NAICS code for trucking: 484121, 484110 and the other 484 codes

This page is for carriers filling in a form that asks for a NAICS or SIC code (SAM.gov, a factoring or insurance application, a tax return) and for sellers building trucking lists.

The NAICS codes for trucking

Every trucking code sits in subsector 484, Truck Transportation. The Census Bureau splits it twice: general freight (palletized goods in a van or container) against specialized freight (loads that need special equipment), then local against long-distance.

How to choose: freight, then distance

1. Freight type. Palletized or boxed goods in a dry van or container are 4841, General Freight. Loads needing a flatbed, tank, reefer, dump body, car carrier or livestock trailer are 4842, Specialized Freight. Moving used household or office goods is always 484210.
2. Distance. Census defines local as within one metropolitan area and the nonurban areas next to it, usually with same-day return. Long-distance is between metro areas. Crossing a state line doesn't make a run long-distance.
3. Load (general freight long-distance only). One customer's shipment fills the truck: 484121. Many shipments consolidated through terminals: 484122.

The Census cross-references send these neighbors elsewhere:

If you do several kinds of work, the one with the most revenue sets your primary code (the IRS asks for "the principal source of your sales or receipts"); list the others as extra codes in SAM.gov.

SIC codes for trucking

SIC splits trucking by distance and storage, not by freight type. The Census concordance maps each one to several NAICS codes:

A list built on SIC 4212 mixes dump truck operators with garbage haulers, and one on 4213 mixes LTL carriers with van lines. On SEC EDGAR, carriers file under 4213, Trucking (No Local), or 4210, Trucking & Courier Services (No Air). To convert other codes, use the NAICS to SIC converter.

How many US trucking businesses use each code

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, the Census Bureau's count of establishments with paid employees:

Across all of 484, 123,520 establishments had fewer than five employees, 16,849 had 5 to 9, 13,044 had 10 to 19, 10,370 had 20 to 49, and 6,503 had 50 or more. LTL is the outlier: 10,742 terminals and offices employ 288,120 people, about 27 per location against 10 for truckload (our calculation).

The top states by trucking establishments are California (24,075), Illinois (15,020), Texas (14,177), Florida (10,129) and Pennsylvania (6,299). Texas has the most trucking employees, 166,894 against California's 159,689.

CBP counts locations with paid employees, not companies: a carrier with 30 terminals counts 30 times, and an owner-operator with no employees isn't counted, which is why FMCSA's USDOT registry is far larger. CBP 2023 uses NAICS 2017, but no trucking code changed in 2022.

SBA size standards for trucking codes

For federal contracts, the SBA compares your average annual receipts over your last five completed fiscal years, affiliates included, with the standard for the contract's code. From 13 CFR 121.201 on the eCFR (last amended March 17, 2023):

The small business size standards page explains how receipts and affiliates are counted.

Where the code is used and what a wrong one costs

• Federal contracts. The contracting officer picks one code per solicitation and your size is judged against it. A carrier averaging $38 million is small for an LTL contract and other than small for a truckload one. Anyone adversely affected can appeal the code to the SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals within 10 calendar days of the solicitation.
• Tax returns. The IRS Schedule C list is coarser than NAICS: 484110 for local general freight, 484120 for long-distance general freight (truckload and LTL together) and 484200 for all specialized freight, household movers included.

Finding trucking companies by code

EDGAR lists public companies by SIC: SIC 4213 and SIC 4210. The largest under 4213, with total revenue from each company's latest 10-K:

These are whole-company figures, including intermodal, brokerage and logistics revenue where a company has it. UPS files under 4210, with $88.66 billion in 2025 revenue. For the private carriers that make up most of the 170,286 locations, FMCSA's records are the public list, and a Bebop search takes the same distinctions in plain language (flatbed or reefer, fleet size, home state) and returns carriers and contacts with the reason each fits.

Worked example: coding a mixed carrier

Illustrative example. The company and figures are invented.

Ridgeline Freight (ridgeline.example) in Ohio runs 40 dry van tractors on interstate truckload lanes, 12 dump trucks on local quarry work and a small brokerage desk. Last year: truckload $14.2 million, dump trucking $3.1 million, brokerage $2.6 million. Average annual receipts over five fiscal years: $17.5 million.

1. Primary code. Truckload is 71% of revenue ($14.2 million of $19.9 million): 484121.
2. Extra codes. It adds 484220 for the dump trucks and 488510 for the brokerage in SAM.gov.
3. Size check. $17.5 million is under the $34.0 million limit for 484121 and 484220. For a 488510 solicitation the limit is $20.0 million, so that's the line growth crosses first.
4. Other forms. SIC 4213 on a bank form; 484120 on a Schedule C.

Next step: if you sell to carriers rather than run one, the list of trucking companies shows how to pull FMCSA's carrier records and filter them by fleet size and cargo.