Trucking companies in Arizona: Knight-Swift's home state, the Nogales produce gateway and everyone else

This report is for shippers and produce importers looking for an Arizona carrier, drivers weighing employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies: equipment and parts suppliers, insurers, fuel and tire dealers, and technology vendors.

Home of Knight-Swift

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings lists its principal executive offices at 2002 West Wahalla Lane, Phoenix, and describes itself as operating one of the country's largest truckload fleets. Its 2025 10-K reports total revenue of $7,469.7 million, 0.8% more than in 2024, and says its truckload segment operated an average of 21,428 tractors (19,395 company and 2,033 independent contractor tractors) and 84,851 trailers during the year. The group also owns U.S. Xpress, based in Chattanooga, and AAA Cooper, the LTL carrier based in Dothan, Alabama.

In FMCSA's register, Swift Transportation Company of Arizona reports 12,940 power units and Knight Transportation another 3,200, both at Phoenix addresses. No other Arizona-based for-hire carrier reports even 1,000.

Arizona trucking in Census data

County Business Patterns 2023 counts NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation) establishments in Arizona.

Ranking the same state file ourselves, Arizona is 19th by trucking employment and 3rd by average establishment size.

In broader bands: 2,044 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 215 have 20 to 99 and 49 have 100 or more, including four with 1,000 or more.

Long-distance truckload carries 42% of the state's trucking jobs. Specialized long-distance (refrigerated, tank and other equipment-specific long hauls) is unusually large here, at 26.4 employees per site, and specialized local freight pays best, about $72,500 on average (our calculation from payroll and employees).

Phoenix, the border and the farm belt

The Census Bureau published Gila County's employee total but flagged it as high-noise, meaning confidentiality noise moved it by 5% or more, so we leave it out. These counts cover establishments with paid employees; owner-operators without staff and private fleets aren't included, and each terminal of a multi-site carrier counts separately.

At the border, Bureau of Transportation Statistics data from US Customs and Border Protection show 408,584 inbound truck crossings at Nogales in 2025, up 1.0% from 404,588 in 2024 and 5.4% of all inbound trucks on the US-Mexico border. San Luis took 46,135 and Douglas 26,280. For January to September 2026, Nogales was down 2.0% on the same months of 2025, at 306,771. The register reflects the produce trade: 1,806 current for-hire carriers in Arizona (19%) list fresh produce, against 14% nationally, 241 of the 333 in Santa Cruz County do, and so do 236 of the 570 in Yuma County. Cargo types are self-reported by carriers, and FMCSA's open-data file doesn't always match a carrier's own SAFER record, so treat these shares as indicative.

The register beyond Knight-Swift

FMCSA's Company Census File, updated 29 October 2026, lists 18,687 active for-hire carriers with an Arizona address and at least one truck. We count the 9,387 that updated their self-reported MCS-150 filing in the two years to 30 October 2026, less 9 large fleets whose driver counts were under a tenth of their power units. Of those, 65% are registered for interstate work, 5,733 (61%) run one power unit and 448 run 11 to 100.

We left out a waste hauler that lists only refuse as cargo. After these eight, three more fleets, in Phoenix, Avondale and Yuma, report 200 to 240 power units.

Checking an Arizona carrier

1. Search the USDOT number in FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot for power units, drivers, cargo classes and inspection results.
2. Check operating authority and insurance on file for interstate for-hire work in FMCSA's Licensing and Insurance system.
3. For produce from Nogales, ask about the refrigeration units, temperature records and how fast the carrier can load after a crossing clears.
4. For a Knight-Swift subsidiary, confirm which operating company and USDOT number will haul your freight, since the group runs several.
5. Get a certificate of insurance naming you, with cargo cover that fits the commodity.

Selling to Arizona trucking companies

Sellers here usually choose between going wide among owner-operators and going deep into a few large fleets. For the large-fleet route, how B2B buyers build a shortlist shows what to have ready.

Illustrative example. The installer and its numbers are invented; the counts are FMCSA register data.

Sonoran Cab Cooling (sonorancool.example) installs battery-powered cab coolers so drivers can rest in a sleeper without idling the engine. Its list is Arizona's 448 current for-hire carriers with 11 to 100 power units, the fleets big enough to run sleepers on long hauls but too small for an engineering team. Two contacts each (owner and maintenance manager) gives 896 people; at a 5% reply rate, 45 conversations; if one in five agrees to a two-truck trial, 9 fleets. The pitch is fuel: an hour of idling saved per truck per night adds up across a fleet. Bebop can turn that description into a list and research each fleet before the first call.

Subject: Idle hours on [company]'s sleepers

Hi [first name],

[Company] runs [number] power units out of [city], and in an Arizona summer I'd guess a lot of your drivers idle all night to stay cool.

We fit battery cab coolers that run through a rest break with the engine off. A two-truck trial shows the fuel difference on your own logs.

Could we talk for 15 minutes on [day]?

[Your name]

Arizona sources

Next step: see the busiest border trucking city in Texas, in the report on trucking companies in El Paso.