Texas Motor Carrier
Safety Profile, 2026
Who Texas-based interstate carriers are, how they fare at roadside inspections, and which violations come up most, from FMCSA's own safety data.
What the FMCSA data shows about Texas carriers
This study profiles Texas-based interstate motor carriers using FMCSA's own Safety Measurement System files: who they are, how they fare at roadside inspections, and which violations come up most.
- 53,222 active interstate motor carriers in FMCSA's October 2026 SMS census list a Texas physical address, 8.1% of 656,834 interstate carriers with a U.S. address. Texas ranks No. 2 among the states and D.C. by this count.
- 86.8% of Texas interstate carriers report 1 to 10 power units (46,212 carriers), compared with 87.4% nationally. 53.2% report exactly one power unit.
- Between 2024-09-25 and 2026-09-24, roadside inspections of Texas-based interstate carriers totaled 483,296, covering 30,237 distinct carriers (56.8% of Texas interstate carriers). 46.0% of those inspections took place in Texas.
All figures describe carriers by registered address and inspections by the 24-month SMS window. See methodology for definitions and limitations before quoting.
Key findings
Each finding has its own link. Every figure is computed by Fleet Regulators' analysis code from the FMCSA files listed under Sources; the computed tables are downloadable below.
- 53,222 active interstate motor carriers in FMCSA's October 2026 SMS census list a Texas physical address, 8.1% of 656,834 interstate carriers with a U.S. address. Texas ranks No. 2 among the states and D.C. by this count.#
- 86.8% of Texas interstate carriers report 1 to 10 power units (46,212 carriers), compared with 87.4% nationally. 53.2% report exactly one power unit.#
- Between 2024-09-25 and 2026-09-24, roadside inspections of Texas-based interstate carriers totaled 483,296, covering 30,237 distinct carriers (56.8% of Texas interstate carriers). 46.0% of those inspections took place in Texas.#
- Texas-based carriers' driver out-of-service rate was 7.4% of driver inspections, higher than the national 5.8%. Their vehicle out-of-service rate was 23.5%, higher than the national 21.5%.#
- Vehicle Maintenance accounts for 77.1% of the 669,918 SMS violations recorded against Texas-based carriers. Hours-of-Service Compliance accounts for 12.2%, about the same as its national share of 12.9%.#
- The most frequently recorded violation code for Texas-based carriers is 3939 (Inoperable Required Lamp), with 38,127 violations, 5.7% of all their recorded violations.#
- Among Texas carriers with 2 to 10 power units, the vehicle out-of-service rate was 29.7% and the driver out-of-service rate was 11.4%. For Texas carriers with 151 or more power units the rates were 15.8% and 2.8%.#
- Carriers with a physical address in the Dallas-Fort Worth core counties number 13,778 (25.9% of Texas interstate carriers); the Houston core counties have 13,492 (25.4%). Vehicle out-of-service rates were 23.3% for DFW-based carriers and 26.8% for Houston-based carriers.#
Texas interstate carriers by fleet size
Fleet size here is the number of power units each carrier reports on its MCS-150 registration. Carriers, not trucks, are counted.
| Fleet size | Texas carriers | Texas share | U.S. carriers | U.S. share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 power unit | 28,305 | 53.2% | 329,194 | 50.1% |
| 2-10 power units | 17,907 | 33.6% | 245,052 | 37.3% |
| 11-50 power units | 3,409 | 6.4% | 45,260 | 6.9% |
| 51-150 power units | 741 | 1.4% | 8,641 | 1.3% |
| 151+ power units | 371 | 0.7% | 3,684 | 0.6% |
| Not reported or 0 | 2,489 | 4.7% | 25,003 | 3.8% |
Interstate carriers in the October 2026 SMS census with a U.S. physical address. Download this table (CSV).
Most of the Texas carrier base is small operations. Those are the fleets that usually have no full-time safety staff, which is the gap a fractional safety manager or a small-fleet compliance program fills.
