Local Specialized Freight Trucking Revenue Benchmark

Average Local Specialized Freight Trucking Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every local specialized freight trucking company with paid employees, including dump truck, flatbed, tanker, refrigerated and auto carrier operators, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of carriers gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,733,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $57.5 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 33,175 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,733,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Local, NAICS 484220. The category covers local hauling of freight that needs specialized equipment, such as dump trucks, flatbeds, tank trucks, refrigerated trucks and auto carriers. General freight trucking and household goods moving are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 4842: 484210 Used household and office goods moving; 484230 Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Long-Distance. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Specialized freight trucking, NAICS 4842, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 48.7 to 52.0 percent. This benchmark covers Specialized freight trucking, NAICS 4842, as a whole, and this category accounts for 33,175 of the 55,770 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Local, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 25.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share because specialized trucks and trailers are expensive to buy and maintain and because leased drivers paid outside the payroll are common in this trade.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes equipment financing, fuel, permits, insurance and payments to owner-operators, which together carry most of what a hauler spends.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Local, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 7.2 people, and the industry counted 1.0 employer establishments per firm. A hauler of that size runs several trucks with drivers and a dispatcher, and the establishments per firm figure shows a trade made up almost entirely of independent single-location companies.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Local Specialized Freight Trucking: why the equipment behind the load defines this benchmark.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Which kind of specialized freight? A dump truck company hauling aggregates for road builders, a tanker fleet serving farms and a car hauler serving dealerships share this category but differ in equipment, customers and seasons. The average blends trades that rarely compete with each other.
• How tied is the work to construction? Dump trucks and flatbeds follow construction and road-building activity, which rises and falls with the economy, weather and public budgets. A hauler serving one large contractor has a very different risk from one serving many shippers.
• What does the equipment cost? Dump bodies, tankers, refrigeration units and multi-car trailers cost far more than a standard van trailer and wear hard in local service. Equipment financing and maintenance are the heaviest costs of the trade and sit outside a revenue figure.
• Are the drivers owner-operators? Many haulers lease trucks and drivers from owner-operators who are paid a share of the load rate rather than a wage, which lowers the payroll share and shifts capital risk to the driver. The staffing model behind a carrier's figure varies widely.
• Which permits and rules apply? Hazardous materials endorsements for tankers, weight and axle rules for dump trucks and oversize permits for heavy loads add cost and limit which jobs a carrier can take. Compliance varies by state and by cargo.
• How is the work priced? Hourly rates for dump trucks, per-load rates for aggregates, per-mile rates for flatbeds and per-vehicle rates for auto carriers produce different revenue for the same day of driving. The pricing model behind a hauler's receipts is not visible in the average.