Trucking companies in Phoenix: big fleets, a West Valley hub and how to read the carrier register

This report is for Phoenix shippers and distribution centers choosing a carrier, drivers comparing employers across the Valley, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies, from tire, fuel and trailer suppliers to insurers, recruiters and fleet software vendors. For the rest of the state, including the border and Tucson, see the Arizona trucking report.

Phoenix trucking in Census data

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation), Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area (CBSA 38060):

Across all states, trucking establishments average 9.9 employees. Maricopa's 20.0 is double that.

Big establishments, published in full

Every size class is published for Phoenix. In broader bands: 1,371 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 149 have 20 to 99, and 44 have 100 or more. The small carriers are still the majority (68.5% have fewer than five employees), but the eight establishments with 500 or more employees account for at least 6,000 of the metro's 29,333 trucking jobs by arithmetic on the size classes.

Long-distance truckload holds 45.6% of the metro's trucking jobs. The pay spread is wide: specialized local carriers average $78,152 and specialized long-distance $51,715, though both segments mix very different work.

CBP counts establishments with paid employees, so a headquarters campus and a terminal in the same metro count separately; owner-operators without payroll aren't counted; and private fleets, such as a food distributor's trucks, are counted in their owner's industry.

The public company headquartered here

The data file's only SEC-listed company in the trucking SIC codes (4210 to 4231) with a Phoenix-area business address is Knight-Swift. From its 10-K for 2025:

The 10-K describes the Knight and Swift headquarters as about 200 acres in Phoenix, with roughly 300,000 square feet of offices, 150,000 square feet of repair and maintenance space, a driver center and a recruiting and training center. For a Phoenix supplier, that is one campus with a very large shop, a driver school and a procurement team in the same place.

Reading the register: head offices aren't service areas

FMCSA's Company Census File (29 October 2026) lists 22,133 active USDOT registrations with a physical address in Maricopa or Pinal County. Without bus operators, 15,283 are for-hire and 5,695 are private fleets only. Of the for-hire carriers, 5,875 operate interstate and 9,403 (61.5%) only within Arizona; 65.4% of those reporting a fleet run one power unit.

One quirk matters more here than in most metros. The register records the physical address the carrier gives, which for some large companies is the head office. Among Phoenix-registered for-hire records are Republic Services of Indiana Transportation (820 power units), Republic Services of Ohio Transportation (814) and Rabanco, whose trade names refer to Bellevue and Seattle (297). By their names, those fleets serve Indiana, Ohio and the Seattle area, not the I-10. Check where a carrier's terminals are before you count it as local capacity.

Where the local carriers are registered, by city on the for-hire record:

Glendale, Buckeye, Peoria, Avondale, Goodyear, Surprise, Tolleson, Laveen and the other West Valley addresses together have 5,453 for-hire records, 35.7% of the metro total and more than the city of Phoenix. The Greater Phoenix Economic Council puts more than 41 million people in seven states within a one-day truck haul, over Interstates 8, 10, 17 and 40, with Union Pacific and BNSF serving the region.

Beyond Knight-Swift: the next tier of fleets

Knight-Swift's own registrations lead the register: Swift Transportation Company of Arizona reports 12,940 power units, Knight Transportation 3,200 and Knight Refrigerated 379. The next largest active for-hire records in the metro, updated since October 2024, with drivers at least half the power units, leaving out waste haulers:

Several carry the names of companies outside trucking (Carvana, Shamrock Foods, Senergy Petroleum) that hold for-hire authority. They buy trucks, tires and maintenance like any carrier. For national rankings, see the largest trucking companies.

How to vet a Phoenix carrier

1. Look up the USDOT number in FMCSA's Company Snapshot for operation type, power units, inspections and crashes.
2. Ask which operating company and terminal will haul your loads. Groups register several USDOT numbers, and a Phoenix address may be a head office for trucks based elsewhere.
3. Check the MCS-150 date. Only 46.8% of metro for-hire records were updated in the last 24 months, the interval federal rules require (49 CFR 390.19).
4. Confirm insurance against the cargo: at least $750,000 for for-hire general freight, $1,000,000 for most hazardous materials and $5,000,000 for hazardous substances in bulk tanks (49 CFR 387.9).
5. For an intrastate-only carrier, remember its number doesn't cover a load to California or Nevada. With 61.5% of metro for-hire records intrastate only, ask before you tender a cross-border or out-of-state load.

Prospecting Phoenix trucking companies

For reaching the person who signs at each size, see how to find decision makers.

Illustrative example. The company, prices and win rate are invented; the carrier count is from FMCSA's October 2026 file.

Sonoran Mobile Tire (sonorantire.example) sells on-site tire service to fleets. It targets for-hire carriers with West Valley addresses, 6 to 50 power units and a current MCS-150: 187 carriers with 2,680 power units, about 14 each. If it signs 12% of them (22 fleets) and each spends an assumed $1,800 per truck a year on tires and service, that's 308 trucks and $554,400 a year. Bebop can find carriers like these from a plain description and research each one before the first call.

Subject: Tires for [company]'s [number] trucks, at your yard

Hi [first name],

Your trucks run out of [city], and every hour one sits at a shop waiting on tires is an hour off a load.

We come to your yard on a set day each week, check every truck and replace what's due before it fails on the road.

Can I do a free walk-around of your fleet on [day] and send you the findings?

[Your name]

Phoenix sources

Next step: compare Phoenix with another desert distribution market in the report on trucking companies in Las Vegas.