Repossession Service Revenue Benchmark

Average Repossession Service Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every repossession service with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of services gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,730,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $1.1 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 644 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,730,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Repossession Services, NAICS 561491. The category covers repossession services recovering vehicles and other collateral on behalf of lenders. Towing companies and collection agencies are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5614: 561410 Document Preparation Services; 561421 Telephone Answering Services; 561422 Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers, and 6 further codes. 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

Business Support Services, NAICS 5614, 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 47.7 to 56.1 percent. This benchmark covers Business Support Services, NAICS 5614, as a whole, and this category accounts for 644 of the 30,490 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, Repossession Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 26.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share covering recovery agents, drivers, skip tracers and office staff, in a business where tow trucks, fuel, insurance and storage take much of the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes tow trucks, fuel, insurance, storage lots, license plate recognition technology and bonding, which together carry much of what a recovery company 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, Repossession Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 10.2 people, and the industry averaged 1.1 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be recovery agents for a few tow trucks and office staff.

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

Repossession Service: what lender assignments, licensing and the credit cycle do to a recovery company's average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Where do the assignments come from? Lenders, credit unions and leasing companies assign recoveries directly or through forwarding companies that take a share of the fee, and a recovery firm's volume depends on those relationships. Assignment flow is the whole business and is invisible in receipts.
• How is the work paid? Recoveries are typically paid per successful recovery with extra fees for storage, transport and locating hard-to-find assets, so unsuccessful attempts cost the firm. Recovery rate per assignment decides whether the fleet pays.
• Which licenses and rules apply? Repossession licensing, bonding and conduct rules vary by state, and rules against breaching the peace shape how recoveries can be made. Compliance and litigation exposure are permanent costs of the trade.
• Where is the credit cycle? Repossession volume rises when auto loan delinquencies rise and falls in good times, so a recovery company's year follows the lending cycle. The census year captures one point on that curve.
• What does the fleet cost? Wheel-lift and flatbed tow trucks, cameras and license plate recognition systems are expensive to buy and insure, and they must be maintained for night work. Fleet and technology sit outside a revenue figure.
• How are recovered assets handled? Recovered vehicles must be stored securely, inventoried and released or transported under the lender's instructions, and storage fees add revenue while lots add cost. The storage side of the business is part of the receipts on this page.