Commercial Truck Financing Leads From New Carrier Registrations

A motor carrier that registered with the FMCSA in the last few months has decided to haul freight, and it may not yet own the trucks and trailers it needs. For a commercial truck or trailer lender, an equipment finance broker or a truck and trailer dealer, that registration is one of the few public signals that shows up before the first equipment purchase. This guide covers what the public file says about equipment and growth, how to split it into segments worth different offers, when to reach out, how to check for existing liens, which credit and disclosure rules apply to business applicants, and how to contact owners without breaking calling rules or looking like a government notice.

Every carrier count here comes from the FMCSA Company Census File as of October 28, 2026. The window is active carriers whose census add date falls between October 1, 2025 and October 28, 2026: 178,190 carriers. Of those, 39,891 registered in the last 90 days and 11,218 in the last 30. Where a share or an estimate is derived, the arithmetic is shown next to it. Nothing here is a rate, an approval rate, a down payment or a default rate, because the file contains none of those, and a guide that invented them would be no use to you.

What a new carrier registration tells an equipment lender

Each row in the census file is a USDOT registration. The columns that matter most to equipment finance are power units, drivers, cargo types, operation (interstate or intrastate), for-hire status, hazmat, the MC docket, the physical and mailing addresses, the company officer, and the phone and email the carrier gave. In this guide "registered" means the census add date, the day the FMCSA added the carrier to its records.

The file is just as useful for what it leaves out. It does not show insurance status, the date operating authority was granted, roadside inspections or crash history. It does not show credit, revenue, bank relationships, the make, model or year of any truck, or whether a truck is already financed. Read every row as a business that told the FMCSA what it plans to run, not as a credit file.

What "new authority" means in this guide

Lenders and dealers often say "new authority" for a carrier that recently received operating authority to haul for hire across state lines. The census file cannot confirm that. 71,307 of the 178,190 carriers (40.0%) have an MC, MX or FF docket number on file, which means they filed for authority. A docket number is not proof that the authority is active, and the file has no grant date. Here, "new carrier" means a recent census add date and nothing more. When a deal depends on active authority, check the carrier's authority status directly with the FMCSA before you fund.

Contact fields are close to complete as of October 28, 2026: 177,751 carriers (99.75%) list a phone, 177,954 (99.87%) an email and 177,517 (99.6%) both. 29,448 (16.5%) also give a separate cell phone. On a one-truck carrier the main phone is often the owner's own mobile too, which matters for the calling rules later in this guide.

Power units, drivers and the free columns that show ownership

Power units are the trucks and tractors a carrier reported. Drivers is the total number of drivers it reported. Read together they say more than either one alone, as long as you treat what they say as a question to ask rather than a fact about the business.

• Drivers equal to power units. The carrier is sized to what it has today. The finance conversation starts with the next truck or with trailers.
• More drivers than power units. The carrier may plan to add a truck, run team drivers, or put drivers on equipment it does not count as its own. Ask about the next unit and when it needs to be running.
• More power units than drivers. The owner may still be hiring, or may have counted a truck that is not in service yet. Ask before you size a credit line around the unit count.
• Zero drivers. The registration may have been filed before anyone was hired, or the field was left blank. Treat the row as incomplete until the owner fills in the gaps.

Owned and leased equipment in the free census file

The full census file on the U.S. DOT data portal carries columns that our CSV does not. The dataset's column list (read October 29, 2026) includes counts of owned trucks, tractors and trailers (OWNTRUCK, OWNTRACT, OWNTRAIL), term-leased ones (TRMTRUCK, TRMTRACT, TRMTRAIL) and trip-leased ones (TRPTRUCK, TRPTRACT, TRPTRAIL). It also has BUSINESS_ORG_DESC, which records whether the registrant is a corporation, an individual or a partnership, and CRGO_CARGOOTHR_DESC, the free-text description behind the "Other" cargo box. See the column list for the Company Census File.

For an equipment lender these columns answer a question the power-unit count cannot: how the carrier holds its equipment. Some readings:

• One term-leased tractor and no owned tractor: the carrier already pays for equipment it does not own. That is a lease buyout or replacement conversation.
• Owned tractors and no trailers: the carrier may pull trailers it does not own, or it may need one. Ask which freight it books before you pitch a trailer.
• Owned trailers and fewer tractors than trailers: the carrier may be planning to add a power unit.
• BUSINESS_ORG_DESC of Individual: the business is the person. That changes how you search for liens, who signs, and how careful you need to be with the phone number (both covered below).

Join these columns to any list on the USDOT number. They are what the carrier reported on its registration, so confirm them on the first call before you underwrite around them.

Fleet-size segments in the national file

The summary used in this guide splits carriers into four power-unit bands. As of October 28, 2026 the bands add up exactly to the whole window: 122,643 + 46,926 + 7,079 + 1,542 = 178,190, so every carrier falls into one of them.

