Nobody publishes commercial trucking market share, so we built the next closest thing from public records. Every for-hire interstate carrier must have its insurer file proof of liability coverage with the FMCSA, and those filings are public. We joined every active filing to the FMCSA carrier census, kept the Texas-based carriers, and counted. This page is the result, with the full methodology and its limits below. All figures are as of August 30, 2026, and we refresh them from the source data on a recurring basis.
The Texas Market in Four Numbers
- 193,024 active carriers are based in Texas (FMCSA census).
- 29,882 of them (15.5%) hold an active federal liability filing, meaning they run interstate for-hire authority. The rest operate intrastate or are private carriers below the filing thresholds.
- 69.7% of those carriers carry exactly the $750,000 federal minimum for general freight (49 CFR 387.9). Another 26.6% carry $1 million, a limit many brokers and shippers require in their carrier agreements.
- 68% of filed carriers run one or two power units. Texas interstate trucking is overwhelmingly an owner-operator market.
Which Insurer Groups File for the Most Texas Carriers
Insurers file under many entity names, so raw filing names understate the big groups. Progressive alone files in Texas under Progressive County Mutual, United Financial Casualty, and other affiliates. We roll entities up to their corporate parents; the mapping is published in full further down.
| Insurer group | Texas carriers with an active filing | Share of filed carriers |
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | 6,484 | 21.7% |
| GEICO / Berkshire Hathaway | 5,362 | 17.9% |
| Highlander Specialty | 2,127 | 7.1% |
| Great West Casualty | 2,083 | 7.0% |
| Travelers / Northland | 1,002 | 3.4% |
| Canal | 742 | 2.5% |
| Clear Blue | 725 | 2.4% |
| Sentry | 488 | 1.6% |
| Cimarron | 425 | 1.4% |
| Accredited | 408 | 1.4% |
| Agricultural Workers Mutual | 406 | 1.4% |
| Trisura | 400 | 1.3% |
| OOIDA Risk Retention Group | 312 | 1.0% |
The tail is long: hundreds of insurers, surplus lines carriers, and risk retention groups share the remaining third of the market. That fragmentation is why two operators with similar trucks can get very different quotes, and why an agent's market access matters as much as anything on the application. Our guide to choosing a trucking insurance agent covers how to ask about that access.
Most Carriers Buy the Federal Minimum
The FMCSA requires $750,000 in public liability coverage for general freight carriers (49 CFR 387.9; see our FMCSA insurance requirements guide for the full table by cargo class). The filings show what carriers actually buy against that floor:
| Filed liability limit | Carriers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $750,000 (federal minimum) | 20,821 | 69.7% |
| $1,000,000 | 7,940 | 26.6% |
| $5,000,000 | 213 | 0.7% |
| Under $750,000 (specialized classes) | 563 | 1.9% |
| Other amounts | 345 | 1.2% |
Seven in ten Texas interstate carriers carry no more liability coverage than the law forces them to. The gap matters because many brokers and shippers require $1 million on their carrier packets, so the 69.7% at the minimum are filing-legal but locked out of freight that asks for the higher limit. The limit a carrier files is also one of the factors that moves premium, which our cost guide covers with sourced figures. Filings below $750,000 are legitimate for certain specialized classes with lower federal floors, not violations.
The Market Inverts With Fleet Size
The headline shares hide the most useful finding. Split the same carriers by power units and the market flips:
| Group | Share of 1-2 truck carriers (20,310) | Share of 11+ truck carriers (2,892) |
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | 27.2% | outside the top eight |
| GEICO / Berkshire Hathaway | 22.6% | outside the top eight |
| Great West Casualty | 7.3% | 6.9% |
| AIG (National Union Fire) | outside the top eight | 4.9% |
| Zurich | outside the top eight | 3.4% |
Progressive and GEICO-affiliated entities together file for 49.8% of one-and-two-truck operations, and neither appears in the top eight once a fleet passes ten power units. Above that line, the filings belong to commercial specialists: Great West, AIG, Zurich, Worth, Trisura, Sentry. The practical read for an owner-operator is that the direct-brand quote is built for your segment; the practical read for a growing fleet is that the market that insured your first two trucks is not the market that wants your eleventh, and the placement conversation changes accordingly.
