Trucking companies in Memphis: big terminals, drayage fleets and how to vet a carrier

This report is for shippers and distribution center managers looking for a Memphis carrier, drivers comparing employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies: equipment dealers and lessors, maintenance providers, staffing firms, insurers and technology vendors.

Why Memphis trucking runs big

The Greater Memphis Chamber's Memphis Moves site says the region has five Class I railroads and that 40% of the US population lives within a day's drive. Memphis International Airport is home to the FedEx World Hub, and the Port of Memphis describes itself as the sixth-largest inland port in the US. Freight arrives by air, rail and river and leaves by truck, so the metro's carriers cluster around terminals, ramps and distribution centers rather than in thousands of one-truck businesses.

Memphis trucking in Census data

County Business Patterns 2023 covers NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation) in the Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metro Area (CBSA 32820).

In broader bands: 554 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 90 have 20 to 99 and 42 have 100 or more. Twenty sites have 250 or more.

The terminal effect

Less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers run hub terminals where freight from many shippers is sorted onto linehaul trailers. Memphis has only 44 LTL establishments, but they hold a third of the metro's trucking jobs and pay an average of $67,963 (our calculation from payroll and employees). Long-distance truckload carriers are bigger than usual too, at 23.3 employees per site.

Three states, one metro

Shelby County has 62% of the establishments and 75% of the jobs, at 30 employees per site. DeSoto County, south of the state line, is the second hub, and Crittenden County's 57 establishments average almost 25 employees. The Census Bureau published Benton County's employee count but flagged it as high-noise (the noise it adds for confidentiality moved the value by 5% or more), so we leave it out.

These are establishments with paid employees, not companies. Owner-operators are excluded, a carrier with yards in Shelby and DeSoto counties counts twice, and private fleets (a distributor's own trucks) are counted in their owners' industries.

What the federal register shows

FMCSA's Company Census File, updated 29 October 2026, has 3,891 active for-hire carriers with at least one truck and an address in the nine metro counties. Of those, 2,433 updated their self-reported MCS-150 filing in the past two years: 1,640 in Tennessee, 644 in Mississippi and 149 in Arkansas. Nearly 90% are registered for interstate work, and 1,485 (61%) report a single power unit. 338 list intermodal containers among their cargo, 14% against 8% of current for-hire registrations nationally. 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.

We left out two registrations: Federal Express Corporation, the air express company, whose single filing lists 138,481 power units, and a fleet that lists only refuse as cargo. We also dropped one large fleet whose reported drivers were under a tenth of its power units.

The register lists a carrier at the address on its filing, which isn't always the head office. FedEx Freight's USDOT record shows Harrison, Arkansas, with 17,633 power units, while its 10-K puts corporate headquarters in Memphis and some administrative offices in Harrison.

Public companies headquartered here

FedEx completed the spin-off on 1 June 2026 by distributing 80.1% of the shares to its own shareholders. As of 1 June 2026 the company reported about 40,000 employees, more than 365 locations including about 355 terminals, and nearly 30,000 motorized vehicles. EDGAR files it under SIC 4513 (air courier services), so a search of trucking SIC codes misses it. FedEx Corporation itself is also based in Memphis, but its business is mainly air express.

How to vet a Memphis carrier

1. Pull the SAFER snapshot for the USDOT number at FMCSA SAFER, then check its authority and insurance in Licensing and Insurance. Check the address too: a DeSoto or Crittenden County carrier answers to Mississippi or Arkansas for in-state work.
2. For rail or container moves, ask whether the carrier participates in the UIIA. The Intermodal Association of North America says about 13,000 intermodal trucking companies do, and that 95% of North American equipment interchanges run under it.
3. Match the service to the network. A drayage fleet that turns boxes at the rail ramps, an LTL carrier and a dedicated truckload fleet price and perform very differently.
4. Ask about peak capacity. Memphis distribution volume swings with retail seasons, so ask how many trucks the carrier can add in November and where they come from.

Selling to Memphis trucking companies

The largest accounts here buy like enterprises, with procurement and a review process; the enterprise account research guide covers how to prepare.

Illustrative example. The lessor and its numbers are invented; the counts are Census and FMCSA data above.

Wolf River Yard Tractors (wolfriver.example) leases terminal tractors, the short-haul trucks that shuttle trailers around a yard or ramp. Its two lists are the 58 Memphis-area carriers listing intermodal containers with six or more power units and the metro's 44 LTL terminals. Two contacts per account (operations and maintenance) gives 204 people. At a 7% reply rate that's 14 conversations; if a third agree to a 30-day trial, about 5 yards. The opener is the yard: an LTL hub or rail ramp moves trailers all night, and a broken yard tractor stalls the whole shift. Bebop can build both lists from a description and research each account first.

Subject: Yard moves at [company]'s [location] lot

Hi [first name],

[Company] lists [number] power units and intermodal work on its FMCSA filing, so I'd guess your yard turns a lot of boxes before the road trucks even leave.

We lease yard tractors by the month, with service included and a spare delivered the same day if one goes down.

Would a 30-day trial on one unit be worth a short call on [day]?

[Your name]

Memphis sources

Next step: see how Memphis compares with the rest of the state with the largest trucking sites in the country, in the report on trucking companies in Tennessee.