Trucking companies in Ohio: 5,444 employers, the big LTL fleets and how to check a carrier

This report is for shippers choosing an Ohio carrier, drivers comparing employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies, from equipment dealers and dock service firms to insurers and software vendors. It uses two federal sources that count very different things.

Ohio trucking by the numbers

County Business Patterns 2023 covers NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation) for the state of Ohio.

Ranked by employees instead, Ohio is fourth, behind Texas, California and Illinois (our ranking from the same state file). Illinois has 15,020 establishments to Ohio's 5,444 but only about 13,000 more jobs: Ohio's carriers are fewer and larger.

What kind of trucking Ohio does

Less-than-truckload (LTL) is the standout. Only 6.6% of Ohio's establishments are LTL terminals, but they hold 22.6% of the jobs, 46.6 people per site against 11.5 for truckload. LTL networks run on cross-docks, forklifts and pickup-and-delivery routes: a different customer from a truckload carrier with a yard and a dispatcher.

Where Ohio's trucking companies are

The Census Bureau published Hamilton County's LTL employment but flagged it as high-noise (the noise it adds for confidentiality moved the value by 5% or more), so we leave it out. Franklin County has 12.3% of the state's establishments and 15.3% of its trucking jobs. Summit and Montgomery are the LTL counties: about a third of Summit's trucking employees and 60% of Montgomery's work at LTL sites.

Fleet sizes

In broader bands, 4,686 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 607 have 20 to 99 and 151 have 100 or more. The 758 with 20 or more are where safety managers, maintenance shops and procurement sit.

The Census count covers establishments with paid employees, not companies: a carrier with terminals in Columbus, Dayton and Toledo counts three times. Owner-operators without employees are left out, and private fleets count in their owners' industries.

The federal register: 48,631 carriers

FMCSA's Company Census File lists every entity with a USDOT number. Carriers fill in the data themselves on form MCS-150 and must update it every 24 months, or the USDOT number is deactivated (49 CFR 390.19). These figures are for active carrier registrations with an Ohio physical address, as of the 29 October 2026 file.

The register has 8.9 entries for every Census establishment because it includes owner-operators, private fleets of non-trucking businesses, carriers that rarely run and some bus operators (4.3% list passengers). Cargo types are self-reported by carriers, and FMCSA's open-data file doesn't always match a carrier's own SAFER record, so that passenger share is indicative. Treat its fleet counts as claims: a handful of Ohio records report tens of thousands of power units against one or two drivers.

Largest for-hire fleets registered in Ohio

From the same file: for-hire freight carriers with an Ohio address, a 2024 or later MCS-150 update and a driver count consistent with the fleet, excluding private fleets, waste haulers and passenger carriers.

The biggest private fleets in the Ohio file belong to Cintas Corporation No 2 (6,341 power units), Rumpke Transportation (2,171), Davey Tree Expert (2,152) and Kroger Fulfillment Network (2,152). No SEC-listed company in the trucking SIC codes (4210 to 4231) has its headquarters in Ohio: EDGAR's SIC 4213 search for Ohio returns only past filers such as Roadway Corp and Caliber System.

How to check an Ohio carrier

1. Look up the USDOT number in FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot: operation type, cargo, power units, inspections, out-of-service rates and crashes.
2. Check authority and insurance in FMCSA's Licensing and Insurance search for any interstate for-hire carrier. The federal minimum is $750,000 of liability for general freight and $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 for hazardous materials (49 CFR 387.9).
3. For loads that stay in Ohio, confirm PUCO registration. Under Ohio Administrative Code 4901:2-21-03, a for-hire carrier may not operate in intrastate commerce without registering with the commission and holding a current certificate.
4. Read the MCS-150 date. A record older than 24 months is out of date at best; at worst the USDOT number has been deactivated.
5. Match equipment to freight. Ask an LTL carrier for its terminal map and a truckload carrier for its lanes and trailer types, then call two shippers on similar lanes.

Selling to Ohio trucking companies

LTL carriers buy terminal by terminal but sign at regional or head office, so map both. To find the people at each level, see how to find decision makers.

Illustrative example. The seller and its rates are invented; the counts are Census 2023 data.

Buckeye Dock Service (buckeyedock.example) repairs dock levelers, doors and forklifts. Its best customers are LTL cross-docks, so it starts with the four counties where LTL employment is highest: Franklin, Summit, Montgomery and Butler have 125 LTL establishments with 8,507 employees between them. Two contacts per site (terminal manager and regional maintenance manager) is 250 people. At a 6% reply rate that's 15 conversations; if a third agree to a free dock audit, 5 audits a quarter. Bebop can pull the terminals that match and research each one before the first call.

Hi [first name], it's [your name] from Buckeye Dock Service. I'll be quick.

You run [number] doors at [city], and on a cross-dock a stuck leveler idles a door and a forklift together.

We do quarterly dock audits for terminals in [county] and fix what we find the same week. Could I walk your dock on [day] for 30 minutes, at no charge?

Ohio sources

Next step: the shippers behind Ohio's freight are in the report on manufacturing companies in Ohio.