Short answer
The San Antonio-New Braunfels metro had 919 trucking establishments in 2023, employing 15,562 people on an $871 million payroll (Census County Business Patterns), 652 of them in Bexar County. FMCSA's register lists 11,780 active carriers in the metro's eight counties, 80.3% intrastate only. Aggregate Haulers in New Braunfels runs the largest registered for-hire fleet. To vet a carrier, check its TxDMV number and insurance for Texas loads and its USDOT record in SAFER.
- 919 trucking establishments and 15,562 employees in the San Antonio metro (Census, 2023), 0.54% of the US total.
- Bexar County has 652 establishments and 76.2% of the metro's trucking jobs.
- FMCSA lists 11,780 active carriers in the metro; 80.3% are intrastate only and about a third list building materials or construction (one combined field in FMCSA's file).
- Specialized long-distance carriers pay $77,669 on average, against $51,008 for truckload.
- Port San Antonio's East Kelly Railport has Union Pacific switching and access to BNSF.
On this page
This report is for San Antonio shippers and contractors hiring a carrier, drivers comparing employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are trucking companies: body and hydraulic shops, tire dealers, insurers, fuel distributors and software vendors.
San Antonio trucking in one table
County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 484 (Truck Transportation), for the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metro Area (CBSA 41700).
| Measure (2023) | San Antonio metro |
|---|---|
| Establishments | 919 |
| Employees (week of March 12) | 15,562 |
| Annual payroll | $870,816,000 |
| Average employees per establishment | 16.9 |
| Average annual pay | $55,958 |
| Share of US establishments | 0.54% of 170,286 |
Average pay is about $6,000 below Dallas County's $62,161, which fits a market with more local and truckload work and fewer big LTL terminals.
Eight counties, one dominant
| County | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Bexar | 652 | 11,865 |
| Guadalupe | 89 | 1,262 |
| Comal | 78 | 1,332 |
| Atascosa | 35 | 578 |
| Medina | 28 | Not reported (high-noise figure) |
| Wilson | 24 | Not reported (high-noise figure) |
| Kendall | 9 | 46 |
| Bandera | 4 | Not reported (high-noise figure) |
The Census Bureau published employment for Medina, Wilson and Bandera counties but flagged it as high-noise (the noise added for confidentiality changed each value by 5% or more), so we leave those cells blank. Bexar County averages 18.2 employees per establishment. Comal and Guadalupe, along I-35 and I-10 toward Austin and Houston, add 167 establishments, and Atascosa, south of Bexar, has only 35 establishments but 16.5 employees each.
What San Antonio hauls
| Type of trucking (NAICS) | Establishments | Employees | Average annual pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long-distance truckload (484121) | 384 | 7,175 | $51,008 |
| Specialized local (484220) | 176 | 1,712 | $68,710 |
| Local general freight (484110) | 164 | 1,956 | $41,939 |
| Specialized long-distance (484230) | 76 | 1,885 | $77,669 |
| Household and office moving (484210) | 65 | 1,064 | $41,510 |
| Less-than-truckload (484122) | 54 | 1,770 | $64,744 |
Specialized freight (dump, tanker, flatbed, heavy haul and oilfield work) is 27.4% of establishments and pays best. The federal register tells the same story: 33.1% of the metro's carriers list building materials or construction (one combined figure, because FMCSA's open-data file records the two categories identically), 14.2% machinery and large objects, and 798 list oilfield equipment. 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.
| Employees per establishment | Establishments |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 610 |
| 5 to 9 | 102 |
| 10 to 19 | 76 |
| 20 to 49 | 76 |
| 50 to 99 | 25 |
| 100 to 249 | 19 |
| 250 to 499 | 7 |
| 500 to 999 | 3 |
| 1,000 or more | 1 |
In broader bands: 788 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 101 have 20 to 99 and 30 have 100 or more. The counts cover establishments with paid employees; owner-operators without staff are left out, and a carrier's yard and head office count separately.
The federal register
FMCSA's Company Census File, 29 October 2026, active carrier registrations in the eight metro counties. Carriers supply these details themselves on form MCS-150.
| Measure | San Antonio metro |
|---|---|
| Active carrier registrations | 11,780 |
| Intrastate only | 9,461 (80.3%) |
| Interstate | 2,319 (19.7%) |
| Declare for-hire operation | 9,472 (80.4%) |
| One power unit | 7,335 |
| Bexar County registrations | 8,095 |
Ranked by power units, the biggest for-hire freight fleets (records updated since January 2024, with driver counts that fit the fleet):
| Carrier (legal name, trade name) | City | Power units | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregate Haulers I LP | New Braunfels | 429 | 429 |
| Southwestern Motor Transport (SMT Lines) | San Antonio | 277 | 252 |
| Unique Leasing (Reynolds Nationwide) | San Antonio | 208 | 202 |
| Detmar Transport | San Antonio | 196 | 191 |
| VTS Transportation | San Antonio | 180 | 185 |
| Alamo Transit Company | San Antonio | 172 | 172 |
| Accel Logistics | San Antonio | 160 | 127 |
| Genesis Intermodal Services | San Antonio | 157 | 158 |
| Mission Petroleum Carriers | San Antonio | 148 | 115 |
The metro's biggest registered fleets overall are shippers' own: H-E-B (922 power units, with for-hire authority too), Holt Texas, trading as Holt Cat (739), and Ingram Readymix (578). No SEC-listed company in the trucking SIC codes is headquartered in the metro.