How the estimates were made: the average complete month is 167,998 registrations (October 2025 through September 2026) divided by 12, or 14,000. Each band's share is applied to that average and to the 30-day count of 11,218. For example, 14,000 x 26.3% = 3,687 carriers with two to five power units in an average month. These are estimates. They assume recent registrants have the same mix as the whole window, which the summary cannot confirm.

One power unit or none: 68.8%

This is the largest group and the thinnest file to underwrite. Every row in this band describes a business with one truck or none yet. At roughly 9,600 a month nationally, the group is too large to call and too varied to pitch one product to. Mail and email work better here, with a first-truck or first-trailer program if you have one, and a clear line about what a new business needs to bring to an application.

Two to five power units: 26.3%

These carriers had more than one truck in the business at registration. The conversation can start with the next unit and with trailers, and a scrubbed phone call is worth the time for a lender who wants deal size. At about 2,954 in the last 30 days (an estimate), a regional lender can work a state's share of this band by hand.

Six to 20 and 21 or more: 4.8% together

About 543 carriers in the last 30 days fall into these two bands together (446 + 97, both estimates). A new registration with six or more trucks can be a new company. It can also be an existing business that formed a new entity or moved trucks under a new USDOT number. The file does not say which. Check the state business registry for the formation date and the officers before you treat the row as a startup. These rows deserve a letter addressed to the officer and a call from a senior person, after the Do Not Call scrub.

Overlap with for-hire, interstate and MC docket

Three more columns sharpen any band. 130,839 carriers (73.4%) are authorized for hire, which means they haul other people's freight for pay. 102,308 (57.4%) run interstate. 71,307 (40.0%) have an MC docket on file. The other 47,351 carriers (178,190 - 130,839, or 26.6%) are private carriers that haul their own goods. They need trucks too, but the buyer may be a contractor, a farm or a distributor, and the pitch should talk about their business rather than about loads.

Cargo types and the equipment they usually point to

At registration a carrier checks one or more cargo boxes. Among the 39,891 carriers registered in the 90 days to October 28, 2026, these were the most common. A carrier can check several boxes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

One quirk to know before you build a filter: Building materials and Construction carry the same count at every level of this file (6,615 nationally, 882 in Texas, 484 in New York). Treat them as one group, not two separate markets.

Two boxes outside the national top 15 matter in particular states. Fresh produce was checked by 171 California carriers in the last 90 days, which points to refrigerated trailers. Livestock was checked by 30 carriers in Nebraska, 25 in Montana and 22 in South Dakota, which points to livestock trailers. The census also has boxes for refrigerated food, meat, beverages, liquids and gases, chemicals and oilfield equipment (columns CRGO_COLDFOOD, CRGO_MEAT, CRGO_BEVERAGES, CRGO_LIQGAS, CRGO_CHEM and CRGO_OILFIELD); none made the national top 15 in this window.

How to use cargo in a finance campaign

• Route by trailer type. Send flatbed, step-deck and lowboy prospects (building materials, machinery, metal) to the person who knows those trailers and their resale market. Send dry-van prospects (general freight, paper) to another.
• Do not stop at general freight. 55.2% of recent registrants checked it, so on its own it separates almost nothing. Combine it with power units and operation.
• Read "Other". 6,257 recent carriers checked Other. The free file's CRGO_CARGOOTHR_DESC column holds what they typed, which is the only place the file describes that freight.
• Treat the box as a starting point. It is what the carrier said it would haul at registration. Ask before you quote a specific trailer.

Dealers who want the cargo filter as a ready list can start from the new carrier leads page for truck and trailer dealers, which explains the cargo, city and fleet-size filters in more detail.

Registrations by month and what the pattern means for timing

The arithmetic, by quarter: October to December 2025 adds up to 33,447. January to March 2026 is 43,569, April to June 46,594, and July to September 44,388. March 2026 was the peak month at 16,414, which is 60% above November 2025 at 10,257 (16,414 / 10,257 = 1.60). January jumped 27% over December (13,594 / 10,669 = 1.27). From March on, every complete month stayed between 14,444 and 16,414.

Read the climb with care. The counts include only carriers still active on October 28, 2026. A carrier that registered in October 2025 and has since gone inactive is not counted, so older months are understated compared with recent ones. Part of the rise from late 2025 into 2026 may come from that effect rather than from a seasonal pattern, and one year of data cannot separate the two.

October 2026 had 10,192 registrations through October 28. At the same daily pace the full month would reach about 11,284 (10,192 / 28 x 31, an estimate). The last 30 days (11,218) also ran below the average month in the last 90 days (39,891 / 3 = 13,297). The file alone does not say whether that is a real slowdown or records that have not arrived yet. Check the count again after the month closes before you cut a budget.