Out-of-service rates by fleet size
Rates are shares of inspections, not of carriers. A driver out-of-service rate counts inspections that examined the driver; a vehicle out-of-service rate counts inspections that examined the vehicle. Cells with fewer than 1,000 inspections are suppressed.
| Fleet size | Texas driver OOS | U.S. driver OOS | Texas vehicle OOS | U.S. vehicle OOS | Texas vehicle inspections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 power unit | 15.2% | 12.8% | 29.8% | 27.9% | 35,729 |
| 2-10 power units | 11.4% | 10.1% | 29.7% | 26.9% | 91,669 |
| 11-50 power units | 6.7% | 5.3% | 24.1% | 22.0% | 87,567 |
| 51-150 power units | 4.3% | 3.3% | 20.4% | 19.4% | 57,427 |
| 151+ power units | 2.8% | 1.7% | 15.8% | 15.8% | 86,687 |
| Not reported or 0 | Suppressed | 18.0% | Suppressed | 26.4% | 452 |
Inspections of interstate carriers, by the carrier’s registered state and reported power units. Download this table (CSV).
Where Texas carriers' violations come from
Each row counts violations recorded in the SMS run against carriers in that group, by BASIC. Violations per 100 inspections uses all of that group's inspections as the denominator.
| BASIC | Texas violations | Texas share | Texas per 100 inspections | U.S. share | U.S. per 100 inspections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle Maintenance | 516,356 | 77.1% | 106.8 | 68.6% | 66.8 |
| Hours-of-Service Compliance | 82,050 | 12.2% | 17.0 | 12.9% | 12.6 |
| Unsafe Driving | 35,403 | 5.3% | 7.3 | 12.6% | 12.3 |
| Driver Fitness | 29,759 | 4.4% | 6.2 | 5.0% | 4.8 |
| Hazardous Materials Compliance | 5,215 | 0.8% | 1.1 | 0.7% | 0.7 |
| Controlled Substances/Alcohol | 1,135 | 0.2% | 0.2 | 0.3% | 0.3 |
SMS violations, 24-month window. Download this table (CSV).
Most frequently recorded violation codes, Texas-based carriers
| Code | FMCSA description | BASIC | Violations | Share | Out-of-service share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3939 | Inoperable Required Lamp | Vehicle Maintenance | 38,127 | 5.7% | 10.7% |
| 39347E | Brake Out of Adjustment - Roto Clamp (Short & Long) DD-3 or Bolt | Vehicle Maintenance | 18,037 | 2.7% | 0.0% |
| 39378 | Wipers - Inoperative / missing / damaged wipers | Vehicle Maintenance | 17,028 | 2.5% | 0.0% |
| 39617C | Operating a CMV without proof of a periodic inspection | Vehicle Maintenance | 16,840 | 2.5% | 0.0% |
| 3939TS | Inoperative turn signal | Vehicle Maintenance | 13,481 | 2.0% | 37.4% |
| 39395A | No/discharged/unsecured fire extinguisher | Vehicle Maintenance | 12,459 | 1.9% | 0.0% |
| 39375A3 | Tire-flat and/or audible air leak | Vehicle Maintenance | 11,573 | 1.7% | 99.0% |
| 3963A1BOS | Brake - Defective brake(s) are equal to or greater than 20% of the service brakes on the vehicle/combination | Vehicle Maintenance | 11,545 | 1.7% | 99.8% |
| 39353B | CMV manufactured after 10/19/94 has an automatic airbrake adjustment system that fails to compensate for wear | Vehicle Maintenance | 11,129 | 1.7% | 0.0% |
| 39360C | Windshield - Damaged or Discolored | Vehicle Maintenance | 10,919 | 1.6% | 0.0% |
| 39345B2UV | Brake Hose or Tubing Chafing and/or Kinking Under Vehicle | Vehicle Maintenance | 10,893 | 1.6% | 13.0% |
| 39355E | No or Defective ABS Malfunction Indicator Lamp for trailer manufactured after 03/01/1998 | Vehicle Maintenance | 10,508 | 1.6% | 0.0% |
| 3963A1 | Inspection repair and maintenance of parts and accessories | Vehicle Maintenance | 10,197 | 1.5% | 8.8% |
| 3965B | Oil and/or grease leak | Vehicle Maintenance | 9,598 | 1.4% | 0.1% |
| 39375A3TAOL | Tires - All others leaking or inflation less than 50% of the maximum inflation pressure on tire not equipped with ATIS | Vehicle Maintenance | 9,381 | 1.4% | 98.7% |
Descriptions are FMCSA’s. Frequency is not severity. Download this table (CSV).
