Trucking Company Valuation: Value a Trucking Company and What Trucking Companies Sell For
Enter the company's revenue and owner earnings and read a range benchmarked to what owner-run carriers and small fleets actually closed at, whether you are setting an asking price or checking a listing before you make an offer.
Estimated business value
Method breakdown
What moves this number
Estimate, not a certified appraisal. Your figures are not stored.
Trucking companies sold in the US across the five years to 2025 went for a median of 2.96x seller discretionary earnings, or 0.59x annual revenue, with a lower quartile of 2.29x and an upper quartile of 3.56x. The median sale price was $1,137,500, on median revenue of $1,954,881 and median owner earnings of $400,000, after a median 203 days on the market. Divide the median price by the median earnings and the multiple that clears the market is 2.84x, with the fleet included.
The lender is not what holds that price down. At an $80,000 owner draw, $400,000 of earnings supports about $1,756,700 of SBA-financed price before any money is set aside for trucks. The median price of $1,137,500 is what remains once a buyer reserves about $112,800 a year for fleet replacement. In trucking, the trucks set the ceiling. This is a benchmark and an estimator, not a certified appraisal.
Closed transactions
01What trucking companies actually sold for
These are sale prices, not asking prices, from trucking companies sold across the five years 2021 to 2025. The source describes the set as private general trucking companies, specialized transportation and logistics businesses, and long-distance and line-haul carriers contracted with large brands such as FedEx, many with a freight brokerage operation alongside. Guides to trucking valuation usually quote the platform deals at 5x to 8x EBITDA. Those are a different buyer. This is what owner-run fleets actually changed hands for.
Median sale price
$1,137,500
What the middle trucking company actually closed at, 2021 to 2025
Median asking price
$1,200,000
What the same sold companies were listed at
Median revenue
$1,954,881
Annual sales of the middle trucking company sold
Median owner earnings (SDE)
$400,000
Seller discretionary earnings of the middle company sold
| Trucking companies sold, 2021 to 2025 | Lower quartile | Median | Average | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller discretionary earnings multiple | 2.29x | 2.96x | 3.00x | 3.56x |
| Revenue multiple (multiple of annual sales) | 0.39x | 0.59x | 0.65x | 0.86x |
| Revenue | $1,061,675 | $1,954,881 | $3,419,690 | $4,768,985 |
| Owner earnings (SDE) | $232,180 | $400,000 | $600,351 | $759,540 |
Source: BizBuySell trucking company business valuation benchmarks, trucking companies sold on the platform 2021 to 2025, retrieved September 2026. The narrative on the source page says half of trucking companies sold between 2.35x and 3.75x owner earnings; its own quartile table, used here, puts the interquartile range at 2.29x to 3.56x. Benchmarks, not quotes.
Two things stand out. The average earnings multiple, 3.00x, sits only 0.04 above the median, 2.96x, the tightest spread of any sector we track, which says trucking buyers price earnings consistently and the odd expensive deal is rare. And the revenue spread is enormous: the upper quartile of sold companies billed $4,768,985, four and a half times the lower quartile, while the earnings spread is 3.3 times. Bigger fleets carry thinner margins. If you are working out how to calculate SDE for the company in front of you, do that first, then find its row in section 07.
Our calculation
02Why the trucks, not the lender, set the ceiling on a trucking company price
Seller discretionary earnings adds depreciation back. In a restaurant or an accounting practice that is a small number. In a trucking company it is the tractors and trailers wearing out, and the buyer has to fund their replacement out of the same earnings the lender is counting on. An SBA 7(a) loan for a business purchase without real estate runs up to 10 years, so the lender sees $400,000 of earnings and, at an $80,000 owner draw and 1.25x coverage, will lend against a price of about $1,756,700. Nobody pays that, because the fleet comes first.
