Trucking companies in Kansas City: a two-state hub of mid-size fleets and driveaway carriers

This report is for shippers and 3PLs booking trucks in Kansas City, drivers choosing between Missouri and Kansas employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies: factoring firms, insurers, dealers, fuel and parts suppliers. For the rest of Missouri, see trucking companies in Missouri.

Kansas City trucking in Census data

County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation), Kansas City, MO-KS Metro Area (CBSA 28140, 14 counties):

Sixty-four LTL terminals employ 4,519 people, 26.8% of the metro's trucking jobs. Kansas City sits where I-70, I-35 and I-29 meet, which makes it a natural place to break and rebuild LTL loads.

That's 812 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 140 with 20 to 99 and 34 with 100 or more. Only 60.8% have fewer than five employees. The count covers locations with paid employees; owner-operators without staff are excluded, and a company with terminals on both sides of the line counts twice.

The state line

Johnson and Wyandotte counties have 358 establishments and 9,744 employees, 57.9% of the metro's trucking jobs, against 3,737 in Jackson County. The Kansas side is where the big terminals are; the Missouri side has more small carriers.

The largest registered fleets

No SEC-listed trucking company has a business address in the metro in the data we matched. EDGAR still lists Yellow Corporation at 10990 Roe Avenue, Overland Park; the LTL carrier filed for Chapter 11 on August 6, 2023 and no longer has a listed ticker. Among active fleets, SAFER snapshots as of 28 October 2026 show:

Driveaway and truckaway firms deliver new trucks and other vehicles by driving or towing them. For a seller of insurance, permits or tracking, they are a distinct niche; for a shipper of freight, they aren't capacity.

What the federal register shows

FMCSA's Company Census File (updated 29 October 2026), active for-hire property carriers with at least one power unit and an address in the 14 metro counties:

Kansas City's register is cleaner and more interstate than most: more than two-thirds of records were updated in the last two years, against 39.6% in Florida. Cargo lists show 72.0% general freight, 30.0% building materials or construction (one combined figure, because FMCSA's open-data file records the two categories identically), 15.1% large machinery, 15.0% motor vehicles, 13.3% dry bulk, 12.0% grain and 8.6% intermodal containers. Cargo types and fleet sizes 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 and confirm in SAFER.

Two states' rules

For interstate for-hire loads, the federal minimum of $750,000 for general freight (49 CFR 387.9) applies whichever side of the line the carrier is on. To vet one, check SAFER for status, authority and a recent MCS-150; check the KCC database for a Kansas carrier's state authority; get a certificate of insurance naming you; and run a trial load.

Selling to Kansas City trucking companies

The mid-size middle is the opportunity: 174 establishments with 20 or more employees, and 1,565 registered carriers running 2 to 9 trucks. Small interstate fleets buy cash flow and protection: factoring, fuel cards, insurance and repairs. The larger terminals in Johnson and Wyandotte counties buy dock equipment, yard services, maintenance and staffing through terminal and regional managers.

Illustrative example. The firm, its fee and its rates are invented; the counts are FMCSA data above.

Two Rivers Freight Funding (tworivers.example) factors invoices for small carriers. The metro has 1,152 interstate for-hire carriers with 2 to 9 power units. If 68.3% are current, as across the metro, that's about 787 active fleets. A 4% reply rate gives 31 conversations; if one in four signs, 8 carriers factoring $40,000 of invoices a month at a 3% fee is $115,200 a year. The opener is speed of payment on a specific lane. Bebop can find carriers that match and draft the first email.

Subject: Getting paid faster on [lane]

Hi [first name],

[Company] runs [number] trucks out of [city] on interstate freight. Most fleets your size wait 30 to 60 days on broker and shipper invoices while fuel and payroll come due every week.

We buy those invoices within a day of delivery, with no long contract.

Would it help to see what that would look like on last month's loads?

[Your name]

Sources for Kansas City names

Next step: compare Kansas City's mid-size fleets with a market of very large ones in trucking companies in Nashville.