What the monthly pattern means for a finance budget

• Plan around about 3,100 new carriers a week nationally (39,891 / 90 x 7 = 3,103), or about 2,600 at the slower 30-day pace (11,218 / 30 x 7 = 2,618).
• Keep mail and staffing flexible by month. If late 2026 follows late 2025, November and December will be the lightest months and January the first big one.
• Size each mail run to the cohort it follows. A fixed monthly mail budget overspends in light months and runs out in March-sized ones.

State and city hotspots for truck financing

The ten states with the most registrations in the 90 days to October 28, 2026 are below, with the share of each state's carriers that reported two or more power units. The state summary gives only the one-or-none count, so "two or more" is the remainder: for Texas, (20,972 - 14,641) / 20,972 = 30.2%.

Concentration is high. The top five states hold 16,190 of the 39,891 recent registrations (40.6%), and the top ten hold 23,536 (59.0%). A lender licensed in Texas, California and Florida alone sees 12,527 of them (31.4%). The state rows add up to 175,603 carriers across the whole window; the other 2,587 have a physical address outside the 50 states and DC, or no state recorded.

Where fleets run larger

The share of carriers with two or more power units varies more than the raw counts suggest. Among states with at least 1,000 active carriers in the window, the highest shares are Wisconsin (37.7%), Oregon (37.6%), Kentucky (37.1%), Kansas (37.1%), Idaho (36.7%) and Nebraska (36.2%). The lowest are California (25.3%), Florida (26.2%), South Carolina (26.5%) and Illinois (27.2%). Per 100 carriers mailed, a small-fleet program finds about 1.5 times as many multi-truck carriers in Wisconsin as in California (37.7 / 25.3 = 1.49). California still has far more of them in total: 4,829 against 1,229 (Wisconsin's 3,260 - 2,031).

Where private carriers cluster

Some states register far more private carriers, businesses that haul their own goods. The lowest for-hire shares are Hawaii (39.9%), New York (44.8%), West Virginia (46.5%), New Hampshire (46.7%), Vermont (49.1%), Massachusetts (52.2%) and Wisconsin (53.9%), against 73.4% nationally. In New York, building materials (484) nearly matches general freight (581) among recent registrants, and garbage or refuse (105) is 6.1% of the state's 1,732, against 3.6% nationally. That mix fits contractors, haulers and suppliers buying vocational trucks: dump trucks, roll-offs and flatbeds. A lender with a vocational program should weight these states more heavily than their raw counts suggest.

Farm-equipment states

Grain and livestock boxes stand out in a few states. In Iowa, 69 of the 310 recent registrants (22.3%) checked grain, feed or hay, against 4.0% nationally. In Nebraska, 56 of 306 (18.3%) checked grain and 30 (9.8%) livestock. In Montana, 30 of 118 checked grain (25.4%) and 25 livestock (21.2%). In South Dakota, 23 of 89 checked grain (25.8%) and 22 livestock (24.7%). The numbers are small, but for a lender that finances hopper and livestock trailers they are a short, targeted mail list every quarter.

City clusters

The summary lists every city with 15 or more registrations in the last 90 days. The largest single cities are Houston (620), Miami (317), Philadelphia (313), Indianapolis (244), Chicago (243), Dallas (215), Fresno (215), Columbus (211), Orlando (208) and San Antonio (187). Grouping nearby cities gives a better picture of a dealer's or field rep's territory:

The city counts cover the last 90 days only, and only cities above the 15-registration line, so the real metro totals are higher. For a dealer, the useful step is the next one: sort the download by ZIP from the physical address and give each salesperson the rows closest to the lot.

How to read a carrier that reports zero or one power unit

122,643 carriers (68.8%) reported one power unit or none. The summary groups zero and one together, but the CSV shows the exact number, and the two mean different things to a lender.

Zero power units

The file does not say why a carrier reported zero. The readings worth testing are:

• Registered before buying or leasing a truck. If the rest of the row agrees (for hire, a specific cargo box, at least one driver), this is the closest thing in public data to a first-truck buyer.
• Fields left at zero. A registration filled in quickly. Rows with zero drivers, no cargo box and no for-hire flag often look like this. Keep them on the mail list and off the call list.
• Equipment the owner did not count. An owner may run a truck under someone else's name or plan to lease one, and leave the count at zero. Only a conversation settles it.

One power unit

One power unit usually means an owner-operator, but it does not tell you how the truck is held. It may be owned outright, financed, term-leased, or on a lease-purchase. The free file's OWNTRUCK, OWNTRACT, TRMTRUCK and TRMTRACT columns answer that when the carrier filled them in. A one-truck carrier with an owned tractor and no trailer is a trailer prospect. A one-truck carrier with a term-leased tractor is a buyout or replacement prospect.

