Why Owner-Operators Exit Small Fleets—and What Happens to Their Trucks

Why Owner-Operators Are Leaving the Small-Fleet Tier — and Where Their Trucks Go Next

The number of tractors operated by the smallest carriers has been falling for more than three years. But the decline does not necessarily mean that tens of thousands of trucks have been parked or removed from the trucking industry.

In many cases, the equipment is still working. The change is that it is operating under a different carrier’s authority.

FreightWaves SONAR data shows that carriers with one to six power units operated about 362,033 tractors as of early November 2026. That figure is below the segment’s five-year average of roughly 378,800 tractors and its 12-month average of about 364,960.

The segment reached nearly 398,000 tractors in the first half of 2023, after pandemic-era freight demand and relatively easy access to operating authority brought many new entrants into the market. Since then, the count has declined with few interruptions.

The drop amounts to approximately 36,000 tractors, or about 9% of the segment. In practical terms, much of the growth that occurred during the freight boom has now been reversed.

A large and important part of trucking

The one-to-six-truck category remains the broadest part of the carrier population. The latest Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration census includes more than 1.8 million active carrier registrations in that fleet-size range. The figure includes private and intrastate carriers, as well as for-hire trucking companies.

That means the contraction is occurring across the industry’s largest base of small operators. It is not limited to a small group of marginal carriers or a single freight market.

For owner-operators, the challenge is increasingly financial. The American Transportation Research Institute reported an average marginal operating cost of $2.336 per mile in 2025. Driver compensation accounted for approximately 82 cents per mile, while fuel represented about 48 cents.

Fuel costs then moved sharply higher. The U.S. Department of Energy’s national on-highway diesel average reached $6.127 per gallon for the week of Nov. 9, 2026, according to the data provided. At six to seven miles per gallon, that puts fuel alone near or above $1 per mile for many trucks.

Small carriers are especially exposed because many depend on spot-market freight. Spot rates are generally quoted as an all-in price, without a separate fuel-surcharge line. When diesel rises, the owner-operator may have little ability to recover the increase before the load is accepted.

Larger fleets hauling contract freight often have negotiated fuel-surcharge programs. Those arrangements do not eliminate higher fuel costs, but they can recover part of the increase. Larger carriers may also benefit from greater purchasing power and the ability to spread insurance, maintenance and administrative costs across more trucks.

Insurance is another major expense. ATRI data put insurance costs at about 10.6 cents per mile in 2025, up nearly 4% from the prior year. A one- or two-truck operation has fewer ways to spread those costs or negotiate favorable terms.

Health insurance may add another layer of pressure. Temporary changes that expanded marketplace subsidies were set to expire after 2025 unless renewed. If the system returns to its earlier structure, individual coverage could become more expensive for some owner-operators and small-carrier employees. Very small fleets often cannot offer employer-sponsored group coverage, making marketplace insurance an important part of the employment decision for some drivers.

The trucks are moving up the fleet ladder

FMCSA census data helps explain where some of the equipment is going. Owner-operators run overwhelmingly owned equipment, with only about 6.9% of their tractors listed as leased.

Among carriers with seven to 19 trucks, the leased share rises to 18.2%. In the 20-to-100-truck category, leased equipment accounts for approximately 31.6% of tractors. The share rises above 40% among carriers operating 101 to 999 trucks.

That pattern is consistent with a common transition: an owner-operator gives up independent authority and leases the truck to a larger carrier. The driver continues operating the same equipment, but the larger carrier handles some combination of freight, compliance, insurance, billing and back-office work.

The census data does not identify every former owner-operator in the leased-equipment totals. Term-leased tractors can also include equipment leased from full-service companies such as Penske or Ryder. Still, the figures show that larger fleets increasingly operate trucks they do not own outright.

The 20-to-100-truck segment appears to be a significant landing point. The category includes about 44,500 active carriers, fewer than 2% of all registered carriers, but those companies operate roughly 1.75 million power units.

In that category, the census lists more than 217,000 term-leased tractors alongside approximately 466,000 owned tractors. SONAR’s separate count for the same fleet-size band is about 470,402 tractors, providing a close comparison between the two data sources.

Not every truck is leased on

Some owner-operators sell their equipment instead of leasing it to another carrier. Those trucks may be purchased by fleets looking for used equipment at a lower cost.

In both cases, the truck can remain active while the original authority disappears. The result is a decline in the number of tractors reported by the smallest carriers without a matching loss of equipment from the overall market.

That distinction matters when evaluating trucking capacity. A smaller number of independent carriers does not automatically mean the same number of trucks has left the road. Some capacity is being consolidated into larger operations that may be better positioned to manage fuel, insurance and maintenance costs.

For drivers, the shift changes the decision facing a struggling owner-operator. Leaving independent authority does not always mean leaving trucking. It can mean trading some control and independence for access to a larger carrier’s freight base, fuel programs, administrative support and risk-sharing structure.

The small-carrier sector is not disappearing, but it is under greater financial pressure than it faced during the freight boom. The data points to a continuing migration: fewer tractors operating under one-to-six-truck authorities, and more equipment being absorbed by larger fleets through lease-ons and used-truck purchases.

For many owner-operators, the central question is no longer simply whether to remain in trucking. It is whether the business can continue to operate profitably as an independent carrier.