North Carolina Trucking Industry Statistics (2026)
Fleet size, operating authority, hazmat and new-entrant counts, out-of-service rates and crash totals for every FMCSA-registered motor carrier domiciled in North Carolina — counted directly from the federal record, with the population behind each figure stated next to it.
Fleet & operating authority
How large the North Carolina carrier population is, and how much of it can legally haul for hire.
Every motor carrier with a North Carolina physical address in the current FMCSA registry snapshot.
Carriers whose FMCSA census record currently carries status code A (active).
Carriers with for-hire operating authority on file — the subset a broker can legally tender freight to.
Sum of the SAFER power-unit count across the 110,937 carriers reporting a plausible fleet size; implausible round-thousand self-reports are excluded.
Active carriers whose census record carries the FMCSA hazardous-materials indicator.
Carriers whose first FMCSA registration date falls within the last 12 months.
Safety record — trailing 24 months
Roadside enforcement and crash outcomes for North Carolina-domiciled carriers over the same rolling window FMCSA publishes rates over.
Roadside inspections of North Carolina-domiciled carriers over the trailing 24 months — the window FMCSA publishes rates over.
Share of the 94,538 vehicle-level inspections (CVSA levels 1, 2, 5 and 6) that placed at least one vehicle out of service.
0.5 pp above the 22.26% CVSA national average.
Share of the 183,281 driver-level inspections (CVSA levels 1, 2, 3 and 6) that placed a driver out of service.
0.7 pp below the 6.67% CVSA national average.
FMCSA-reportable crashes involving North Carolina-domiciled carriers in the last 24 months.
Crashes in that 24-month window recorded with at least one fatality.
Crashes in that 24-month window recorded with at least one injury.
How these rates are computed
Each out-of-service rate divides the inspections that put a unit out of service by the inspections capable of producing one: vehicle rates use CVSA levels 1, 2, 5 and 6, driver rates use levels 1, 2, 3 and 6. That is the population the published CVSA national averages are defined over, and it is the same rolling 24-month window and the same level definitions every carrier profile on this site is scored against.
Inspection records: Sep 1, 2024 – Aug 28, 2026. Crash records: Apr 3, 1989 – Aug 25, 2026 (115,278 all-time, 3,785 fatal).
Fleet-size distribution
Across the 110,937 North Carolina carriers that report a plausible fleet size.
Buckets use the SAFER power-unit figure. Carriers that report no fleet size, or a round-thousand self-report the plausibility clamp rejects, are excluded from the buckets and from their denominator rather than counted as zero.
Equipment mix
The most common primary equipment among the 6,563 North Carolina carriers with VIN-decoded trailer data.
Equipment is inferred only from observed, VIN-decoded units, which covers a minority of the register — these shares describe the classified population, never all North Carolina carriers.
Sources & citation
Every number on this page is a count, a sum, or a ratio of two counts over public federal records.
Built from the FMCSA / MCMIS census, the L&I authority and insurance record, roadside-inspection results and the FMCSA crash file, refreshed daily. Nothing here is modelled, estimated, or generated: self-reported annual mileage is never aggregated, and a figure the record does not support is omitted rather than filled in.
Cite as “Vektor Carrier Intelligence, North Carolina trucking industry statistics, Sep 1, 2026”.
Aggregates cover carriers whose FMCSA physical address is in North Carolina; a carrier is counted in its domicile state regardless of where it operates or where an inspection took place. Out-of-service rates and crash counts are the federal record, not an FMCSA safety rating. Verify authority and insurance before tendering freight.