Trucking companies in Mississippi: fewer carriers, bigger fleets, and where to find them

This report is for shippers and manufacturers looking for a Mississippi carrier, drivers comparing fleets, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies, from tire and trailer dealers to driver schools, insurers and fleet software vendors.

Mississippi trucking at a glance

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation), state of Mississippi:

Across all states, the 170,286 trucking establishments average 9.9 employees (1,693,228 employees in the same file). Mississippi's 14.6 puts it among the states where mid-size and large fleets carry the work.

Why the average Mississippi carrier is bigger

Two segments explain it. Long-distance truckload establishments average 17.2 employees, and specialized long-distance ones (which NAICS illustrates with refrigerated, bulk liquid, car-hauling and hazardous-material trucking between metro areas) average 31.5, against 15.0 for that segment nationally. Pay is another difference: Mississippi's $54,920 average is the third lowest of the 50 states and DC in the same file.

Where the carriers are

Rankin County is the outlier: 90 establishments with 63.3 employees each and 27.0% of all Mississippi trucking jobs. FMCSA's register explains why: the two largest for-hire fleets in the state both list Rankin County addresses (below). DeSoto County has the most establishments, as part of the Memphis distribution market.

Size classes

The Census Bureau doesn't publish the 1,000-or-more cell; the one establishment shown is the 1,446 total less the published classes. In broader bands, 1,244 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 173 have 20 to 99 and 29 have 100 or more. Only 62.0% have fewer than five employees, a smaller share than in most trucking states.

CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not companies: a fleet with yards in Richland and Olive Branch counts twice, owner-operators without employees aren't counted, and private fleets sit in their owners' industries.

What FMCSA's register shows

FMCSA's Company Census File, as of 29 October 2026, lists 12,653 active USDOT registrations with a Mississippi physical address, 8.75 for every Census establishment. Leaving out bus operators, 9,684 are for-hire and 2,644 run only private fleets. Of the for-hire carriers, 5,994 are interstate and 3,689 (38.1%) work only within Mississippi.

Fleet sizes are what carriers report on form MCS-150. Of the for-hire carriers reporting any power units, 5,325 report one (64.7%), 2,524 report 2 to 10, 295 report 11 to 50 and 79 report more than 50 with a driver count to match. Only 54.9% of for-hire records were updated in the last 24 months, which federal rules require (49 CFR 390.19), so check the date before you rely on a record. New for-hire registrations still active numbered 1,029 for 2025 and 931 for 2026 through 29 October.

The largest fleets registered in Mississippi

Active for-hire records with a Mississippi address, updated since October 2024, with drivers at least half the power units. We left out concrete, environmental-services and oilfield-services fleets.

KLLM also holds a second record, KLLM Expedited Services in Richland, with 146 power units, bringing its two registrations to 1,379. No SEC-listed company in the trucking SIC codes (4210 to 4231) has a Mississippi business address, so none of these carriers publishes audited revenue. For the national picture, see the list of trucking companies.

Hiring or vetting a Mississippi carrier

1. Read the SAFER snapshot for the USDOT number: operation type, power units, drivers, inspections and crash counts in FMCSA's Company Snapshot.
2. Check the MCS-150 date. With barely half of for-hire records current, a stale date is common; a carrier more than two years overdue risks deactivation.
3. Match insurance to the freight. Federal minimums are $750,000 for general freight, $1,000,000 for most hazardous materials and $5,000,000 for hazardous substances in bulk tanks (49 CFR 387.9).
4. Ask about oversize and overweight loads. Since 1 July 2021, size, weight, fuel-tax and operating-authority enforcement sits with the Department of Public Safety's Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division, which took over the duties of MDOT's Office of Enforcement. Ask a heavy-haul carrier how it handles state permits and escorts.
5. For port freight, ask about Gulfport experience. The Mississippi State Port Authority reports a $11.25 million federal Port Infrastructure Development grant (May 2026) toward a $24.5 million project, and an Army Corps recommendation (June 2026) to deepen and widen the channel: more container work for drayage carriers if it goes ahead.

Selling to Mississippi trucking companies

Because the fleets are bigger, more Mississippi carriers have the roles a seller needs: a director of safety, a maintenance manager, a recruiter. The register shows 179 interstate for-hire carriers with 20 to 300 power units and a current MCS-150, running 10,984 power units and reporting 9,997 drivers.

Illustrative example. The school, prices and placement rate are invented; the carrier counts are from FMCSA's October 2026 file.

Magnolia CDL Academy (magnoliacdl.example) trains entry-level drivers and charges fleets a placement fee of $2,500 per hire. It targets the 179 mid-size and large interstate carriers above. If a third of them hire at least four drivers a year from schools, that's about 60 fleets and 240 hires; winning 15% of those hires is 36 placements and $90,000 a year. The first message goes to the recruiting or safety lead, with the class start date. Bebop can find the fleets that match and tell you who runs recruiting at each.

Hi [first name], I run driver training at [school] in [city]. Our next class of [number] graduates finishes on [date], all Mississippi residents with Class A permits and range time on [equipment].

[Company] looks like it's hiring for [lane or home time]. Would it help if I sent you three graduate profiles before the class ends?

Sources for names and checks

Next step: compare Mississippi's big-fleet profile with a neighbor's in the report on trucking companies in Louisiana.