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🚚 Starting as an owner-operator or small carrier

The honest version — including the failure rate nobody quotes you.

What the market is worth

US trucking revenue: $906B 2024, down from $1.004T in 2023, on 11.27 billion tons hauled (ATA American Trucking Trends 2025, the latest edition)
New owner-operators who exit: 70–80% within their first two years, by industry estimate
For-hire carriers: 344,766 with operating authority on December 1, 2025, still 34% above February 2020, although about 4,750 a month lost their authority, net of reinstatements, through 2025 (FTR, via Ryan Transportation)
How small the field is: 91.5% of carriers run 10 trucks or fewer, and 99.3% fewer than 100 — you'd be typical, not disadvantaged (ATA)
Professional drivers: 3.58M in 2024, among 8.4 million trucking-related jobs (ATA)

How it actually grows

Before authority Know your cost per mile first

Fuel, payment, insurance, maintenance reserve, tyres, permits, and your own wage. Until that number is real, every rate looks acceptable — and that is precisely how most new operators fail.

Watch out: Buying the truck first. The truck is available any time; the operating knowledge that keeps it profitable is not.

First year Cash flow kills before profit does

Brokers commonly pay on 30-plus day terms while fuel and payments are immediate. Many operators who were profitable on paper ran out of cash anyway.

Watch out: Running cheap freight to stay moving. An empty truck costs less than a load that doesn't cover cost per mile.

Finding your lane Direct freight and repeat shippers

Load boards are the spot market and are the most competitive rates available. Direct shipper relationships and dedicated lanes pay better and are far steadier.

Watch out: Deadhead miles. Revenue per LOADED mile flatters you; cost accrues on all of them.

Second truck The hardest decision in this business

A second truck means a driver, more insurance, and your time moving from driving to managing. Many operators earn less at two trucks than at one, and only find out afterwards.

Watch out: Expanding during a soft freight market. Thousands of carriers have exited since 2024 — most had trucks and no margin.

What each revenue stream is good for

Revenue stream	Pays	Scales
Spot market (load boards) Always available, most competitive rates. A floor, not a strategy.	Volatile	Good
Dedicated lanes Predictable miles and planning. The backbone of a stable operation.	Steady, moderate	Good
Direct shipper contracts Cuts out the broker margin. Slow to win and worth the effort.	Best	Relationship-limited
Specialised freight Reefer, flatbed, hazmat, oversize — fewer competitors, higher barrier.	Premium	Equipment-limited
Regional / short haul More stops, more home time. Often better per hour than per mile suggests.	Lower per mile	Good
Leasing to a carrier Less admin and steadier volume, at the cost of independence and rate.	Lower, predictable	Limited

If you're starting this month

Calculate cost per mile including a maintenance reserve and your own wage — then refuse anything below it.
Secure 60–90 days of operating cash before your first load. Broker payment terms are the most common cause of failure.
Track revenue per TOTAL mile, not per loaded mile. Deadhead is where margin quietly disappears.
Consider factoring for the cash-flow gap, and price its fee into your cost per mile honestly.
Build two direct shipper relationships in year one. They're what carries you through a soft spot market.

Before you act on any of this

This is a regulated industry with real compliance weight: operating authority, USDOT and MC numbers, BOC-3, UCR, IFTA, hours-of-service and ELD rules, drug and alcohol clearinghouse enrolment, and CSA scoring all apply from day one. Registration has moved to FMCSA's new Motus system, which verifies each applicant's identity, and since June 25, 2025 a driver who can't show English proficiency at a roadside inspection is placed out of service. Insurance is the largest fixed cost and getting it wrong is existential. The failure statistics above are not a scare tactic — treat a 70–80% two-year exit rate as the base rate you are trying to beat, and be honest with yourself about how.

Run this against real numbers → The same handbook inside the tool, on a worked example you can swap for your own spreadsheet. Free, no account.

Guides for this business

Revenue per mile: reading a trucking operation's real numbers →

The other 33 handbooks

Figures are sourced from published industry research (IBISWorld, trade associations and regulator data) and are stated with their year. They describe typical conditions, not your situation. This is general information for business owners, not financial, tax, or legal advice.