Questions for the first conversation

1. Do you have the truck yet? Is it owned, financed or leased?
2. What will you haul, and for whom: your own freight, a carrier you lease on to, or loads you book yourself?
3. When does the next truck or trailer need to be running?
4. Is the business an LLC or corporation, or is it in your own name? Which state was it formed in?
5. Are there any loans, leases, factoring agreements or advances against the business today?

The fourth and fifth answers set up the lien search in the next sections. None of them are things the census file can answer for you.

Timing campaigns by weeks since registration

The cleanest way to time outreach is by cohort. Every Monday, pull the carriers registered in the previous seven days, give the group a start date, and run the same sequence on it. Each cohort then gets the same treatment at the same age, and you can compare results between them.

The first days after registration are crowded. FMCSA has warned new applicants that some companies contact them very soon after their online filings, sometimes while presenting themselves as connected to the agency. It says it does not contact carriers through telemarketers or robocalls, or ask for credit card numbers by phone (see FMCSA's notice on fraudulent and misleading marketing to new applicants). An equipment lender gains little by joining that rush. A letter that lands in the second week, from a company that says plainly who it is, stands apart from it.

Two adjustments by segment. For six or more power units, move the letter to the officer to week 1 and make the call a senior person's job. For one unit or none, drop the call entirely unless the owner replies, and let mail and email carry the sequence. At about 9,600 one-or-none registrations a month nationally, calling that band by hand would cost more staff time than most lenders have.

The 26-week re-pull matters more for equipment than for most products. A carrier that reported one or two power units at registration may add equipment as it grows. Comparing the power-unit count you saw at registration with the current file shows which carriers have filed an update, and those are the ones to call back first.

Checking existing liens with state UCC searches

A new carrier can already owe money on its equipment or its receivables. A UCC search is one way to see it, but it does not show everything, and for trucks it often shows nothing.

Titled trucks and trailers do not show up in a UCC search

Under UCC section 9-311, filing a financing statement is neither necessary nor effective to perfect a security interest in goods covered by a certificate-of-title statute that requires the lien to be noted on the title. Motor vehicles and trailers titled in a state fall under that rule. The exception in 9-311(d) is inventory held for sale or lease by a dealer in the business of selling goods of that kind. In practice this means a clean UCC search does not prove a titled tractor or trailer is free of liens. Ask for a copy of the title, front and back, and confirm the lienholder. For a truck being refinanced or bought out, get a payoff letter from the lienholder on the title.

What a UCC search does show

A UCC search shows financing statements filed against the business itself: blanket liens on all assets, liens on accounts receivable, and liens on equipment that is not titled. For a new carrier, any filing at all is information. A filing a few weeks after registration may mean the carrier has already signed with a factoring company, a bank or a sales-based financing provider. Your deal can still work, but you need to know whether the secured party claims the equipment you plan to finance, and whether its agreement limits new debt. Factoring is covered in detail in how factoring companies find clients among new carriers.

Where to search

The state to search depends on where the debtor is "located" under UCC section 9-307, and that is often not the state on the census row:

• A registered organization formed under a state's law, such as an LLC or a corporation, is located in the state where it was formed (9-307(e)). A carrier based in Texas but organized as a Wyoming LLC is searched in Wyoming.
• An individual, which includes a sole proprietor trading under a DBA, is located at the individual's principal residence (9-307(b)(1)).
• Other organizations are located at their place of business, or at their chief executive office if they have more than one (9-307(b)(2) and (3)).

A search routine for new carriers

1. Take the Legal name from the census row, not the DBA name.
2. Look the business up in the state business registry to confirm its exact registered name and its state of formation. The free file's BUSINESS_ORG_DESC column tells you whether to expect a corporation, an individual or a partnership.
3. Run the search in the central UCC filing office of the state where the debtor is located under 9-307, using the exact registered name. For an individual, search the person's legal name in the state of residence.
4. Read each active filing: who the secured party is, what collateral it describes, and when it was filed.
5. For every titled truck and trailer in the deal, check the title and the lienholder named on it.
6. Keep the search results with the file, dated, so the credit decision shows what was known and when.

Credit rules for business applicants under ECOA and Regulation B

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B apply to business credit, and that includes a truck loan to a one-person carrier. For a campaign aimed at new businesses, the part that matters most is the adverse action notice. The rules are in 12 CFR 1002.9 on the CFPB's site. This section is a summary, not legal advice. Have counsel review your notices and your policy, including whether a particular lease structure counts as credit.

Timing

Under 1002.9(a)(1), a creditor notifies an applicant of the action taken within 30 days after receiving a completed application, within 30 days after taking adverse action on an incomplete application or an existing account, and within 90 days after notifying the applicant of a counteroffer that the applicant does not expressly accept or use.

