers were employed in 2024. BLS counts 2.24 million heavy and tractor trailer truck driver jobs, using a narrower definition.

How much freight do trucks move?

Trucks moved 11.27 billion tons in 2024, about 72.7% of US domestic freight tonnage, according to ATA.

What do truck drivers earn?

The BLS median for heavy and tractor trailer truck drivers was $57,440 in May 2024.

What is the most common log violation?

In 2025 roadside data, log falsification under 395.8(e) was the most cited log related violation, with 98,292 citations.

Sources

All prices, terms and registration details were checked October 2026 on the pages below. Providers change pricing often, so confirm before you buy.