The table runs the median company, $400,000 of owner earnings, through the same loan at 10.5 percent, 10 years, 1.25x coverage and a 10 percent injection, with the owner drawing $80,000 and setting aside a fixed annual amount for equipment before anything goes to debt service.
| Annual fleet reserve | Left for debt service after an $80,000 draw | Supportable price | What that reserve buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| No fleet reserve | $320,000 | $1,756,697 | Every dollar of SDE after the draw goes to the lender |
| $50,000 a year | $270,000 | $1,482,213 | A used tractor every year or two |
| $100,000 a year | $220,000 | $1,207,729 | About one new tractor a year |
| $112,793 a year | $207,207 | $1,137,500 | The reserve the median sale price implies |
| $150,000 a year | $170,000 | $933,245 | Below the median price |
| $200,000 a year | $120,000 | $658,762 | Below the lower quartile multiple on median earnings |
| $252,180 a year (public trucking capex intensity, 12.90% of revenue) | $67,820 | $372,310 | A third of the market price |
Computed here. Annual loan constant 0.16192 at 10 years and 10.5 percent, so the supportable price is earnings left for debt service divided by 1.25, divided by the loan constant, divided by 0.90. The last row applies the 12.90 percent of revenue that US listed trucking companies spent on capital expenditure in January 2026 to the median sold revenue of $1,954,881; a small fleet running older equipment may spend more or less than that. Illustrative arithmetic before taxes, not a loan offer or a credit decision.
Median company at the median price
$154,234
What remains of the median company's $400,000 after the annual payment on a $1,023,750 loan, about $165,766 covered 2.41 times, and an $80,000 owner draw. That is the whole budget for trucks, tires, income tax and anything the freight market does next. Spend it on one new tractor and there is nothing left.
The reserve the market price implies
$112,793
Solve the same arithmetic backwards from the $1,137,500 median sale price and the buyer who paid it was setting aside about $112,800 a year for equipment at an $80,000 draw. Every additional $50,000 of annual reserve takes about $274,500 off the financeable price, which is what a fleet averaging eight years old costs a seller.
So the trucking company price is a fleet condition price as much as an earnings price. For a seller, that means the age list of the equipment is the negotiation, and replacing the two oldest tractors before listing can add more to the price than it costs. For a buyer, it means the depreciation add-back in the listing is not free cash flow, it is the replacement schedule in disguise. Our note on how to calculate maintenance capex walks through the fleet arithmetic on a $2,000,000 trucking company line by line.
Cross-check
03The one sector where multiplying by the median multiple works
A seller handed a multiple usually multiplies, and in most sectors the answer lands far from the median sale price. Car wash medians overshoot by 24.0 percent on earnings and 39.4 percent on revenue. Trucking is different: every route lands within 5.5 percent of the observed median, and the revenue route lands within 1.4 percent. The sold multiples describe this market well.
| Method | Arithmetic | Implied value | Against the observed median sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median earnings x median earnings multiple | $400,000 x 2.96 | $1,184,000 | +4.1% |
| Median earnings x average earnings multiple | $400,000 x 3.00 | $1,200,000 | +5.5% |
| Median revenue x median revenue multiple | $1,954,881 x 0.59 | $1,153,380 | +1.4% |
| Median revenue x average revenue multiple | $1,954,881 x 0.65 | $1,270,673 | +11.7% |
| Observed median sale price | reported directly | $1,137,500 | n/a |
Computed here from the published medians and multiples. A median of per-sale multiples and a ratio of median price to median earnings measure different things; they agree here because trucking deals cluster tightly around 3x and the owner margin stays in a narrow band.
The practical rule: for an owner-run trucking company, normalized earnings times about 2.84x to 2.96x is a defensible starting price, and 0.59x revenue is a fair check on it as long as the owner margin sits near the 18 to 23 percent the sold record shows. If the margin is 12 percent, the revenue route will overprice the company by half. Our note on the revenue multiple against the EBITDA multiple explains why the two only agree when margins are stable.
Listings against reality
04What trucking companies for sale are asking
If you are looking at trucking companies for sale, this table is unusual and worth reading twice. In every other sector we track, listed businesses report more earnings than the ones that sold. Trucking companies listed now report 5.9 percent less owner earnings and 26.3 percent less revenue than the companies that closed. The market is selling its bigger fleets, and the smaller ones are what remains on the shelf.
| Financials | Trucking companies listed now | Trucking companies that sold | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median revenue | $1,440,207 | $1,954,881 | -26.3% |
| Median owner earnings (SDE) | $376,235 | $400,000 | -5.9% |
| Lower quartile owner earnings | $258,162 | $232,180 | +11.2% |
| Upper quartile owner earnings | $584,952 | $759,540 | -23.0% |
| Average owner earnings | $507,278 | $600,351 | -15.5% |
| Implied owner margin (computed here) | 26.1% | 20.5% | +5.6 points |
| Quartile | Listed SDE multiple | Sold SDE multiple | Difference | Listed revenue multiple | Sold revenue multiple | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 2.47x | 2.29x | -7.3% | 0.62x | 0.39x | -37.1% |
| Median | 2.97x | 2.96x | -0.3% | 0.78x | 0.59x | -24.4% |
| Average | 3.18x | 3.00x | -5.7% | 0.80x | 0.65x | -18.8% |
| Upper quartile | 3.56x | 3.56x | 0.0% | 0.92x | 0.86x | -6.5% |
Listed and sold figures are published. The difference columns and the implied margins are computed here.