What changes for business applicants

Where a written notice is used, 1002.9(a)(2) lists what goes in it: the action taken, the creditor's name and address, a statement of the provisions of section 701(a) of the Act, the name and address of the federal agency that administers compliance for the creditor, and either the specific reasons or a disclosure of the right to them. That disclosure gives a name, address and phone number for requesting the reasons within 60 days.

Applications sent through brokers and dealers

An equipment deal that moves through a broker or a dealer's finance desk may go to several lenders at once. Section 1002.9(g) covers this. If the applicant accepts or uses credit from one of the creditors, the others do not need to send a notice. If no credit is offered, or the applicant does not accept or use what was offered, each creditor that took adverse action must comply, directly or through a third party, and a notice given by a third party must name each creditor it is given for.

Making it work with new-carrier applicants

• Ask for gross revenue on the application so you know which track applies. When the answer is unclear, the $1 million-or-less track is the more demanding one to follow.
• If your team takes applications by phone, script the oral statement of the action and of the right to reasons, and log that it was given.
• If you broker deals, agree in writing with each lender who sends the notice when an application is declined everywhere, and keep a copy.
• Keep the reasons specific and true to the decision. "Insufficient time in business" or "insufficient collateral" says something; "internal policy" does not.

State commercial financing disclosure laws and equipment finance

Several states require cost disclosures on commercial financing, much like consumer loan disclosures. Whether they reach an equipment loan or lease depends on each statute's definitions, and the three states below answer that question differently. This is a summary of the statute text read for this guide, not legal advice. Each state also has regulations, and other states have passed laws of their own, so check every state where you lend.

Sources: California section 22800, section 22801 and section 22802; New York section 801 and section 802; Florida section 559.9611 and section 559.9612.

What the differences mean in practice

• The same deal can be in scope in one state and out in another. A purchase-money loan on a used tractor to a Florida carrier looks exempt under Florida's purchase money exemption. The same loan from a non-exempt provider to a New York carrier is closed-end financing under section 801.
• Lease structure matters. New York and Florida exempt leases, with New York tying the term to UCC 2-A-103. California reaches a lease only when its purchase option creates a security interest, so a lease with a nominal buyout may be covered there while a true lease is not. Where that line falls is set by California Commercial Code section 1203; ask counsel.
• Brokers can be providers. New York's definition of "provider" in section 801(h) includes a person who solicits and presents specific offers of commercial financing on behalf of a third party. An equipment finance broker presenting offers to New York carriers should read that definition closely.
• California's disclosures come with the offer. Under section 22802, a covered provider gives the disclosures when it extends a specific commercial financing offer and gets the recipient's signature before the deal closes. The listed items include the total amount of funds provided, the total dollar cost, the term, the payment method, frequency and amount, the prepayment policy, and the total cost stated as an annualized rate.

For a lender working a new-carrier list, the practical step is to tag each carrier with its physical state, decide state by state whether your product is in scope, and build the disclosure into the offer stage, not the closing stage.

Outreach sequence and templates for truck financing

Many new carriers are one person working from a personal phone. The channel rules below are what keep a finance campaign out of trouble. The full treatment is in the rules for calling, texting and emailing new trucking companies; this is the short version for lenders. It is not legal advice.

Channel rules

• Mail is the lowest-risk channel, and it reaches an owner who may be driving all day. It still has to be truthful about who sent it.
• Email follows CAN-SPAM. The FTC's compliance guide says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Each message needs accurate header information, a subject line that matches the content, a clear statement that it is an advertisement, a valid physical postal address and a working opt-out. Opt-outs must be honored within 10 business days. The FTC lists penalties of up to $53,088 for each email that breaks the rules.
• Calls fall under the TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry. Under 47 CFR 64.1200, the registry rules apply to wireless numbers, and the safe harbor requires a version of the registry obtained no more than 31 days before the call. Calls to residential subscribers are barred before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. local time at the called party's location. Autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls to cell phones need the called party's prior express written consent. In practice: scrub every number, dial by hand, use no prerecorded or AI voices, and keep your own do-not-call list.
• Texts need consent. Do not text a number from the list unless the owner has given it to you for that purpose.
• State laws can add rules on calling hours, registration and consent. Check the states you call into.

Do not look like a government notice

New carriers are targeted by scams that pose as the FMCSA or the U.S. DOT, and FMCSA has warned them about it. Mail that borrows that look gets thrown out at best and reported at worst. Never put DOT, FMCSA or USDOT in a sender name, return address, logo or subject line. Never use seals, eagles, "Action required", "compliance notice" or "registration update" wording. Say who you are in the first line, say you are a private company not connected with any government agency, and say where you saw the registration.

Do not promise credit you have not decided

Avoid "pre-approved", "guaranteed approval" or a quoted rate in a first touch unless a real credit decision stands behind it. In California and New York a specific offer can also trigger the disclosure duties above. A first touch should offer a review, not terms.