Segment Cuts: Auto Haulers, Tow, Oilfield
The census records what each carrier hauls, so the same join supports segment views. Three examples with clear signals:
- Auto haulers (2,092 filed carriers): Progressive files for 39.5%, its strongest segment concentration anywhere in the data.
- Tow and drive-away (506 filed carriers): Progressive 34.4%, with specialists AmGuard and National Interstate holding shares they hold nowhere else. More on that market in our Texas tow truck insurance page.
- Oilfield (2,391 filed carriers): the most balanced segment tested. Progressive 29.3%, Great West 12.7%, GEICO/Berkshire 12.6%, with commercial specialists taking more of this segment than they take of general freight.
Metro cuts run the same way: in the Houston metro (6,788 filed carriers) GEICO/Berkshire entities lead with 19.5% and Highlander Specialty holds 9.6%, triple its Dallas-metro share, showing how geographically uneven specialty placements are within one state.
Methodology
Everything above comes from two public FMCSA datasets on
datahub.transportation.gov,
both updated daily by the agency: the Licensing and Insurance active/pending insurance
file (dataset qh9u-swkp) and the Motor Carrier Census (dataset
az4n-8mr2). Pulled August 30, 2026.
- We kept insurance records with form code BMC-91 or BMC-91X (primary public liability; see how those filings work) and no cancellation date, meaning the filing is active.
- We kept census records with an active status and a Texas physical address: 193,024 carriers.
- We joined the two on USDOT number. 29,882 Texas carriers matched an active liability filing.
- Filer names were rolled up to corporate parents using the mapping table below. A carrier with filings from two groups counts once toward the total and once toward each group.
- Coverage limits use the maximum filed amount per carrier. Fleet bands use census power units.
Parent-Group Mapping
The rollup is a judgment call, so it is published. Names not listed stand as themselves in the analysis.
| Group | Filing entities included |
|---|---|
| Progressive | Progressive County Mutual and all Progressive-named entities, United Financial Casualty, Artisan and Truckers Casualty, Mountain Laurel Assurance |
| GEICO / Berkshire Hathaway | GEICO County Mutual, GEICO Marine, Berkshire Hathaway Homestate, Berkshire Hathaway Direct, National Indemnity, National Liability & Fire, National Fire & Marine |
| Travelers / Northland | Northland Insurance, Northland Casualty, Travelers entities |
| AIG | National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh |
| Others | Great West, Highlander Specialty, Canal, Clear Blue, Trisura, Accredited, Sentry, and Zurich group their own similarly named entities |
What This Data Cannot Tell You
- Counts are carriers, not dollars. A group filing for many one-truck operations can hold a large carrier share and a much smaller premium share. Nothing here is market share by revenue.
- Interstate authority only. The 29,882 carriers are about 15% of active Texas carriers. Intrastate-only operators insure under Texas state requirements and never appear in federal filings.
- Fronting hides the risk bearer. Several large filers operate partly or largely as fronting carriers for managing general agents (Clear Blue, Trisura, and Accredited each describe fronting or hybrid-fronting models in their own public materials), and Texas county mutuals are also used as fronting paper. The named filer is not always the party bearing most of the risk, and filings cannot see through that.
- The parent mapping is ours. It reflects public ownership as we understand it and is published above so it can be checked and challenged.
Related Resources
- FMCSA Insurance Requirements
- Texas Truck Insurance Requirements
- What Commercial Truck Insurance Costs
- BMC-91 Filings Explained
- Texas New Authority Insurance
Journalists and researchers: this analysis may be cited with attribution to InsuredTruck.com and a link to this page. The refresh methodology is described above, and questions about it can go to [email protected].