The earnings multiple is honest in this market: listings ask 2.97x and sales close at 2.96x, and the upper quartile is identical at 3.56x. What runs high is the revenue multiple, 0.78x asked against 0.59x paid, and the reason is in the first table. Listed companies show a 26.1 percent owner margin against 20.5 percent for sold companies, so a seller asking 0.78x revenue on a thinner-margin fleet is asking a higher earnings multiple without saying so. Rebuild the earnings, apply 2.96x, and ignore the revenue figure in the listing.
Our calculation
05Trucking sellers give up 7 percent at the table and nothing in the listing
Trucking companies listed now ask a median 2.97x owner earnings. Companies that sold went for 2.96x. The gap is 0.3 percent, which looks like nothing until it is split in two. Selection is the share explained by which listings close. Negotiation is what a company that does sell gives up from its own asking price. Dividing the sold multiple by the sale-to-ask ratio recovers what the sellers who closed were asking.
| Reading of the sale-to-ask ratio | All listings ask | Closers asked | Selection | Sold at | Negotiation | Total gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Published average sale to ask, 0.93 | 2.97x | 3.18x | +7.2% | 2.96x | -7.0% | -0.3% |
| Ratio of five-year pooled medians, 0.95 | 2.97x | 3.12x | +5.1% | 2.96x | -5.2% | -0.3% |
| Average of the five yearly ratios, 0.92 | 2.97x | 3.21x | +8.1% | 2.96x | -7.8% | -0.3% |
| Sector | All listings ask | Closers asked | Selection | Sold at | Negotiation | Total gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trucking companies | 2.97x | 3.18x | +7.2% | 2.96x | -7.0% | -0.3% |
| Gas stations | 2.89x | 3.00x | +3.8% | 3.00x | 0.0% | +3.8% |
| Car washes | 6.30x | 5.69x | -9.6% | 5.18x | -9.0% | -17.8% |
| Pharmacies | 3.02x | 2.75x | -8.8% | 2.45x | -11.0% | -18.9% |
| Auto repair shops | 2.91x | 2.38x | -18.2% | 2.31x | -3.0% | -20.6% |
| Laundromats | 4.80x | 3.80x | -20.7% | 3.50x | -8.0% | -27.1% |
Computed here from each sector's published listing multiple, sold multiple and average sale-to-ask ratio. The three readings of the ratio for trucking move the split by about three points but leave the total gap unchanged, because it depends only on the two multiples.
Selection runs positive here, as it does for gas stations: the sellers who closed were asking about 3.18x, above the 2.97x the whole pool asks, so buyers are choosing the companies priced at the top of the range, the larger and better-run fleets, and then negotiating about 7 percent off. The 2025 sale to ask of 0.89 says that discount has widened to about 11 percent. For a seller, the lesson is the opposite of the car wash market: an ambitious asking price does not stop a trucking company from selling, provided the earnings and the fleet support it, but expect to give some of it back.
Five-year record
06Trucking company sale prices year by year
The median trucking company sold for $1,300,000 in 2021 and $1,300,000 in 2025, with a dip to $975,000 in 2022 and a peak of $1,387,500 in 2023. Median owner earnings of sold companies rose 12.4 percent over the five years, and median asking prices rose 7.3 percent. The source ties the 2023 peak to larger companies coming to market to sell into strong valuations, and the following two years to a return to more modest growth.
