Business Data & Benchmarks · United States

Long-Distance LTL Carrier Revenue Benchmark

Long-haul freight moved as less-than-truckload shipments, consolidated with other customers' freight through terminals.

NAICS 484122, 2022 editionUnited States data by defaultSources and dates shown

Average LTL Carrier Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every long-distance LTL carrier with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.

≈$5,677,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

11,571

Employer establishments in the United States, 2022

as published $65.7 billion

Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022

How this is calculated: about $65.7 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 11,571 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $5,677,000 per employer establishment. Terminal networks are what distinguish this from truckload hauling, and they show up in both the revenue and the staffing on this page.

Scope: General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Less Than Truckload, NAICS 484122. Classified separately in group 4841: 484110 General Freight Trucking, Local; 484121 General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Truckload. 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 July 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

General Freight Trucking, NAICS 4841, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

46.4%the year-five count as a share of the starting count

Five-year establishment continuation benchmarkLine chart of industry continuation: 72.6 percent at 1 year, 59.2 percent at 2 years, 55.4 percent at 3 years, 51.8 percent at 4 years, 46.4 percent at 5 years. 10,442 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.100%75%50%25%0%2014-2018 cohort range: 43.6 to 49.2 percentStart: 100 percent, the starting count1 year: 72.6 percent of the starting count2 years: 59.2 percent of the starting count3 years: 55.4 percent of the starting count4 years: 51.8 percent of the starting count5 years: 46.4 percent of the starting count72.659.255.451.846.4Start1 year2 years3 years4 years5 years10,442 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.
Five years on, this industry group counted about 46 establishments aged five for every 100 that first reported paid employment in 2018. Census compares counts by age rather than following the same businesses, so read it as a broad continuation indicator for the industry group, not as a tracked survival rate.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 43.6 to 49.2 percent. This benchmark covers General Freight Trucking, NAICS 4841, as a whole, and general freight trucking, long-distance, less than truckload are 11,571 of the 117,343 employer establishments in that group. 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.

MeasureValue
Annual payroll share of receipts, United States≈30%

Payroll share of receipts, General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Less Than Truckload, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 30.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, higher than truckload hauling because freight is handled at terminals as well as driven.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes, payments to owner-operators and owner compensation, so the true cost of moving freight sits above this share.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

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

MeasureValue
Paid employees per employer establishment26.3
Employer establishments per firm1.51

Scale and ownership, General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Less Than Truckload, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 26.3 people, and the industry counted 1.5 employer establishments per firm. Terminal networks mean a single carrier operates many establishments, which this ratio reflects.

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.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Long-Distance LTL Carrier: how much one operator differs from another.

Before you rely on this benchmark

  • What does the terminal network cover? Coverage requires terminals, and a terminal that handles too little freight loses money while remaining necessary to the map.
  • What is the cost per handling? Freight is loaded, unloaded and reloaded several times, and each touch adds cost and damage risk that truckload hauling avoids.
  • Who checks the freight classification? Weight and class disputes change the price after the fact, and reweighing or reclassification can follow.
  • What is the capital cost of the network? Docks, doors and yard equipment are fixed costs that must be covered before the first shipment is profitable.
  • How is dimensional pricing applied? Freight that is light but bulky consumes trailer space it does not pay for unless dimensional rules are enforced consistently.
  • How is damage claim exposure controlled? Each additional handling is an opportunity for damage, and claims are settled against revenue already recognized.

Explore More on BusinessNES

Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.

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.

Sources and Methodology

Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.

The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each terminal or office with paid staff rather than each company.