HaulFMCSA Carrier Registry Report — September 2026
As of 2026-09-21, the FMCSA Company Census lists 2,233,486 active motor carriers, with 18,487 newly registered in the 30 days ending 2026-09-21.
A monthly readout of U.S. trucking-company churn, built entirely from public FMCSA data. As of 2026-09-21, the federal Company Census carries 2,233,486 active motor carriers. In the 30 days ending 2026-09-21, 18,487 carriers newly registered (4,402 in the past week). Because HaulReport keeps a daily history of the federal data, we can also track carriers whose registration goes inactive — a status change, not a confirmed business closure.
The headline numbers
Two different lenses: the stock figures (active and inactive carrier totals) are point-in-time counts of the whole federal register, while the flow figures (newly registered, went inactive) measure change over the last 30 days from our daily history. 11,103 carriers moved from active to inactive in the window, while 3,036 reactivated.
Registrations by state (last 30 days)
Show data table
| State | Newly registered | Went inactive | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2,279 | 1,256 | +1,023 |
| California | 1,947 | 1,272 | +675 |
| Florida | 1,605 | 807 | +798 |
| Georgia | 852 | 572 | +280 |
| New York | 793 | 280 | +513 |
| Pennsylvania | 767 | 475 | +292 |
| Ohio | 672 | 435 | +237 |
| New Jersey | 663 | 487 | +176 |
| Illinois | 647 | 463 | +184 |
| North Carolina | 610 | 510 | +100 |
| Minnesota | 439 | 0 | +439 |
| Michigan | 393 | 186 | +207 |
Net change is new registrations minus carriers going inactive. A positive number means the state’s share of the federal register grew over the period. Registration is concentrated in the largest trucking states, but every state sees a steady stream of new entrants each month.
What “inactive” does and does not mean
An inactive FMCSA operating status is a registration record, not a verdict on a business. A carrier is marked inactive when it lets its biennial MCS-150 update lapse, is administratively deactivated, merges, or genuinely exits — and a meaningful share later reactivate. We deliberately report carriers “going inactive,” never “going out of business,” and these figures are public FMCSA records, as reported, which can lag real-world events.
Go deeper
This report synthesizes several HaulReport datasets. For the full picture see our trucking industry statistics (the active fleet), new trucking companies by state, and the inactive-carrier totals. For live, carrier-level movement, follow the daily FMCSA carrier activity feed, the newly registered carriers feed, and carriers going inactive.
Frequently asked questions
- How many trucking companies are registered with the FMCSA right now?
- As of 2026-09-21, the public FMCSA Company Census lists 2,233,486 active motor carriers. A further 2,260,182 carriers are marked inactive (about 50.3% of the 4,494,845 carriers ever registered).
- How many new trucking companies registered in the last 30 days?
- 18,487 carriers were newly added to the FMCSA Company Census in the 30 days ending 2026-09-21, including 4,402 in the past week. A new census registration is the earliest public signal that a trucking company exists — it is the front door to operating authority, not an authority grant itself.
- Does “going inactive” mean a trucking company went out of business?
- No. “Inactive” is an FMCSA registration status. A carrier is marked inactive when it lets its biennial MCS-150 update lapse, is administratively deactivated, merges, or genuinely exits — and many later reactivate. It is not proof of a business closure or bankruptcy, so we report carriers “going inactive”, never “out of business.”
- Where does this report get its numbers?
- Active and inactive totals come from the public FMCSA Company Census (dataset az4n-8mr2). The 30-day new-registration and going-inactive counts come from HaulReport's own daily snapshot history of that census, which lets us measure change over time. All figures are public records, as reported, and may lag.