| Year | Median revenue | Median SDE | Owner margin | Avg SDE multiple | Avg revenue multiple | Median sale | Median ask | Sale/ask | Effective SDE multiple | Effective revenue multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $2,041,056 | $424,996 | 20.8% | 3.21x | 0.68x | $1,300,000 | $1,375,000 | 0.94 | 3.06x | 0.64x |
| 2022 | $1,380,023 | $319,775 | 23.2% | 2.94x | 0.64x | $975,000 | $980,000 | 0.93 | 3.05x | 0.71x |
| 2023 | $2,950,000 | $533,744 | 18.1% | 2.80x | 0.61x | $1,387,500 | $1,500,000 | 0.91 | 2.60x | 0.47x |
| 2024 | $1,550,691 | $352,911 | 22.8% | 2.91x | 0.63x | $1,062,500 | $1,043,206 | 0.94 | 3.01x | 0.69x |
| 2025 | $2,071,382 | $477,848 | 23.1% | 3.11x | 0.72x | $1,300,000 | $1,475,000 | 0.89 | 2.72x | 0.63x |
Revenue, SDE, margin, the two average multiples, sale price, asking price and the average sale-to-ask ratio are published. The two effective multiple columns are computed here as that year's median sale price divided by that year's median SDE and median revenue. In 2024 the median sale price exceeds the median asking price while the published ratio is 0.94, because an average of per-deal ratios is not the ratio of medians. Yearly medians come from different sets of companies, so single years are noisy.
Read the 2023 row against the others. Median revenue of sold companies doubled to $2,950,000 and median earnings hit $533,744, yet the effective multiple fell to 2.60x, the lowest of the five years, and the owner margin dropped to 18.1 percent. Big fleets sold that year, and buyers paid less per dollar of their earnings, which is the size effect running backwards: the source says a $5 million carrier may command 3.5x or better, but in the record the largest companies carried the thinnest margins and the buyers priced the margin.
Find your row
07What a trucking company is worth at each level of owner earnings
The first three columns apply the sold lower quartile, median and upper quartile multiples to each earnings level. The last two show what an SBA buyer drawing $80,000 can finance, first with no money set aside for equipment, then with a $100,000 annual fleet reserve. A price above the reserve column only works for a buyer with a young fleet, a seller note or more cash.
| Seller discretionary earnings | At 2.29x (lower quartile) | At 2.96x (median) | At 3.56x (upper quartile) | SBA capacity, no fleet reserve | SBA capacity, $100,000 fleet reserve |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $232,180 (lower quartile sold) | $531,692 | $687,253 | $826,561 | $835,419 | $286,451 |
| $400,000 (median sold) | $916,000 | $1,184,000 | $1,424,000 | $1,756,697 | $1,207,729 |
| $477,848 (2025 median sold) | $1,094,272 | $1,414,430 | $1,701,139 | $2,184,058 | $1,635,090 |
| $600,351 (average sold) | $1,374,804 | $1,777,039 | $2,137,250 | $2,856,560 | $2,307,592 |
| $759,540 (upper quartile sold) | $1,739,347 | $2,248,238 | $2,703,962 | $3,730,457 | $3,181,489 |
Computed here. Multiples include the fleet. SBA columns on the same terms as section 02, at an $80,000 owner draw. Illustrative arithmetic, not a loan offer.
Read the lower quartile row. At $232,180 of earnings the company is worth $531,692 to $826,561 on the sold multiples, and a buyer with a $100,000 fleet reserve can finance only $286,451 of it. That is the small fleet with old trucks, and it sells for the equipment or to a buyer who already owns a yard. At the median and above, the reserve column comfortably covers the median multiple, which is why the market clears near asking for larger fleets and near scrap for small ones.
Sector comparison
08Trucking companies against the rest of the transportation sector
Trucking sits in the middle of the transportation record on owner margin, at 20.5 percent, and near the top on the effective earnings multiple, at 2.84x, behind only truck stops. The source puts the sector's pricing down to revenue scale: transportation businesses share similar operating models and risks, so the ones generating more revenue tend to sell at higher multiples. Routes make the point in reverse: the highest owner margin in the set, 31.6 percent, and the lowest effective multiple, 1.18x, because a route is a job with a van.
