Utah Trucking Safety and Insurance Report 2026
Utah's FMCSA records show who is registered in the state, how big the fleets are, what they haul and how roadside inspections went over the last 12 months. This report is based on our review of those public records and is not an official publication. Every figure comes from queries we ran on October 18, 2026, and the exact SQL is in the page source.
Utah has 23,979 active motor carriers, about 1.1% of the 2,241,932 in the national files. Nearly half of them (45.4%) haul building materials, against 29.7% nationally. Vehicle out-of-service findings match the national rate at 15.6%, and driver findings run a little under it.
Who is running trucks in Utah
We counted active carriers whose physical address is in Utah (census status "A"). The national baseline uses the same filter without the state. Percentages are shares of each total, so the four fleet-size rows add up to a little under 100%: some census records report zero or blank power units.
| Power units | Utah | Share of Utah | National share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 truck | 11,962 | 49.9% | 52.8% |
| 2 to 5 | 7,963 | 33.2% | 27.6% |
| 6 to 20 | 2,027 | 8.5% | 6.9% |
| 21 or more | 593 | 2.5% | 2.2% |
| All active | 23,979 | 100% | 100% |
Utah has fewer one-truck carriers than the country as a whole and more carriers running 2 to 5 trucks. About one in three Utah carriers sits in that 2 to 5 bracket. At that size one claim or one bad inspection season can change how markets see a file, so it helps to have an agent review the file before it is quoted.
The biggest concentrations by city are Salt Lake City (2,132 active motor carriers), Ogden (1,064), West Jordan (842), Orem (620), Sandy (588) and West Valley City (572).
The census also shows 1,434 active Utah motor carriers whose record was added in the last 12 months, which is 6.0% of the Utah total. Nationally the figure is 167,168, or 7.5%. A census record can be added for reasons other than a brand-new authority, so treat this as a rough sign of new entrants. If you are starting out, our Utah trucking insurance guide covers the requirements in more detail.
What Utah carriers say they haul
Carriers tick the cargo classes they carry on their MCS-150 registration, and one carrier can tick several. Each share is the portion of active motor carriers in that area that ticked the class.
| Cargo class | Utah | National |
|---|---|---|
| General freight | 47.4% | 51.0% |
| Building materials | 45.4% | 29.7% |
| Machinery and large objects | 22.3% | 15.7% |
| Logs, poles, beams and lumber | 12.1% | 11.7% |
| Motor vehicles | 11.4% | 9.5% |
| Grain, feed and hay | 9.6% | 10.6% |
| Dry bulk | 6.3% | 6.7% |
| Refrigerated food | 6.2% | 6.3% |
| Fresh produce | 5.4% | 6.9% |
| Livestock | 4.8% | 3.6% |
| Oilfield equipment | 4.3% | 2.3% |
| Intermodal containers | 3.6% | 3.7% |
| Chemicals | 2.2% | 1.9% |
Building materials is the standout. It is ticked by 45.4% of Utah carriers against 29.7% nationally, about one and a half times the national share. Machinery and large objects is 22.3% against 15.7%, and oilfield equipment is 4.3% against 2.3%. General freight is a little lower than the national figure, at 47.4% against 51.0%.
Gravel, aggregate and construction loads are not rated like a dry van of boxed freight, and the equipment is often a dump or flatbed. Machinery and oversize loads raise their own questions about securement and route permits. Whatever you haul, tell the agent your commodity and radius at the start. Our guides on dump truck insurance and flatbed insurance cover the pieces that carry over.
Roadside inspections and out-of-service findings
For inspections we looked at every record dated October 18, 2025 through October 18, 2026 (the latest Utah record in the files is October 14, 2026). An inspection counts as out of service when it recorded at least one vehicle or driver out-of-service condition. We counted inspections performed in Utah, whatever the carrier's home state.
| Measure | Utah | National |
|---|---|---|
| Inspections, 12 months | 34,761 | 2,890,549 |
| Inspections with a vehicle out-of-service condition | 5,431 (15.6%) | 451,347 (15.6%) |
| Inspections with a driver out-of-service condition | 2,125 (6.1%) | 192,495 (6.7%) |
The two top-line rates look unremarkable, so we broke them down by inspection level. That is where Utah differs.
| Inspection level | Utah inspections | Utah driver out-of-service | National driver out-of-service | Utah vehicle out-of-service | National vehicle out-of-service |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 3 (driver and paperwork) | 19,856 | 4.5% | 6.7% | not a vehicle inspection | not a vehicle inspection |
| Level 1 (full) | 12,167 | 7.5% | 6.3% | 34.2% | 25.2% |
| Level 2 (walk-around) | 2,656 | 11.9% | 7.4% | 44.7% | 23.8% |
Level 3 inspections are 57.1% of Utah's total in the files, against 34.8% nationally. Those stops check the driver and paperwork and rarely put a truck out of service for a vehicle defect: only 60 of Utah's 19,856 Level 3 inspections did. Because they are so common in Utah, they pull the driver rate down and hold the vehicle rate to the national figure.
Inside the inspections that do look at the truck, Utah's rates are higher. Level 1 inspections found a vehicle out-of-service condition 34.2% of the time against 25.2% nationally, and Level 2 inspections 44.7% against 23.8%. Utah's driver rates at Levels 1 and 2 are also above the national ones. The records do not tell us why, and we have not found a source that does.
What this means for your insurance file
Insurance markets judge your own DOT record, but the state numbers still show where to look. If you run Utah roads with a Level 1 or Level 2 inspection ahead of you, the truck itself is what gets checked, so brakes, tires, lights and load securement are worth a walk-around before you roll. Driver paperwork matters at every level: logs, medical card, license class and endorsements.
Cargo decides which markets will look at you. Construction-materials and machinery haulers are a larger share of Utah's carriers than of the country's, so say what you haul and how far you run. If a violation on your record is wrong, raise it before the application goes out, because disputing it after a decline is harder. Our CSA score guide explains how the score reaches your file.
When a carrier running Utah freight sends us a file, the DOT record comes first: inspections, out-of-service history, authority status and the safety measures that come with it. Then we go through the loss history and the cargo. That review happens before any market sees the application, so the application tells the same story as the record. If a claim is open, we also look at how it is being handled, because claims advocacy is something carriers tell us they wish they had earlier.
What these numbers can and cannot tell you
- Census counts are registrations. A carrier can stay active in the census while running few or no loads.
- The census counts carriers by home address, while the inspection numbers count stops inside Utah, including out-of-state trucks passing through.
- The prior-revocation flag shows 0 Utah carriers and 19 nationally. It is filled in for only a small share of records, so we read nothing into the Utah zero.
- The inspection comparison covers one 12-month window. A different window could shift the rates.
- FMCSA updates the files daily, so a rerun will not match exactly.
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