US Moving Industry Statistics From the FMCSA Register

On September 23, 2026, our copy of the FMCSA Motor Carrier Census listed 6,013 US carriers with active interstate household-goods operating authority under a moving-company style name. The typical one runs four trucks, was first licensed in 2013 and has never been assigned a safety rating.

Every figure below comes from that snapshot, which is the same register our directory of licensed movers is built on, and from our published cost model. Nothing is from a trade survey.

How many movers there are

The federal register (FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Census, the public data behind the SAFER lookup) lists every carrier with household-goods authority. Many of them are general freight carriers with a household-goods flag they rarely use, so we count only active interstate authorities whose names read like a moving company: movers, moving, van lines, relocation, transfer and storage. That filter gives 6,013.

Our state directory pages go a level deeper and detail 5,413 carriers with enough register data to profile.

Register measure (September 23, 2026)	Count
Active interstate household-goods authorities, name-filtered	6,013
Carriers detailed on our state directory pages	5,413
Of those, holding interstate authority	3,132
Of those, intrastate only	2,281

The count is a floor, not a census of everyone who will move a sofa for money. Movers in states that do not require federal registration for in-state work, labor-only crews and unlicensed operators are not in it. It is also a snapshot: authorities are granted and revoked every week, so the number drifts.

What the number means in practice: there are thousands of licensed movers, and the register is public. Any company quoting you an interstate move should be findable in it by name or USDOT number.

How small, and how young, the typical mover is

Fleet size is the register’s best single measure of a company’s scale. Among the detailed carriers with reliable fleet data:

Fleet measure	Value
Median fleet	4 trucks
Carriers running 5 trucks or fewer	64%
Carriers running 10 trucks or fewer	85%
Median fleet, 25 largest interstate movers	204 trucks
Largest fleet in the register (United Van Lines)	4,731 trucks

A four-truck mover is a local business. It runs two or three crews a day, does most of its work within its metro area, and handles a few interstate moves a year on its own authority or as an agent for a van line. Its economics are the local model’s: crew × hours × hourly rate, plus a travel fee. In our published model a two-bedroom local move is two movers for five to seven hours at $40–$50 each plus a $75 travel fee, or $475–$775.

The distance between that business and the top of the market is large. The median top-25 fleet of 204 trucks is 51 times the median mover’s 4 (204 ÷ 4), and United Van Lines’ 4,731 trucks is roughly 1,180 times the median (4,731 ÷ 4 = 1,183).

How young the industry is

Licensing measure	Value
Median year first licensed, all detailed carriers	2013
Share licensed in 2015 or later	45%
Of the 25 largest, holding authority since 1974 (the earliest date the register records)	11 of 25

Half of the movers in the register have held authority for thirteen years or less as of the snapshot, and nearly half started in the last eleven. That fits a business that is easy to enter (a truck, insurance and a filing) and easy to leave. The top of the market is the opposite: 11 of the 25 largest carriers have held authority since 1974, which is as far back as the register’s dates go, so they may be older still.

For a customer, a young authority is not a red flag by itself. It is a reason to check the register for the authority’s status and to read the company’s history rather than assume one.

How few are safety-rated, and why

Safety rating (5,413 detailed carriers)	Count	Share
Satisfactory	599	11% (599 ÷ 5,413)
Conditional	108	2% (108 ÷ 5,413)
Unsatisfactory	2	under 1%
No rating on record	4,704	87% (5,413 − 709)

Eighty-seven percent of movers have no rating at all. That is not because they failed something. A safety rating is assigned only after FMCSA conducts a compliance review of the carrier, an examination of its operations, drivers’ hours of service, maintenance and inspection records. Reviews are opened on specific companies, not run on every new authority, and the register’s own definition of an unrated carrier is simply one to which FMCSA has not assigned a rating. A four-truck mover that never draws attention can operate for decades without one.

The pattern reverses at the top: 18 of the 25 largest interstate movers carry a Satisfactory rating, 72% of that group (18 ÷ 25) against 11% of the register overall. Big fleets get reviewed.

So “unrated” means “not reviewed,” and a rating that does exist should be read against the alternatives. Conditional and Unsatisfactory are rare (110 carriers out of 5,413) and are the ones to treat as a warning.

Where the movers are

Carriers cluster where people move. The register’s active household-goods carriers by state, from the same snapshot:

State	Active household-goods carriers
Texas	2,438
Florida	2,045
California	1,617
New York	984
Georgia	711
New Jersey	589
Colorado	503
Washington	469
Maryland	421
North Carolina	420
Virginia	416
Ohio	398

And the six smallest:

State	Active household-goods carriers
District of Columbia	6
Vermont	20
South Dakota	21
West Virginia	24
North Dakota	28
Montana	30

The state counts use the register’s household-goods flag for carriers based in each state, including intrastate-only carriers, so they are a broader measure than the 6,013 name-filtered interstate authorities and do not sum to it. Texas and Florida together account for 4,483 carriers (2,438 + 2,045), and both states run their own registration regimes on top of the federal one, described on our Texas movers and Florida movers pages.

The top of the market

The 25 largest interstate movers by fleet are a different industry from the median mover, and not a uniform one.

25 largest interstate movers	Value
Median fleet	204 trucks
Median drivers	193
Satisfactory safety rating	18 of 25
Authority held since 1974	11 of 25
National van lines	7
Agents of a van line	7
Independent carriers	11
Largest fleet: United Van Lines	4,731 trucks

Seven are national van lines, the brands whose authority and tariff cover a network of local agents. Seven are themselves agents, large enough to reach the top 25 on their own fleets while operating under a van line’s name on interstate moves. Eleven are independent carriers holding their own authority end to end. The profiles of the 25 largest interstate movers show which is which, and the United Van Lines profile covers the largest fleet in the register.

What this means if you are hiring a mover

Three conclusions follow from the register.

1. Most movers are small local businesses. With a median fleet of four trucks and 85% running ten or fewer, the company that quotes your move is far more likely to be a local firm than a national brand, and its price is built from crews and hours.
2. An unrated mover is the norm, not a warning. Check the register for active authority and for a Conditional or Unsatisfactory rating, which are rare and meaningful. The absence of a rating tells you only that FMCSA has not reviewed the carrier.
3. Check the register every time. It is public, it is current, and it takes a minute. The moving industry hub explains how the pieces fit together, and our methodology page describes how we filter the register and build the 2,557 city-to-city route prices across 162 cities that sit on top of it.