| Transportation category | Median revenue | Avg revenue multiple | Median SDE | Avg SDE multiple | Owner margin | Effective SDE multiple | Median sale | Sale/ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truck stops | $6,111,912 | 0.71x | $1,214,942 | 3.69x | 19.9% | 4.32x | $5,250,000 | 1.13 |
| Storage and warehouse businesses | $1,653,526 | 1.00x | $332,776 | 3.41x | 20.1% | 2.97x | $990,000 | 0.92 |
| Trucking companies | $1,954,881 | 0.65x | $400,000 | 3.00x | 20.5% | 2.84x | $1,137,500 | 0.93 |
| Other transportation and storage | $1,245,010 | 0.78x | $259,743 | 2.83x | 20.9% | 2.65x | $687,500 | 0.93 |
| Moving and shipping businesses | $634,402 | 0.63x | $157,000 | 2.52x | 24.7% | 2.23x | $350,000 | 0.91 |
| Limo and passenger transportation | $713,700 | 0.79x | $216,000 | 2.46x | 30.3% | 2.20x | $474,950 | 0.90 |
| Routes | $322,910 | 0.62x | $102,050 | 1.78x | 31.6% | 1.18x | $120,000 | 0.98 |
Source: BizBuySell transportation valuation benchmarks, businesses sold 2021 to 2025, retrieved September 2026. Owner margin (median SDE divided by median revenue) and effective SDE multiple (median sale divided by median SDE) are computed here. Sorted by effective SDE multiple.
The comparison that matters for most owners is storage and warehouse businesses: 16.8 percent less owner earnings than trucking and a higher effective multiple at 2.97x, because a warehouse does not wear out at 65 miles an hour. Across the wider automotive record the median trucking company earned 2.2 times the median auto repair shop and sold for 2.8 times as much, and the gas station valuation page shows the same positive-selection pattern in the ask-to-sold split. Our SDE multiples by industry tables carry the comparison across the whole economy.
Methods
09The five ways a trucking company gets valued
A broker, a lender, a strategic acquirer and an equipment appraiser will each reach for a different one. Knowing which one the other side is using is most of the negotiation.
Seller discretionary earnings multiple
The method behind the closed-sale record and the right one for a company where the owner dispatches, sells or drives. Normalized SDE times a multiple between about 2.29x and 3.56x, which is where half of all trucking sales landed. The multiple carries the fleet inside it, so it only applies to a sale that includes the trucks and trailers at their current condition.
Earnings multiple plus a separate fleet reconciliation
How most lenders and experienced buyers read a trucking deal. Value the earnings first, then get every tractor and trailer priced at current market value net of equipment loans. If the earnings number comes out below the net fleet value, the goodwill is zero and the deal is an equipment purchase that happens to include customers.
EBITDA multiple after a market salary
For carriers past roughly $5 million of revenue with a manager running operations. CT Acquisitions, a transportation M&A adviser, quotes 3x to 4.5x EBITDA at $5 to $15 million of revenue and 4x to 6x above $15 million, with a further half to one and a half turn for refrigerated, flatbed, tanker and hazmat work. Those are quoted ranges for a different buyer than the one in the sold record.
Revenue multiple
Usable here in a way it is not for most sectors. The median revenue multiple applied to median revenue lands within 1.4 percent of the median sale price, because the owner margin of sold trucking companies stayed between 18.1 and 23.2 percent in every year. It still fails for any company whose margin sits outside that band, so use it as a check, not a price.
Fleet liquidation floor
Tractors, trailers and any terminal equipment at auction or dealer trade value, minus the loans on them. A company whose earnings will not carry a loan sells near this figure. The lower quartile of $232,180 of owner earnings at 2.29x is $531,692, and many of those sales are really priced on the iron.
Value drivers
10What moves a trucking company between the quartiles
The distance between the lower and upper quartile multiple is 2.29x to 3.56x, which on $400,000 of earnings is the difference between $916,000 and $1,424,000. These are the factors that decide where a specific company lands, with the regulatory ones verified against the agency text.
Fleet age and the replacement bill
The largest driver in an asset-heavy business. SDE adds depreciation back, so the buyer has to set truck replacement money aside before paying the lender. Our calculation puts the reserve implied by the median sale price at about $112,800 a year, and every extra $50,000 of annual reserve takes about $274,500 off what a lender will finance. CT Acquisitions quotes a discount of half a turn to a full turn for fleets averaging six to eight years old, and one to two turns above eight years.
Whether the USDOT and MC numbers survive the deal
In a bulletin dated March 19, 2026, FMCSA states that a USDOT number belongs to the same legal person forever and may not be sold, transferred, rented or leased. If the company is a corporation or LLC and the buyer purchases the entity, the number goes with the company. If the seller is a sole proprietor, or the entity is dissolved after an asset purchase, the buyer needs a new USDOT number and starts its safety history from zero. That is why trucking deals are more often structured as stock purchases than deals in most other sectors, and why the structure is part of the price.
Contract freight versus spot exposure
A book that is mostly contracted with annual rate agreements is worth materially more than the same revenue earned on the spot market, because spot revenue disappears in a soft freight cycle. Buyers who lived through 2023 underwrite the split, so show it by customer and by lane.
