New trucking companies by state, April 2026
Over the three complete months to April 2026, FMCSA issued an average of 7,366 new USDOT numbers per month to for-hire carriers with operating authority, +30% versus the prior three months and +17% versus the same period a year earlier. The provisional count for August 2026 is 3,751, of which 2,270 (61%) registered a single power unit, the classic new owner-operator. The table ranks states by three-month average; each state page has 24 months of history.
The two most recent months are provisional: new carriers appear in the census with a lag and receive their MC docket weeks after the USDOT number. Month-to-month swings in 2026 also coincide with FMCSA's registration-system migration, so read trends on the three-month averages.
| # | State | 3-mo avg / month | vs prior 3 mo | vs year ago | August 2026 (prov.) | Active carriers | New per 1,000 active / mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 894 | +35% | +22% | 467 | 81,151 | 11.0 |
| 2 | California | 711 | +40% | +2% | 415 | 85,829 | 8.3 |
| 3 | Florida | 607 | +37% | +21% | 357 | 50,600 | 12.0 |
| 4 | Illinois | 384 | +32% | +33% | 209 | 36,278 | 10.6 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 368 | +26% | +29% | 192 | 28,707 | 12.8 |
| 6 | Georgia | 366 | +24% | +10% | 170 | 35,869 | 10.2 |
| 7 | Ohio | 329 | +30% | +24% | 157 | 27,688 | 11.9 |
| 8 | New Jersey | 302 | +24% | +21% | 143 | 23,318 | 13.0 |
| 9 | North Carolina | 254 | +19% | +10% | 127 | 24,885 | 10.2 |
| 10 | Indiana | 195 | +24% | +13% | 97 | 17,025 | 11.5 |
| 11 | New York | 188 | +38% | +13% | 84 | 19,059 | 9.9 |
| 12 | Michigan | 164 | +34% | +25% | 77 | 15,088 | 10.9 |
| 13 | Virginia | 158 | +31% | +21% | 72 | 14,265 | 11.1 |
| 14 | Maryland | 157 | +21% | +14% | 71 | 13,704 | 11.5 |
| 15 | Tennessee | 152 | +17% | +20% | 72 | 13,768 | 11.0 |
| 16 | South Carolina | 145 | +32% | +4% | 67 | 12,666 | 11.4 |
| 17 | Arizona | 133 | +28% | +28% | 67 | 12,610 | 10.5 |
| 18 | Minnesota | 121 | +30% | +28% | 66 | 14,646 | 8.3 |
| 19 | Washington | 117 | +43% | +15% | 48 | 15,296 | 7.6 |
| 20 | Alabama | 112 | +27% | +31% | 40 | 10,624 | 10.5 |
| 21 | Missouri | 112 | +7% | +13% | 63 | 12,558 | 8.9 |
| 22 | Colorado | 106 | +35% | +10% | 59 | 11,274 | 9.4 |
| 23 | Massachusetts | 106 | +20% | +10% | 45 | 10,037 | 10.6 |
| 24 | Kentucky | 103 | +39% | +29% | 53 | 8,499 | 12.1 |
| 25 | Wisconsin | 92 | +28% | +2% | 41 | 12,108 | 7.6 |
| 26 | Oklahoma | 87 | +41% | +30% | 41 | 8,207 | 10.6 |
| 27 | Mississippi | 82 | +34% | +13% | 38 | 7,612 | 10.8 |
| 28 | Connecticut | 75 | +56% | +6% | 35 | 6,163 | 12.2 |
| 29 | Utah | 67 | +40% | +29% | 23 | 6,554 | 10.3 |
| 30 | Nevada | 67 | +9% | -10% | 39 | 6,224 | 10.7 |
| 31 | Louisiana | 65 | +6% | +25% | 52 | 6,229 | 10.4 |
| 32 | Iowa | 57 | +9% | +37% | 33 | 9,628 | 5.9 |
| 33 | Oregon | 54 | +13% | +25% | 23 | 7,639 | 7.1 |
| 34 | Arkansas | 49 | +12% | +15% | 26 | 5,907 | 8.4 |
| 35 | Idaho | 47 | +45% | +33% | 24 | 5,223 | 9.0 |
| 36 | Kansas | 47 | +8% | +8% | 25 | 6,343 | 7.4 |
| 37 | Nebraska | 44 | +2% | +26% | 17 | 6,495 | 6.7 |
