Carrier Geography Analysis

Analysis

· as of August 15, 2026

The most counterintuitive pattern in this dataset is the disconnect between carrier count and fleet concentration. Florida has roughly half the carriers of California (193,053 vs. 379,535 as of August 2026) but reports more total power units: 8,343,548 versus 10,067,362 for California. That ratio — more trucks per carrier in Florida than the raw registration count would suggest — points to a materially different carrier composition. Florida's average fleet size of 47.6 power units per carrier is 39% above California's 34.2, consistent with a market where larger, multi-unit fleets dominate over owner-operators.

Georgia amplifies this pattern further. With 136,601 registered carriers, Georgia ranks fifth nationally by carrier count, yet its 7,221,748 total power units are nearly level with Texas's 7,189,976, despite Texas having 253,458 carriers — nearly twice as many. Georgia's average fleet size of 57.8 power units per carrier is the highest of any state with more than 100,000 carriers, which may indicate a concentration of dedicated contract and asset-heavy intermodal carriers tied to the Atlanta freight corridor.

Massachusetts presents an outlier case at the smaller-carrier-count end. Its 48,699 carriers average 96.7 power units each, a figure that is roughly 2.5 times the national median for comparably sized states. This likely reflects the presence of large, authority-holding entities registered in the state rather than a proportional concentration of operating drivers, given that its 691,361 total drivers do not scale proportionally with the power unit count.

The dataset also includes 115 jurisdiction codes, encompassing Canadian provinces, Mexican states, and US territories. These non-US registrations represent a small share of total carriers but confirm that FMCSA authority extends to cross-border operators under applicable bilateral agreements.

Across the full dataset of 2,758,849 registered carriers and 17,031,051 total drivers, the concentration pattern at the top has remained durable: the leading states by carrier count have consistently anchored freight capacity for well over a decade, and the gap between high-carrier-count states with small average fleets versus lower-count states with large average fleets reflects a structural bifurcation in the carrier market that predates the recent period covered by this data.