Customer concentration
One shipper at 40 percent of revenue is the fastest way to lose a turn of earnings. CT Acquisitions puts the discount threshold at 25 to 40 percent of revenue from one customer, with earnout-heavy structures or a walkaway above 40 percent. The relationship usually sits with the seller, not the company, so the buyer is pricing the risk that it leaves.
Safety scores and DOT compliance
CSA scores, inspection history and any out-of-service record are the first things diligence pulls, and they are public. A conditional or unsatisfactory safety rating compresses the multiple by 30 to 50 percent in the CT Acquisitions guide, raises insurance premiums and closes off shippers. Clean compliance is worth real money and costs nothing to prove.
Driver retention
Turnover is the structural problem in the industry, and a company with drivers who stay is a company that can run the freight it sold. Document tenure, pay structure and how many trucks are parked for lack of a driver. The BLS median wage for heavy and tractor-trailer drivers was $58,640 in May 2025, so a parked truck is also a hiring cost the buyer has to fund.
Insurance cost trajectory
Commercial auto liability premiums have climbed for years, and a carrier with rising premiums and a loss run full of claims has a permanently impaired margin. Buyers underwrite the next renewal, not the historical rate. Bring the loss runs before they are asked for.
The yard
If the sale includes a terminal with service bays, a truck wash or fuel tanks, SBA SOP 50 10 8 treats trucking (NAICS 484) as an environmentally sensitive industry and the lender needs a Phase I environmental site assessment on the property. A carrier that parks at a leased lot with no fuel or maintenance on site avoids that step, and the difference is several weeks and a few thousand dollars.
One SBA detail cuts the other way for trucking sellers. Under SOP 50 10 8 a lender must order an independent business valuation when the intangible portion of the financed amount exceeds $250,000. In an asset-heavy deal the intangible portion is the price minus the appraised value of the equipment, so a $1,137,500 company with $900,000 of appraised iron has $237,500 of intangibles and the lender may value it in house. The fleet appraisal decides whether a separate business valuation for the SBA loan is needed at all.
Questions
Trucking company valuation questions, answered against the sold record
How much is a trucking company worth?
The median US trucking company sold over the five years to 2025 went for $1,137,500, on median revenue of $1,954,881 and median owner earnings of $400,000. That is 2.84 times owner earnings on the reported medians. The published median multiple is 2.96x, and half of all trucking companies sold between 2.29x and 3.56x owner earnings, with the fleet included in the price.
What multiple do trucking companies sell for?
Trucking companies sold at a median of 2.96 times seller discretionary earnings and an average of 3.00 times, with a lower quartile of 2.29x and an upper quartile of 3.56x, across sales from 2021 to 2025. On revenue the median was 0.59x and the average 0.65x. Companies currently listed ask a median 2.97x earnings, almost exactly what sold companies fetched.
How much can I sell my trucking company for?
Multiply your normalized owner earnings by 2.29x to 3.56x and expect to close near 0.93 of what you ask. The median seller listed at $1,200,000 and closed at $1,137,500 after a median 203 days on the market. A fleet under four years old, contracted freight, no customer above 25 percent of revenue and a clean safety rating put you at the top of that range.
How do you value a trucking company?
Start with normalized seller discretionary earnings: net profit plus owner salary, benefits, interest, depreciation and one-time items. Apply an earnings multiple between about 2.29x and 3.56x based on fleet age, freight mix and customer concentration. Then reconcile against the fleet: price every tractor and trailer at market value net of loans, and if that total exceeds the earnings value, the fleet is the price.
How much is a trucking company with 10 trucks worth?
It depends on earnings, not truck count. Ten trucks producing $400,000 of owner earnings on contracted freight are worth about $916,000 to $1,424,000 on the sold quartiles, and ten trucks running spot freight at thin margins may be worth little more than the equipment. CT Acquisitions quotes 2.5x to 4x SDE for fleets of 10 to 50 trucks at $1 to $5 million of revenue.
What is the rule of thumb for valuing a trucking company?
The common one is two to three times annual cash flow plus the value of the equipment. The sold record does not support adding the fleet on top: the median company closed at 2.84 times owner earnings with the trucks included, and adding equipment value to a 2x to 3x multiple produces a price the market did not pay. Use the multiple on its own and reconcile against the fleet as a floor.
How much do trucking companies sell for?
