Trucking companies in Dallas: big terminals, refrigerated fleets and how to pick a carrier

This report is for Dallas shippers and 3PLs choosing a carrier, drivers comparing employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies: reefer and trailer shops, insurers, recruiters, fuel and software vendors. It covers Dallas County first, then the metro around it.

Dallas County and the metro

The data file behind this page uses Dallas County; the second column is the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area from the same County Business Patterns 2023 release (NAICS 484, Truck Transportation).

Dallas County holds a third of the metro's establishments (33.9%) and more than half its trucking jobs (52.6%). Tarrant County, the other big one, is covered in the Texas trucking report along with the border counties.

What Dallas County trucking looks like

Two segments explain the county's size. Less-than-truckload terminals average 139 employees, so 58 sites carry 29.3% of the jobs. Specialized long-distance carriers, which include refrigerated, tanker and car-hauling fleets, average 51 people per site. A Dallas seller who treats the market as 1,159 small trucking firms will miss where the payroll is.

In broader bands: 969 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 139 have 20 to 99 and 51 have 100 or more, of which 29 have 250 or more. These are establishments with paid employees, not companies; owner-operators without staff are left out, and a carrier with three Dallas terminals counts three times.

What the federal register adds

FMCSA's Company Census File lists every USDOT registration; carriers report their own fleet and cargo data on form MCS-150. Figures are active carrier registrations with a Dallas County address in the 29 October 2026 file.

Registrations cluster in Dallas (7,320), Irving (1,533), Grand Prairie (1,424), Garland (1,150) and Mesquite (829). That's 14.6 registrations per Census establishment, mostly one-truck businesses and local haulers; many list building materials or construction and work only inside Texas. FMCSA's open-data file records identical counts for meat and refrigerated food, and for building materials and construction, so each pair is shown as one combined figure. 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 counts as indicative.

Largest fleets registered in Dallas County

For-hire freight carriers in the register with a Dallas County address, a 2024 or later MCS-150 update and a driver count consistent with the fleet. Brink's (armored transport, Coppell), Copart's catastrophe fleet and a liquid-waste hauler are left out.

In their SAFER snapshots, Stevens and FFE both list refrigerated food among their cargo. The county's biggest registrations overall are private fleets that register at their Irving or Dallas head offices: United Rentals (8,747 power units), several Verizon operating companies and Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (1,763).

No SEC-listed company in the trucking SIC codes has its headquarters in Dallas County. The closest is Forward Air (SIC 4731, freight arrangement), which moved its head office to Dallas; its 2025 10-K gives 3200 Olympus Boulevard as its principal executive office and $2.50 billion of 2025 operating revenue across its Expedited Freight, Omni Logistics and Intermodal segments.

Rules that matter in Dallas

• Texas registration. Under TxDMV's rules, a carrier needs a TxDMV number if it runs a vehicle or combination over 26,000 pounds within Texas, hauls placarded hazmat, carries more than 15 passengers or moves household goods for pay. Most carriers over 26,000 pounds must hold at least $500,000 of liability cover. Check a carrier in TxDMV's Motor Carrier Lookup.
• Federal registration. Interstate carriers need a USDOT number in SAFER and, for most for-hire freight, operating authority with at least $750,000 of liability cover (49 CFR 387.9).
• Lane restrictions. The North Central Texas Council of Governments reports that trucks with three or more axles are barred from the inside left lane, except to pass, on I-20 in Dallas, Kaufman and Tarrant counties, I-45 in Dallas and Ellis counties, and I-30 and I-820 in Tarrant County. TxDOT put the restrictions in place in 2010.

NCTCOG describes the region as the crossroads of I-20, I-30, I-35 and I-45, with three Class I railroads, and says trucks leaving it can reach almost the entire country within 72 hours.

Choosing a Dallas carrier

Selling to Dallas trucking companies

At Dallas County's 190 establishments with 20 or more employees, a fleet or maintenance manager usually runs the shop and an operations director signs; at the 51 largest, procurement and safety directors join. For locating those people, see how to find decision makers.

Illustrative example. The seller and its rates are invented; the counts are from the Census and FMCSA data above.

Trinity Reefer Service (trinityreefer.example) runs mobile repair for trailer refrigeration units. In the register, 114 Dallas County carriers list meat or refrigerated food (one combined field in the file) and report 10 to 100 power units: big enough to keep a reefer fleet, small enough to lack a full-time refrigeration technician. Two contacts each (owner or fleet manager, and the shop lead) gives 228 people; at a 7% reply rate, 16 conversations; if one in four agrees to a 60-day trial, 4 fleets. Bebop can turn that description into a list and research each carrier first.

Subject: Reefer units down in [month]

Hi [first name],

[Company] runs [number] power units out of [city], and with refrigerated loads a reefer fault on the yard is a missed pickup, not just a repair bill.

We fix trailer refrigeration units on your lot, usually the same day, so the trailer doesn't sit in a shop queue.

Would a 60-day trial on your Dallas yard be worth 15 minutes on [day]?

[Your name]

Dallas sources

Next step: compare Dallas with Houston's port and chemical carriers in the report on trucking companies in Houston.