Template 1: postcard to carriers with one power unit or none

Front: Financing for your first truck or trailer

Back: [Company] finances tractors, straight trucks and trailers for carriers in their first year. We are a private company, not part of or connected with the FMCSA, the U.S. DOT or any government agency. We saw your new USDOT registration in public federal records.

If you are buying a truck or trailer this year, or paying more than you planned on one you lease, call [name] at [direct line] or apply at [web address]. We will tell you what we need to review it and how long a decision takes.

[Company], [street address, city, state, ZIP]. [License number where your state requires it.]

Template 2: first email

Subject: Truck and trailer financing for [Legal name]

Hi [first name],

I work at [Company], a private equipment finance company. We saw [Legal name]'s new USDOT registration in public federal records. We are not connected with the FMCSA or any government agency.

We finance tractors, straight trucks and trailers for new carriers. If you are buying equipment, or want out of a lease that costs more than you expected, reply with what you are looking at and when you need it running. I will tell you what we would need to review it.

[Name], [title], [direct phone]
[Company], [postal address]
This is an advertisement. To stop these emails, reply STOP or use [unsubscribe link].

Template 3: cargo-specific email to two to five power units

Subject: Flatbed and step-deck financing for [Legal name]

Hi [first name],

Your registration lists [number] trucks and building materials among the freight you haul. Carriers in that freight often run flatbeds or step decks. If you plan to add a trailer or a truck in the next few months, we can review the purchase before you commit, so you know where you stand before you pick the unit.

To start we need [your short list]. A decision usually takes [your time frame].

[Name], [title], [direct phone]
[Company], [postal address]
This is an advertisement. To stop these emails, reply STOP or use [unsubscribe link].

Template 4: call opener, scrubbed numbers only

"Hi, this is [name] with [Company], a private equipment finance company. I'm calling about [Legal name]'s new USDOT registration, which is public. Are you driving right now? If so I'll call back."

If it is a good time: "Do you have your truck yet, and is it owned, financed or leased? What do you plan to haul? When does the next truck or trailer need to be running?"

If they are not interested: "Thanks for telling me. I'm adding your number to our do-not-call list now." Then do it.

Template 5: letter to the officer of a six-plus unit fleet

Dear [officer name],

[Legal name] registered with [number] power units and [number] drivers. We finance tractors and trailers for fleets, including multi-unit purchases and lease buyouts. If you have equipment purchases planned in the next twelve months, I would like to understand the plan before you choose a lender, so we can tell you early whether we fit.

We are a private company and are not connected with the FMCSA or the U.S. DOT. We found your registration in public federal records.

[Name], [title], [direct phone], [email]
[Company], [postal address]

Fuel card and leasing companies

Fuel card issuers and truck leasing companies can use the same file with different filters.

Fuel cards

• Who to start with. 102,308 carriers (57.4%) run interstate and 130,839 (73.4%) are for hire. Interstate for-hire carriers with a cargo box checked are the core list.
• How many cards. If your program issues cards per driver, the Drivers column sizes the offer better than power units.
• When. A carrier buys fuel from its first load, so for fuel the first two weeks after registration matter more than they do for equipment. Lead with email and mail in week one, and keep the FMCSA warning above in mind: say who you are in the first line.
• Credit rules. A fuel card with a credit line is business credit. The Regulation B notice rules above apply to declines. Whether a particular card program counts as a "commercial open-end credit plan" or "open-end financing" under the California, New York or Florida definitions is a question for counsel.

Leasing and rental

• Private carriers. The 47,351 carriers without for-hire status haul their own goods. A business that does not want to maintain trucks itself is the natural full-service lease prospect, and the cargo box tells you what body type to quote.
• Zero power units. A carrier that registered before getting a truck may want to rent or lease one to start.
• Already leasing. The free file's term-leased and trip-leased columns (TRMTRACT, TRMTRUCK, TRMTRAIL, TRPTRACT and the rest) show who already leases. That is a renewal or competing-lease conversation.
• Disclosure laws. True leases fall outside New York's law (UCC 2-A-103) and Florida's. California covers a lease only when its purchase option creates a security interest.

Worked example for Texas

Texas is the largest state in the file, so it shows each step at full scale. All counts are as of October 28, 2026. The Texas new carrier page carries the same figures.

Step 1: size the market

20,972 active Texas carriers registered since October 1, 2025. 4,860 registered in the last 90 days and 1,305 in the last 30. 20,925 (99.8%) list a phone, 20,939 (99.8%) an email, and 3,828 (18.3%) a separate cell phone. 18,142 (86.5%) are for hire, well above the 73.4% national share. 8,460 (40.3%) have an MC docket on file, and 1,225 (5.8%) marked hazmat.

