10 Biggest Trucking Companies in America

If you are a truck driver, you probably already know everything about the 10 biggest trucking companies in America. It is estimated that the trucking industry in America employees 9 million people in 1 million trucking companies.

Needless to say America’s economy depends on the logistics industry, because it’s involved in all other sectors of the economy in some way, and good systems for transportation are a necessity. But the numbers show that there is a shortage of truck drivers (around 50,000) in the trucking industry today. Economists say this was expected and that the average young American is not interested in working as a truck driver.

If you’re reading this and want to become a truck driver or just simply love the life on the road, we advise you to read our article about 10 biggest trucking companies in the world. Some experts say that the solution is in raising pay for truck drivers. The pay for the truck drivers has grown 17% since 2013. The average annual pay in 2015 is $57,000 (National Transportation Institute data).

Financial reports show that the revenue of the 50 biggest trucking companies in America has grown over the last year to 117 billion dollars (10%). Back in 2012 and 2013, things were different. Revenue growth was slowing and demand for freight and trucking transport was lower. The best growth in the revenue of the 50 largest trucking companies was in 2004 (17.7%), which was directly related to the economic recovery. If we compare two five-year-periods, one from 2003 to 2008 and the other from 2008 to 2013, we find that during the first period there was a 50% increase in revenue and in the other period “only” 35%. But in the past two years, revenue has increased again and it seems that the trucking industry is once again recovering from the latest economic crisis. The economy is expanding and the dollar is getting stronger, so demand for the transportation of all kind of goods is rising.

Which trucking companies are the biggest in America? To make our list we used data from the following websites: Transport Topics and Joc. Transport Topics is the newspaper of trucking and freight transportation, where they make the lists of the best and the biggest trucking companies in America, listed by revenue (data from 2013). We searched the web to find at least one more source for the information about all the trucking companies in America, and we stumbled upon Joc website and their annual report about trucking companies, based on comparison of 2012 and 2011 revenue data for each company from the list. This research was conducted in association with SL Consulting Group.

For this list of the 10 biggest companies, we singled out the top 10 companies from both lists and awarded each company with 10 points if it was the first on both lists, 9 points for second place, and so on. Then we added the points for each list together to create our overall ranking. Let’s find out what we got:

10. Old Dominion Freight Line

2 points

Old Dominion Freight Line was founded by Earl and Lilian Condon back in 1934. The company expanded during the seventies, transporting in California and Florida. Today, the company is one of the biggest trucking companies and also has five product groups.

9. Hub Group

3 points

Hub Group is one of America’s biggest freight transportation companies. Hub offers a variety of types of transport and also have two subsidiaries. It is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois.

8. Landstar System

4 points

Landstar System is one of the most successful companies in the transportation industry. It is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. They started in 1988 and have already managed to make to the top ten!

7. Schneider

8 points

Recognizable by their bright orange trucks, Schneider has offered truckload and logistics services for the past 80 years. This company includes Intermodal, Supply Chain Management, Regional, Van Truckload, Dedicated, Bulk, Brokerage and Port Logistics services.

6. Swift Transportation

10 points

Swift Transportation is also one of the biggest companies in the transportation industry, founded in 1966 in Phoenix, Arizona. Swift is also a publicly traded company, going public in 1990 and again in 2010.

5. XPO Logistics (Con-way Inc.)

12 points

This transportation company works with famous and successful companies such as Ikea, Disney, Boeing, and more. With 84,000 employees serve in 32 countries, this company is one the largest trucking companies in America.

4. YRC Worldwide

13 points

YRC Worldwide, with headquarters in Kansas, is a company which offers transport of retail, industrial and commercial goods. This transportation company serves 800,000 satisfied customers.

3. J.B. Hunt Transportation Company

16 points

This trucking and transportation company was founded by Johnie Bryan Hunt in 1961, when they started with only few trucks — today they are among top 10 biggest trucking companies in America.

2. FedEx Corp.

18 points

FedEx  (Federal Express) is probably the most famous American delivery company. It is headquartered in Memphis. This company is also famous as the one among 100 the best companies to work for, according to Fortune magazine.

1. UPS Inc.

20 points

The United Parcel Service is not just America’s biggest deliverer of packages but the largest one in the world, hence it is not a surprise that it tops our list of 10 biggest trucking companies in America. From its headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, “Brown” — a registered trademark of UPS — delivers to 220 countries.