Maintenance violations dominate by volume, which is why a documented inspection and defect-repair routine matters before an audit or a broker review. Hours-of-service violations are a smaller share of the count but carry real weight in the HOS BASIC; our companion study on the most common HOS violations at roadside breaks them down code by code.
Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston
Regions are defined by the county of the carrier's registered physical address, using study-defined core counties. They show where carriers are based, not where they drive.
| Region | Counties | Interstate carriers | Share of Texas carriers | Share with 1-10 power units | Driver OOS | Vehicle OOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas-Fort Worth core counties | Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant | 13,778 | 25.9% | 86.5% | 6.4% | 23.3% |
| Houston core counties | Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Montgomery | 13,492 | 25.4% | 87.9% | 9.0% | 26.8% |
County from the FMCSA Company Census File; rates suppressed below 1,000 inspections. Download this table (CSV).
How we built this study
- Population
- "Active interstate carrier" means a carrier listed in the SMS Input - Motor Carrier Census file for this SMS run (FMCSA describes the file as registration data for active interstate and intrastate hazmat carriers) with carrier_operation 'A' (interstate) and a physical address in one of the 50 states or D.C. Texas means phy_state = 'TX'.
- Active carrier definitions
- The FMCSA Company Census File uses its own status field. By that file's definition (status_code 'A', carrier_operation 'A'), 57,070 Texas interstate carriers were active on 2026-11-06, compared with 53,222 in the SMS census used here. The two files measure different things on different dates; this study uses the SMS census throughout so carriers, inspections, and violations come from the same run.
- Geography
- Physical (registered) address on the carrier's FMCSA registration. It is not where the carrier operates or where inspections happened. Regions use the county code in the Company Census File; county groups are study-defined core counties, listed in texas_regions.csv.
- County assignment
- County codes come from the Company Census File retrieved 2026-11-07 (portal data updated 2026-11-06), a later snapshot than the SMS run of 2026-10-13. 136 Texas interstate carriers in the SMS census had no Company Census record in that snapshot and are not assigned to any county group.
- Fleet size
- nbr_power_unit as self-reported on the carrier's MCS-150. Bands: 1 power unit, 2-10 power units, 11-50 power units, 51-150 power units, 151+ power units; zero or missing is reported separately.
- Inspections
- Rows of the SMS Input - Inspection file (inspections used in the SMS run, 24-month window). Attributed to the inspected carrier's USDOT number.
- Driver out-of-service rate
- Inspections at levels 1, 2, 3, 6 with at least one driver out-of-service violation, divided by all inspections at those levels.
- Vehicle out-of-service rate
- Inspections at levels 1, 2, 5, 6 with at least one vehicle out-of-service violation, divided by all inspections at those levels.
- Violations
- Rows of the SMS Input - Violation file (violations used in SMS calculations), attributed by USDOT number.
- Small numbers
- Rates require at least 1,000 inspections in the denominator; smaller cells are shown as suppressed. Carrier counts and carrier shares are exact and are not suppressed.
- Comparisons
- Differences under 1.0 percentage point are described as about the same.
- Rounding
- Percentages rounded to one decimal place. Counts are exact.
Quality checks run on this snapshot: 5,853,762 inspection rows with 0 duplicate inspection IDs; 6,784,490 violation rows, 100.0% of which link to an inspection row; 0 duplicate USDOT numbers in the carrier census; 100.0% of inspections matched to a carrier in the census. Full results are in the methodology file.
Reproducibility
Method. Every definition, filter, and denominator used is documented on this page and in methodology.json, so the calculations can be repeated by anyone with the same FMCSA files.