Step 2: split by fleet size

14,641 Texas carriers (69.8%) reported one power unit or none, so 6,331 (30.2%) reported two or more. Applied to the 90-day group, that gives about 1,467 recent carriers with two or more trucks (4,860 x 30.2%) and about 3,393 with one or none. Both are estimates, because the state summary does not split the 90-day group by fleet size.

Step 3: route by cargo

Among the 4,860 recent Texas registrants, 3,065 (63.1%) checked general freight, 882 (18.1%) building materials and construction, 281 (5.8%) machinery and large objects, 262 (5.4%) dry bulk commodities and 1,027 (21.1%) Other. Building materials, machinery and dry bulk add up to 1,425 checks for flatbed, lowboy, dump and bulk equipment. Some carriers checked more than one of those, so fewer than 1,425 carriers are involved. The 1,027 Other rows are worth reading in the free file's description column, since "Other" in Texas is a larger share than the 15.7% nationally.

Step 4: map the territory

Twelve Texas cities had 15 or more registrations in the last 90 days, and together they hold 2,022 of the 4,860 (41.6%). Houston, Katy and Spring add up to 818 (16.8% of the state's recent registrants). Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington add up to 429. San Antonio has 187, Austin 176, Odessa and Midland together 194, and Laredo and El Paso together 218. The remaining 2,838 are spread across smaller towns, which suits mail better than field visits.

Step 5: set the weekly workload

4,860 registrations over 90 days is about 378 a week (4,860 / 90 x 7). The two-or-more band is about 114 a week (1,467 / 90 x 7). A practical split: mail and email all 378 each week, and have one person hand-dial the scrubbed numbers among the 114 in week three of each cohort. Six-plus fleets get a letter to the officer in week one.

Step 6: check liens and set the paperwork

For a Texas LLC, search the UCC records in Texas. For a carrier based in Texas but organized in another state, search that state. For a sole proprietor, search the owner's state of residence. Check the title on every truck and trailer in the deal. Texas is not one of the three disclosure states reviewed above, so check Texas law on commercial financing disclosures before you assume none applies. Set your Regulation B notices up before the first decline, not after it.

Step 7: compare with the next two states

California had 4,282 registrations in the last 90 days, nearly as many as Texas, but a lower two-or-more share (25.3%) and a lower for-hire share (74.5%), and its disclosure law reaches commercial loans of $5,000 or more. Florida had 3,385, with 26.2% reporting two or more power units and 84.4% for hire, and its disclosure law exempts leases and purchase money obligations. The same campaign needs different paperwork in each.

Getting the census data free or filtered

The census file is public and free. Here is how to pull it yourself.

1. Open the Company Census File on the U.S. DOT data portal (dataset az4n-8mr2). It holds more than 4.4 million records covering active, inactive and pending registrations.
2. Filter STATUS_CODE to A (active) and ADD_DATE to your start date or later. ADD_DATE is stored as text in YYYYMMDD form, so "on or after August 1, 2026" is ADD_DATE >= '20260801'.
3. Export the filtered view as CSV, or query the dataset's API with the same conditions in a $where clause and a $limit large enough for the rows you expect.
4. Clean it: combine the 30 CRGO_ flag columns into one readable list, read CLASSDEF for AUTHORIZED FOR HIRE, set your power-unit bands, format phones, and remove carriers you already work with.
5. Keep the OWN, TRM and TRP equipment columns and BUSINESS_ORG_DESC. They are the most useful columns in the file for equipment finance.
6. Repeat on your own schedule, and keep each pull so you can compare power units over time.

The free route costs nothing but analyst time on every refresh. A filtered file saves the filtering, the cargo decoding and the cleanup. Ours is the same public data, filtered to active carriers registered since October 1, 2025, with cargo combined into one column and for-hire shown as yes or no, refreshed every six hours. We are a private company with no connection to the FMCSA or the U.S. DOT. Our CSV does not carry the OWN, TRM and TRP equipment columns, so join those from the free file on the USDOT number if you want them.

Plans are on the new trucking companies page and the pricing page: $99 a month for new trucking companies in every state, up to 25,000 rows a month, or $149 once for carriers registered in the last 90 days, downloadable for 7 days after payment. A free account can download one 25-row sample of a state's newest carriers. If you want your own pipeline that joins the census file to your CRM, custom lead-generation software builds start at $1,500. The free route is laid out step by step in how to get a list of new trucking companies from FMCSA data.

Other buyers work the same file from different angles: commercial truck insurance agents, dispatchers and DOT compliance services. Their guides are useful if you refer business to them or partner with them.

