Trucking companies in Georgia: the Savannah port, the Atlanta hub and the fleets between them

This report is for shippers, plant and port logistics teams looking for a Georgia carrier, drivers comparing fleets, and B2B sellers who work with trucking companies. For the metro on its own, see the report on trucking companies in Atlanta; this one covers the whole state.

Georgia trucking by the numbers

County Business Patterns 2023 figures for NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation), state of Georgia:

Long-distance truckload carriers (NAICS 484121) are the core: 1,967 establishments with 25,161 employees, 12.8 each. Less-than-truckload (484122) is the other big employer, with 688 terminals and 15,279 employees. Specialized freight (tankers, flatbeds, bulk, heavy haul and movers, NAICS 4842) adds 1,588 establishments and 16,576 jobs.

That's 4,869 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 532 with 20 to 99 and 124 with 100 or more. Remember what the count is: locations with a payroll, not companies, and no self-employed owner-operators.

Where Georgia's carriers are

The 29-county Atlanta metro has 3,346 of the state's 5,525 establishments (60.6%) and 38,378 of its 66,826 jobs (57.4%). The rest of the state still has 2,179 establishments and 28,448 jobs, organized around the port and the industries that ship in bulk.

Savannah sets the rhythm

The Georgia Ports Authority reports that the Port of Savannah handled 5,669,948 TEUs (twenty-foot container units) in fiscal 2026: 2,862,922 import and 2,807,027 export, 0.6% below fiscal 2025 but with a record 4.22 million TEUs of loaded boxes. Its top import groups were machinery, appliances and electronics (421,054 TEUs), retail consumer goods (415,435) and furniture (374,153). The Garden City Terminal also runs 42 trains a week, so a share of boxes leaves by rail; the rest is truck work, from the short drayage run to distribution centers along I-16 and I-95 to long hauls across the Southeast.

What FMCSA's register adds

FMCSA's Company Census File (updated 29 October 2026) holds every USDOT registration. Counting active for-hire property carriers with at least one power unit and a Georgia physical address:

Private fleets matter more here than in most states: carpet makers, building suppliers and food distributors register 37,979 USDOT numbers to haul their own goods. Among for-hire carriers, 69.1% list general freight, 24.4% building materials or construction (one combined figure, because FMCSA's open-data file records the two categories identically), 17.8% motor vehicles, 15.1% logs and lumber and 6.8% intermodal containers. Cargo types are self-reported by carriers, the register is updated unevenly and FMCSA's open-data file doesn't always match a carrier's own SAFER record, so treat these shares as indicative: use the register to find carriers and SAFER to check them.

The largest fleets registered in Georgia

Two SEC-listed trucking companies have Georgia headquarters, per their 10-K filings for 2025: United Parcel Service in Atlanta (revenue $88.7 billion) and Saia in Johns Creek (operating revenue $3,234,286,000). The Atlanta report covers both in detail. Outside the metro, the biggest registered fleets are in the northwest carpet belt and the south Georgia pine country. Figures are from SAFER snapshots as of 28 October 2026:

Georgia registration: GIMC or UCR

Georgia's Department of Public Safety runs the Georgia Intrastate Motor Carrier (GIMC) registration for carriers, brokers, freight forwarders and leasing companies that operate certain vehicles only within Georgia. Carriers that cross state lines register under the federal Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) instead. DPS says 2026 registrations close December 31, 2026, enforcement begins January 1, 2027, and late applications cost $25 per vehicle. Household goods movers and nonconsensual towing operators also need DPS certificates or permits.

To check a Georgia carrier before you tender a load:

1. Pull its SAFER snapshot and confirm the USDOT status, interstate or intrastate operation, and an MCS-150 date within two years.
2. Ask which registration it holds for the move: GIMC for loads that stay in Georgia, UCR plus federal operating authority for interstate work.
3. For port loads, ask how it gets chassis and how many daily Garden City turns it runs, and test one lane first.
4. Get a certificate of insurance naming you. The federal minimum for interstate for-hire general freight is $750,000 (49 CFR 387.9).

Selling to Georgia trucking companies

Georgia's size mix is what makes it attractive: 656 establishments with 20 or more employees, against 662 in Florida from nearly twice as many locations. Those mid-size fleets have a safety or maintenance manager and real budgets for trailers, tires, telematics, yard space and recruiting. Drayage carriers in Chatham County buy around port volume; northwest Georgia flatbed and carpet fleets buy around manufacturing schedules; south Georgia log and chip haulers buy tires, trailers and repairs.

Illustrative example. The company, its prices and its share estimates are invented; the counts are Census and GPA data above.

Coastal Grounded Storage (coastalyard.example) rents container and chassis parking near the port. Chatham County has 283 trucking establishments. If half run regular port moves, that's about 140 carriers; signing 10% of them, 14 carriers renting 15 spaces each at $150 a month, is $378,000 a year. With Savannah moving 4.22 million loaded TEUs in a year, the pitch is time: a carrier that can stage boxes near the gate saves trips. The safety or dispatch manager usually owns the problem, and how to find decision makers covers reaching them. At volume, the account research is the slow part; Bebop does it for each carrier in the list.

Sources for Georgia names

Next step: see how the metro differs in the report on trucking companies in Atlanta.