Trucking companies in Maryland: the Baltimore port, the capital beltway and the I-81 crossroads

This report is for Maryland shippers, contractors and port users looking for a carrier, drivers comparing fleets, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies: hazmat trainers, insurers, dealers, parts suppliers and dispatch software vendors.

Maryland trucking in Census data

County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation), state of Maryland:

Local general freight is the largest group, unlike the national mix, where long-distance truckload leads. LTL terminals are few but large, and pay the most: $71,339 on average.

The published classes add up to 2,013 of 2,016, so three establishments have 250 or more employees. In broader bands: 1,794 with 1 to 19 employees, 189 with 20 to 99 and 33 with 100 or more (the total less the smaller bands). These are locations with paid employees, not companies; owner-operators without staff are excluded.

Three freight regions

The five Baltimore-area counties listed have 883 establishments and 8,914 employees; Prince George's and Montgomery have 496 and 3,824. Washington County stands out: 98 establishments employing 2,207 people, 22.5 each, at the junction of I-81 and I-70.

The Port of Baltimore

The Maryland Port Administration's 2025 Foreign Commerce Statistical Report says the port's public and private terminals handled 50 million tons of cargo in 2025, its second-best year, including 1.1 million TEUs of containers, 728,225 auto units and 848,628 tons of roll-on/roll-off farm and construction machinery, first among US ports. About 85% of general cargo tons move through the state-owned public terminals. The Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in spring 2024, is being rebuilt; the rebuild project reports the federal channel fully reopened 11 weeks after the collapse.

For truckers, that means car haulers and heavy-equipment movers as well as container drayage: about 20.7% of Maryland's for-hire carriers list motor vehicles as cargo in their registrations, against 15.3% in Florida.

What the federal register shows

FMCSA's Company Census File (updated 29 October 2026), active property carriers with at least one power unit and a Maryland address:

More Maryland companies run private fleets than for-hire ones: contractors, utilities, distributors and waste haulers moving their own goods. Among for-hire carriers, 66.4% list general freight, 29.9% building materials or construction (one combined figure, because FMCSA's open-data file records the two categories identically), 11.6% large machinery and 10.3% garbage and refuse. The hazmat share is high for a small state, which matters for both shippers and sellers. 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 and confirm any carrier in SAFER.

The largest registered fleets

No SEC-listed trucking company has a Maryland business address in the data we matched. From SAFER snapshots as of 28 October 2026:

Two of the six sit in Washington County, matching the Census picture of Hagerstown as a long-haul base. For national carriers, see the largest trucking companies.

Checking a Maryland carrier

Maryland's Public Service Commission regulates intrastate passenger carriers (taxis, sedans, limousines and motor coaches), not freight haulers, so for a truck carrier the federal record does most of the work:

1. Look up the USDOT number in FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot for status, motor carrier authority and an MCS-150 dated within two years.
2. For hazardous materials, confirm the hazmat flag in SAFER, ask for hazmat training records, and check that insurance meets the federal minimum for the material, which is higher than general freight's $750,000 (49 CFR 387.9).
3. For port work, ask how the carrier gets terminal access, chassis and roll-on/roll-off appointments at the public terminals.
4. Get a certificate of insurance naming you and references on a similar lane.

Selling to Maryland trucking companies

The buyers split by region. Washington-suburb carriers are mostly small delivery and local freight businesses that buy vans and trucks, insurance, fuel and routing software. Baltimore-area fleets haul for the port, construction and industry and buy trailers, maintenance, hazmat compliance and yard space. Hagerstown's long-haul terminals buy recruiting, tires and telematics through terminal and regional managers.

Illustrative example. The trainer, its price and its conversion rates are invented; the counts are FMCSA data above.

Chesapeake Hazmat Training (chesapeakehazmat.example) runs hazmat employee training for drivers and dispatchers. Maryland has 2,552 for-hire carriers with a hazmat flag; at the state's 53.3% current rate, about 1,360 are active. A 5% reply rate gives 68 conversations; if one in five books, 14 fleets training 8 people each at $250 is $28,000, with recurring refreshers. Bebop can build that list from a plain-language description, with the likely safety contact at each carrier.

Subject: Hazmat training for [company]'s drivers

Hi [first name],

Your USDOT record shows [company] hauls hazardous materials with [number] trucks out of [city]. Fleets your size often train new drivers one at a time, which leaves gaps when someone starts mid-month.

We run hazmat training at your terminal on a schedule that matches your hiring, with records ready for an audit.

Could we find a date in [month] for your current group?

[Your name]

Sources for Maryland names

Next step: compare Maryland's mixed market with a state of very small carriers in trucking companies in Florida.