The United States trucking fleet added more than 115,000 trucks and 8,700 trailers in the second quarter, data from RigDig (owned by Fusable, parent company of TPS) shows in our newest Mapping the Market quarterly report.
The enormous boost reverses a nine-month stretch of power unit contractions. RigDig’s verified vehicle database shrank in each quarter since the introduction of our quarterly report. Additionally, the total number of verified trailers also has now risen in consecutive quarters after falling in Q3 and Q4 of last year.
However, the expansion in equipment did not lead to a comparable boost in carriers. The number of prospects in RigDig’s database continued to fall in Q2 for the third consecutive quarter.
[RELATED: Truck orders post second strongest June on record]
With 12 months of data now available, RigDig’s database shows the U.S. carrier population has lost more than 50,000 prospects and nearly 34,000 trailers, but has added more than 28,000 verified vehicles. The data also further supports theories posited across the industry in the first half of 2026 — that the multi-year freight recession that ended earlier this year drove many small fleet operators out of business or into larger fleet operations, and, as the freight market rebounded, carriers chose to first to invest in power units over trailers.
Arkansas rebounds from brutal 2025
Back in January we wrote about the fleet crisis occurring in Arkansas, which lost nearly 19% of its verified vehicles in the second half of 2025. That’s not the case anymore.
RigDig data indicates Arkansas grew its verified vehicle and trailer populations by an enormous 24.2% and 25.9% month over month in the second quarter.
Those expansions — unprecedented in the short history of our report — fundamentally reset the state’s marketplace. Every U.S. state experienced a reduction in prospects from June 2025 to June 2026 per RigDig, but Arkansas is now one of 25 states that has more verified vehicles in operation today than it did a year ago. The state’s trailer population also has mostly normalized, down fewer than 2,000 units over the last year.
Massachusetts had the second largest increase in verified vehicles and trailers in Q2, increasing its truck population by 8.2% and its trailers by 7.8% quarter over quarter. Louisiana, Florida and Michigan rounded out the top five for verified vehicle growth; Delaware, Vermont and Idaho were three through five in trailer unit expansion.
Alaska’s unique spring
The Last Frontier state had an interesting second quarter compared to its 49 contemporaries, per RigDig data. Alaska was the only state to add carrier prospects quarter over quarter, bumping its total by four operations per RigDig. But that increase did not extend to its equipment totals.
Alaska was the only state to see a reduction in verified vehicles in Q2; falling by 0.54%. Led by Arkansas, 44 states grew their verified vehicle levels by at least 2% quarter over quarter in Q2.
[RELATED: EPA to remove extended warranty requirements from NOx rule]
Conversely, only 23 states boosted their trailer levels in the quarter but Alaska was not among them. The state lost 4.4% of its verified trailer population from the first quarter to the second — only Maine at 6.1% had a larger reduction.
Illinois, Tennessee remain stalwarts
Since TPS began monitoring RigDig carrier data, no states have consistently outperformed Illinois or Tennessee and that continued in Q2. The two states added verified vehicles in the quarter and kept their trailer losses to a minimum (both were down by less than 0.1%).
Over the last year, Tennessee had the second largest growth in verified vehicles (up 6.3%) and Illinois is third (up 5.5%). Idaho tops verified vehicle growth at 7.9%.
In the trailer space, Illinois’ fleet has grown by 4.8% year over year, tops in the country, while Tennessee is third at 2.35%. Connecticut at 2.38% is the only other state to exceed 1.8% year-over-year growth in verified trailers. Tennessee and Illinois are the only states to appear in the top five for both segments.
Mapping the Market will return in October with a summary of third quarter changes in the carrier and equipment populations. For more advanced prospect and equipment data, including customer information, equipment brand demographics, market segmentation and more, go to RigDig.com.