| 38 | New Mexico | 42 | +43% | +22% | 10 | 4,100 | 10.3 |
| 39 | Delaware | 28 | +0% | -25% | 18 | 2,705 | 10.2 |
| 40 | Wyoming | 26 | +34% | +49% | 16 | 2,640 | 10.0 |
| 41 | Rhode Island | 22 | +60% | +5% | 6 | 1,605 | 13.9 |
| 42 | New Hampshire | 20 | +69% | +15% | 18 | 1,977 | 10.3 |
| 43 | Montana | 20 | +26% | +13% | 8 | 2,747 | 7.2 |
| 44 | North Dakota | 19 | +2% | +7% | 9 | 3,376 | 5.7 |
| 45 | South Dakota | 19 | +32% | +49% | 5 | 3,025 | 6.4 |
| 46 | West Virginia | 17 | +28% | +4% | 11 | 2,177 | 7.7 |
| 47 | Maine | 15 | +42% | +13% | 6 | 2,224 | 6.6 |
| 48 | Vermont | 7 | +31% | +62% | 6 | 886 | 7.9 |
| 49 | District of Columbia | 7 | +122% | +122% | 2 | 334 | 20.0 |
| 50 | Alaska | 6 | +350% | +20% | 1 | 705 | 8.5 |
| 51 | Hawaii | 1 | -60% | -85% | 0 | 316 | 2.1 |
National trend, last 24 months
| Month | New carriers | With ≥1 power unit | Single-truck |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2026 (provisional) | 3,751 | 3,489 | 2,270 |
| July 2026 (provisional) | 7,497 | 7,024 | 4,553 |
| June 2026 (undercounted) | 3,113 | 2,938 | 1,858 |
| May 2026 (undercounted) | 3,980 | 3,399 | 2,625 |
| April 2026 | 7,596 | 6,344 | 5,348 |
| March 2026 | 7,818 | 6,630 | 5,657 |
| February 2026 | 6,685 | 5,735 | 4,826 |
| January 2026 | 6,774 | 5,770 | 4,880 |
| December 2025 | 5,186 | 4,380 | 3,597 |
| November 2025 | 5,096 | 4,477 | 3,738 |
| October 2025 | 6,205 | 5,426 | 4,538 |
| September 2025 | 6,061 | 5,211 | 4,242 |
| August 2025 | 6,282 | 5,379 | 4,402 |
| July 2025 | 6,298 | 5,399 | 4,299 |
| June 2025 | 5,830 | 5,071 | 4,043 |
| May 2025 | 5,945 | 5,215 | 4,088 |
| April 2025 | 6,106 | 5,316 | 4,160 |
| March 2025 | 6,840 | 5,912 | 4,610 |
| February 2025 | 5,928 | 5,241 | 3,990 |
| January 2025 | 5,846 | 5,104 | 3,841 |
| December 2024 | 4,433 | 3,886 | 2,874 |
| November 2024 | 4,401 | 3,847 | 2,866 |
| October 2024 | 5,010 | 4,326 | 3,200 |
| September 2024 | 4,748 | 4,134 | 3,037 |
For the narrative version with fastest-growing states, entry rates, an embeddable chart and open JSON, see The State of Carrier Entry.
May 2026 and June 2026 are undercounted. FMCSA moved carrier registration to a new system on 2026-05-14 and stopped writing the MC docket into the census for several weeks. This series counts carriers that carry a docket, so those months show roughly half their true entries; the underlying registration rate did not change. The headline averages on this page skip them, and the monthly table marks them. Treat any average spanning the cutover as a floor rather than a measurement.
Method
Counts are active carriers in the FMCSA Company Census whose USDOT number was issued in the month shown, restricted to US-based entities holding an MC docket (for-hire authority). Because carriers that later go inactive drop out of the census, older months understate the original entry count slightly; treat the most recent 3 months as the cleanest read. Source: FMCSA Company Census File via data.transportation.gov (public domain), reloaded monthly. Free to cite with a link.
Last updated 2026-09-08 · first published 2026-09-07. Data sources are listed on each page; see About for methodology.