Freight hubs
Port San Antonio, just southwest of downtown, is a 1,900-acre campus with more than 80 tenants and more than 19,000 people working there, by its own count. Its East Kelly Railport has direct switching from Union Pacific's South San Yard and access to BNSF, with Watco adding more than 15,000 feet of track to the existing 20,000. Its industrial space is inside Foreign-Trade Zone 80-10, and it notes that the Houston and Corpus Christi seaports are within a three-hour drive. For cross-border lanes through Laredo, the Texas trucking report has the crossing data.
Hiring a San Antonio carrier
- For a load that stays in Texas, look the carrier up in TxDMV's Motor Carrier Lookup. A TxDMV number is required for vehicles over 26,000 pounds, placarded hazmat, more than 15 passengers or household goods for pay, and most carriers over 26,000 pounds need at least $500,000 of liability cover.
- For interstate freight, check the USDOT record in FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot and confirm authority and the $750,000 federal minimum (49 CFR 387.9).
- For aggregate and dump work, ask for the truck count by type, who pays for scale tickets and standby time, and whether drivers are employees or leased owner-operators.
- For oilfield loads, confirm hazmat registration and equipment, and get a certificate of insurance naming you.
Prospecting San Antonio carriers
Illustrative example. The shop and its rates are invented; the counts are from FMCSA's register.
Mission Hydraulics (missionhyd.example) repairs dump bodies, hoists and wet kits. In the register, 837 carriers in the metro list building materials or construction cargo and report 3 to 30 power units: fleets big enough to have a truck down every week, too small for their own body shop. The owner usually decides, so one contact per carrier. At a 6% callback rate on a voicemail and email pair, that's about 50 conversations; if a fifth send a truck in, about 10 new accounts. The pitch is turnaround: a dump truck off a job site is lost revenue the same day. Bebop can build that list from a plain-language description and research each fleet.
Hi [first name], it's [your name] at Mission Hydraulics in [area]. We fix dump bodies, hoists and wet kits, and we can usually get a truck back on the job in a day. If you've got one waiting on a repair, call me at [number]. I'll also send a short email so you have my details.
For finding the right person at larger carriers, see how to find decision makers.
San Antonio sources
| Source | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Port San Antonio logistics | Rail service, Foreign-Trade Zone and logistics providers on the campus |
| TxDMV number | Texas intrastate registration rules and insurance minimums |
| FMCSA Company Census File | Every USDOT registration, filterable by county and cargo |
Next step: see how San Antonio compares with the rest of the state in the report on trucking companies in Texas.
Sources
- County Business Patterns (CBP), 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- County Business Patterns datasets, 2023 (metro area file), US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Company Census File, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (data.transportation.gov), updated 29 October 2026, accessed 30 October 2026
- Port San Antonio, Port San Antonio, accessed 30 October 2026
- Logistics at Port San Antonio, Port San Antonio, accessed 30 October 2026
- TxDMV Number, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, accessed 30 October 2026
- Motor Carrier Lookup, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, accessed 30 October 2026
- Company Snapshot, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (SAFER), accessed 30 October 2026
- 49 CFR 387.9, Financial responsibility, minimum levels, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many trucking companies are in San Antonio?
Census County Business Patterns counted 919 trucking establishments with paid employees in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro in 2023, employing 15,562 people, and 652 in Bexar County alone. FMCSA's register lists 11,780 active carriers in the metro's eight counties, a far larger count because it includes owner-operators and private fleets. Most of those registrations are intrastate only.
What are the largest trucking companies in San Antonio?
By power units in FMCSA's register, the largest for-hire freight fleet in the metro is Aggregate Haulers in New Braunfels, with 429 power units, followed by Southwestern Motor Transport (SMT Lines) with 277 and Unique Leasing, trading as Reynolds Nationwide, with 208. H-E-B runs a larger private fleet of 922. Carriers report these figures themselves.
Do San Antonio trucking companies need a TxDMV number?
A carrier operating within Texas needs a TxDMV number if its vehicle or combination is over 26,000 pounds, it hauls placarded hazardous materials, it carries more than 15 passengers or it moves household goods for pay. Most carriers over 26,000 pounds must carry at least $500,000 of liability insurance. Check registration in TxDMV's Motor Carrier Lookup.
What freight do San Antonio trucking companies haul?
Long-distance truckload is the largest segment, 384 of the metro's 919 trucking establishments in 2023. Specialized carriers, which run dump, tanker, flatbed and oilfield equipment, make up 27.4% of establishments and pay the most. In FMCSA's register, about a third of the metro's carriers list building materials or construction (one combined field in FMCSA's file) and 798 list oilfield equipment among their cargo.
Does Port San Antonio have rail service?
Yes. Port San Antonio says its East Kelly Railport gets direct switching from Union Pacific's South San Yard and has access to BNSF, with Watco providing rail switching since 2012 and adding more than 15,000 feet of track. The campus's industrial space is inside Foreign-Trade Zone 80-10, and the Houston and Corpus Christi seaports are within three hours.