Mistakes equipment lenders make with new carrier lists

1. Treating an MC docket as active authority. 71,307 carriers have a docket on file. The file does not show which are active. Check before you fund.
2. Calling every number. Many rows are personal cell phones. Scrub against the National Do Not Call Registry with a list no more than 31 days old, dial by hand, and keep your own do-not-call list.
3. Mail that looks official. New carriers are warned about scams posing as the FMCSA. A seal, a "notice" headline or a DOT-sounding sender name puts you in the same pile.
4. Calling a UCC search clean on a titled truck. Liens on titled trucks and trailers sit on the title, not in the UCC records (UCC 9-311). Check the title.
5. Searching the wrong state. An LLC is searched where it was formed, an individual where he or she lives (UCC 9-307), not where the census address is.
6. Saying "pre-approved". If no credit decision stands behind it, do not say it.
7. Skipping adverse action notices on business deals. Regulation B applies to business credit, including applications sent through brokers and dealers.
8. Using one disclosure process everywhere. California, New York and Florida treat loans and leases differently, and other states have their own laws.
9. Reading zero power units as no need, or one as owned. Zero may be a first-truck buyer. One may be leased. Ask.
10. Reading the monthly counts as seasonality. Only carriers still active are counted, so older months are understated.
11. Treating a six-plus fleet as a startup. It may be an existing business under a new USDOT number. Check the formation date.
12. Ignoring the free equipment columns. Owned, term-leased and trip-leased counts are in the free public file, and our CSV does not carry them. Join them on the USDOT number.

Lenders who also refer carriers to other providers can see how the same file is filtered for factoring companies and insurance agents. For other public-record sources a lender can use, see public records as B2B lead sources.

Questions and answers

Can I see which new carriers already financed their trucks?

Not from the census file. It shows power units, drivers, cargo and contacts, not liens. The free census file on the U.S. DOT data portal does carry owned, term-leased and trip-leased truck, tractor and trailer counts, which show whether a unit is owned or leased. For liens, check the title of each truck and trailer, because liens on titled vehicles are noted on the title rather than filed under the UCC (UCC 9-311), and run a UCC search for liens on the business itself.

How many new trucking companies register each month?

Counting active carriers as of October 28, 2026, the 12 complete months from October 2025 to September 2026 add up to 167,998 registrations, about 14,000 a month. March 2026 was the highest at 16,414 and November 2025 the lowest at 10,257. Only carriers still active are counted, so older months are understated.

Does Regulation B apply to commercial truck loans?

Yes. ECOA and Regulation B cover business credit. Under 12 CFR 1002.9(a)(3), a business with gross revenues of $1 million or less gets notice of the action taken, orally or in writing, generally within 30 days of a completed application, plus specific reasons or the right to them. Larger businesses get notice within a reasonable time and written reasons if they ask in writing within 60 days. Have counsel review your notices.

Do state commercial financing disclosure laws cover equipment leases?

It depends on the state. New York exempts leases as defined in UCC 2-A-103 but covers equipment financing that is not a lease. Florida exempts leases and purchase money obligations. California covers lease financing only when the lease's purchase option creates a security interest, and covers commercial loans of $5,000 or more. Read each state's statute and regulations; this is not legal advice.

What does it mean when a new carrier reports zero power units?

The file does not say. It may have registered before buying or leasing a truck, which makes it a first-truck prospect if it is for hire, checked a cargo box and lists a driver. It may also be a registration with fields left at zero. Keep zero-unit carriers on the mail and email list and ask before you assume either way.

Can I call or text new trucking companies about financing?

Calls are allowed with care. The TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry apply, including to cell phones, and many new carriers list a personal cell. Scrub against a registry version no more than 31 days old, dial by hand, call between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time, and use no prerecorded or AI voices. Do not text without consent. Email must follow CAN-SPAM, and mail is the lowest-risk channel.

Where can I get new carrier data for free?

The FMCSA Company Census File is free on the U.S. DOT data portal (dataset az4n-8mr2). Filter STATUS_CODE to A and ADD_DATE to your start date, then export CSV. It has more than 4.4 million records, so expect to spend time filtering, decoding the cargo columns and cleaning phones on every refresh.

Sources

• FMCSA Company Census File, U.S. DOT data portal (dataset az4n-8mr2)
• Company Census File column list and metadata, U.S. DOT data portal
• 12 CFR 1002.9, Regulation B notifications, CFPB
• California Financial Code section 22800, definitions
• California Financial Code section 22801, exemptions
• California Financial Code section 22802, disclosures
• New York Financial Services Law section 801, definitions
• New York Financial Services Law section 802, exemptions
• Florida Statutes section 559.9611, definitions
• Florida Statutes section 559.9612, scope and exemptions
• UCC 9-311, perfection of security interests in titled property, Cornell LII
• UCC 9-307, location of debtor, Cornell LII
• 47 CFR 64.1200, telephone solicitation and Do Not Call rules, Cornell LII
• CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business, FTC
• Fraudulent and Misleading Marketing to New FMCSA Applicants, FMCSA