The median trucking company sold for $1,137,500 against a median asking price of $1,200,000, an average sale to ask ratio of 0.93. By year the median sale was $1,300,000 in 2021, $975,000 in 2022, $1,387,500 in 2023, $1,062,500 in 2024 and $1,300,000 in 2025. The year-to-year swings track the size of the companies that sold, not a change in what buyers pay per dollar of earnings.
How much does a trucking company make a year?
The middle trucking company that sold reported $400,000 of seller discretionary earnings on $1,954,881 of revenue, a 20.5 percent owner margin. The lower quartile earned $232,180 and the upper quartile $759,540. In 2025 the median sold company earned $477,848 on $2,071,382 of revenue, a 23.1 percent margin.
Can you transfer a DOT number when you buy a trucking company?
Only by buying the legal entity that holds it. FMCSA stated on March 19, 2026 that a USDOT number belongs to the same legal person forever and may not be sold, transferred, rented or leased. Buy the corporation or LLC and the number, the MC authority and the safety history stay with it. Buy the assets of a sole proprietor and you apply for your own number and start as a new entrant.
Can you get an SBA loan to buy a trucking company?
Yes, and financing is not the constraint at the median. At 10.5 percent, 10 years, 1.25x coverage, a 10 percent injection and an $80,000 owner draw, $400,000 of owner earnings supports about $1,756,700 before any fleet reserve, well above the $1,137,500 median price. Set aside $112,800 a year for trucks and the supportable price falls to exactly the median. The trucks, not the lender, set the ceiling.
How much does a trucking company valuation cost?
A formal business valuation commonly runs $1,500 to $8,000 for a calculation engagement and $5,000 to $15,000 for a full conclusion of value, and an asset-heavy deal usually adds a machinery and equipment appraisal for the fleet. On a $1,137,500 company that is 0.13 to 0.70 percent for a calculation and 0.44 to 1.32 percent for a full report.
Asked another way
What trucking company owners and buyers ask when they are deciding
These come up once the numbers are understood and the decision is the real problem: making an offer, choosing a stock or asset purchase, or setting a price. Answered against the same closed-transaction data as the rest of this page.
Is a trucking company listed at 4x cash flow overpriced?
Almost always. The upper quartile of sold trucking companies was 3.56x, and even companies currently listed ask a median 2.97x, so 4x sits above what either sellers or buyers in this market expect. It can be justified for a company past $5 million of revenue with a manager in place, a young fleet and contracted freight, priced on EBITDA rather than SDE. For an owner-run fleet it is the equipment value plus a wish.
Should I trust the cash flow in a trucking company listing?
More than in most sectors, and still verify it. Trucking companies currently listed report a median $376,235 of owner earnings against $400,000 for companies that sold, 5.9 percent less. Listed car washes report 56.2 percent more than washes that sold. What to check instead is the depreciation add-back: a listing that adds $150,000 of depreciation back to reach its cash flow is describing a fleet that costs $150,000 a year to keep.
Should I buy the company or just the trucks and the customers?
If the seller is a corporation or LLC with a clean safety record, buying the entity keeps the USDOT number, the MC authority, the safety history and the insurance loss run, and the price should reflect that. An asset purchase leaves the liabilities behind but, under the FMCSA March 2026 bulletin, puts you in the new entrant program with your own number. Price the two structures separately; they are not the same business.
Is now a good time to buy a trucking company?
The multiple is stable and the discount has widened. Buyers paid 3.06x owner earnings on the medians in 2021 and 2.72x in 2025, and the sale to ask ratio fell from 0.94 to 0.89, so a 2025 buyer paid less per dollar of earnings and negotiated more off asking. Median owner earnings of sold companies rose 12.4 percent over the same years. The freight cycle sets whether those earnings hold.
Why does a trucking company sell for less per dollar of earnings than a car wash?
Because the buyer inherits a replacement bill. The median trucking company earned $400,000 and sold for 2.84 times that; the median car wash earned $191,451 and sold for 4.18 times. Car wash earnings arrive with land and little labor. Trucking earnings arrive with tractors that wear out, drivers who leave and insurance that renews higher, so buyers keep a bigger share of each dollar for the business itself.
Benchmarks behind the estimate
Find out where in the range a trucking company sits
Enter revenue and owner earnings, for your own fleet or for a listing you are considering, and read a value range against real trucking company sales. An educational estimate, not a certified appraisal.