Exact snapshot. FMCSA replaces the SMS files each month, so downloading them today will not return the data used here. The source manifest identifies the exact inputs (dataset IDs, portal update dates, retrieval dates, row counts, and file checksums). Fleet Regulators holds that archived snapshot; independent verification of these exact figures requires it.
Newer data. Running the same analysis on a later FMCSA release will produce different numbers, which should be published as a new edition with its own snapshot date.
What this data can and cannot tell you
- Registered address is not operating territory; many Texas-based carriers run interstate lanes and many inspections of them occur outside Texas.
- Power units and drivers are self-reported on the MCS-150 and can be out of date.
- Inspection exposure is not random: enforcement focus, routes, and facility locations affect who is inspected.
- Out-of-service rates describe inspections, not carriers, and are not crash-risk measures.
- The SMS files contain only inspections and violations used in SMS calculations for the month's run.
- Region results reflect study-defined county groups, not official metropolitan statistical areas.
- Texas-versus-national differences in out-of-service rates are descriptive. They can reflect where and how carriers are inspected (inspection level, enforcement practice, routes), not only carrier behavior.
Sources
- SMS Input - Motor Carrier Census Information (dataset kjg3-diqy), U.S. DOT open data portal. Portal data updated 2026-10-13; 2,132,868 rows retrieved 2026-11-07 (UTC).
- SMS Input - Inspection (dataset rbkj-cgst), U.S. DOT open data portal. Portal data updated 2026-10-13; 5,853,762 rows retrieved 2026-11-07 (UTC).
- SMS Input - Violation (dataset 8mt8-2mdr), U.S. DOT open data portal. Portal data updated 2026-10-13; 6,784,490 rows retrieved 2026-11-07 (UTC).
- Company Census File (dataset az4n-8mr2), U.S. DOT open data portal. Portal data updated 2026-11-06; 379,302 rows retrieved 2026-11-07 (UTC).
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 county codes for Texas, used to map county FIPS codes to county names.
Download the data
These files contain aggregate counts and rates only, no carrier-level records. The underlying data is published by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the U.S. DOT open data portal; cite FMCSA as the data source and this page for the analysis.
- findings.json: every headline figure on this page with the sentence it supports.
- methodology.json: sources, snapshot dates, definitions, suppression rules, and quality checks.
- source-manifest.json: identifiers, row counts, and checksums of the exact FMCSA source files used.
- carriers_by_fleet_size.csv: Texas and U.S. interstate carriers by power-unit band.
- oos_rates_by_fleet_size.csv: Driver and vehicle out-of-service rates by power-unit band.
- violations_by_basic.csv: Violations by BASIC, share and per 100 inspections.
- top_violation_codes_texas.csv: Most frequently recorded violation codes for Texas-based carriers.
- texas_regions.csv: Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston core-county carrier counts and out-of-service rates.
Suggested citation
Link to a specific finding with its anchor, for example https://fleetregulators.com/research/texas-motor-carrier-safety-profile#finding-carrier-count.
Frequently asked questions
How many interstate trucking companies are based in Texas?
In FMCSA's October 2026 SMS census, 53,222 active interstate motor carriers list a Texas physical address. That counts carriers of property and passengers by registered address, not trucks and not where they operate.
What is the out-of-service rate for Texas carriers?
For inspections of Texas-based interstate carriers between 2024-09-25 and 2026-09-24, the driver out-of-service rate was 7.4% of driver inspections and the vehicle out-of-service rate was 23.5% of vehicle inspections.
Does this study show where Texas carriers drive?
No. Geography is the carrier's registered physical address. Many Texas-based carriers operate across state lines, and many of their inspections take place outside Texas.
Where does the data come from?
From FMCSA's Safety Measurement System input files and Company Census File, published on the U.S. DOT open data portal. The download and analysis scripts are documented in the methodology section.
Can Fleet Regulators review my fleet's inspection history?
Yes. We review a carrier's inspections, violations, and BASIC percentiles and explain what is driving them. It is a carrier-specific review, not a promise of a particular score or audit result.
Want your fleet measured against these numbers?
We review your inspection history, BASIC percentiles, and records, then tell you plainly where the risk is and what to fix first. No guarantees, just a clear picture.