Truck regulation spans roadside inspections, carrier investigations, safety ratings, crash outcomes, emissions standards and compliance burdens. In the United States, the available measures cover both large trucks and buses in several datasets, while emissions and freight figures include explicit estimates or forecasts rather than post-implementation outcomes.
Key Truck Regulation Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- 3,515,954 large-truck and bus inspections were recorded in the United States in 2018.
- 2,984,331 large-truck and bus inspections were recorded in the United States in 2022.
- 2,898,862 state inspections and 85,469 federal inspections were recorded in the United States in 2022.
- 12,591 listed safety inspectors were counted in the United States in 2022.
- 6.9% of driver inspections had an out-of-service rate in the United States in 2022.
- 22.6% of vehicle inspections had an out-of-service rate in the United States in 2022.
- 4.5% of hazmat inspections had an out-of-service rate in the United States in 2022.
- 455,079 vehicle inspections with an out-of-service violation were recorded in the United States in 2022.
- 3,149,465 vehicle violations were reported in the United States in 2022.
- 12,496 FMCSA investigations were recorded in the United States in 2022.
- 747,014 carriers had no FMCSA safety rating in the United States safety-rating table for 2022.
- 5,340 fatal crashes involving large trucks and buses occurred on United States roadways in 2021.
- 531,000 estimated nonfatal crashes involving a large truck or bus occurred in the United States in 2021.
- 3,172,189 commercial-vehicle roadside inspections were reported in the United States in calendar year 2025.
- 164,199 large-truck-and-bus crashes were reported in the United States in calendar year 2025, with provisional status.
- One billion tons of greenhouse-gas emissions avoided is EPA’s estimate for the heavy-duty Phase 3 rule horizon in the United States.
- $13 billion in annualized net benefits is EPA’s estimate for the final heavy-duty greenhouse-gas standards in the United States.
- 50% freight-tonnage growth is forecast for United States freight movement from 2020 to 2050, reaching 28.7 billion tons.
Contents
- Inspection scale and enforcement coverage
- Driver, vehicle and hazmat safety data
- Violations, investigations and safety ratings
- Crashes, injuries and freight exposure
- Emissions regulation and heavy-duty standards
- Costs, paperwork burdens and freight outlook
Truck Regulation Statistics: Inspection Scale and Enforcement Coverage
FMCSA’s 2023 Pocket Guide records a sharp change in inspection activity during the period affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a partial recovery. These counts cover large trucks and buses and combine federal and state inspections.
| Year | Inspections in the United States |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 3,515,954 |
| 2019 | 3,471,201 |
| 2020 | 2,582,347 |
| 2021 | 2,881,848 |
| 2022 | 2,984,331 |
Source: 2023 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics. The guide notes that COVID-19 affected enforcement interactions, and its MCMIS snapshot was taken January 27, 2023.
The 2022 division shows how much enforcement depended on state resources: state inspectors conducted 2,898,862 inspections, compared with 85,469 by federal inspectors. FMCSA describes state personnel as accounting for approximately 95% of inspections, an approximate share rather than a separately audited ratio.
Listed safety inspectors declined from 13,839 in 2018 to 12,591 in 2022. The 2022 total included 12,100 state safety inspectors and 491 federal safety inspectors, but the personnel counts include people who were not assigned full time to inspections.
A separate live FMCSA A&I view reported 3,172,189 commercial-vehicle roadside inspections and 533,046 traffic-enforcement inspections in calendar year 2025. It also reported 11,271 motor-carrier investigations; investigations are a different measure from inspections, and the page notes that data-update timing can affect the headline figures.
Source: A&I Online – Motor Carrier Analysis and Information Resources Online.
Truck Regulation Data on Driver, Vehicle and Hazmat Out-of-Service Rates
Out-of-service rates show the share of relevant inspections associated with an out-of-service violation, but each category uses its own inspection denominator. Driver rates cover inspection levels I, II, III and VI; vehicle rates cover levels I, II, V and VI; hazmat rates use specified levels when hazardous materials were present.
| Category | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driver inspections | 4.7% | 5.1% | 5.2% | 6.1% | 6.9% |
| Vehicle inspections | 20.8% | 20.6% | 20.7% | 21.4% | 22.6% |
| Hazmat inspections | 4.2% | 4.5% | 4.4% | 4.5% | 4.5% |
Source: 2023 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics. These are United States rates for large trucks and buses, with the hazmat category limited to applicable inspections involving hazardous materials.
In 2022, FMCSA counted 2,879,966 driver inspections, 2,016,103 vehicle inspections and 170,967 hazmat inspections. The corresponding counts of inspections with an out-of-service violation were 198,493 for drivers, 455,079 for vehicles and 7,757 for hazmat inspections.
The measures are not a single all-purpose compliance rate. A vehicle inspection can identify equipment conditions, a driver inspection can identify driver-related violations, and a hazmat inspection has a narrower population defined by the presence of hazardous materials.
Truck Regulation Trends in Violations, Investigations and Safety Ratings
FMCSA reported 3,149,465 vehicle violations and 680,510 vehicle out-of-service violations in 2022. The totals cover the guide’s vehicle-violation reporting scope and are not restricted to the top 20 violations by frequency.
Investigations moved unevenly across the 2018–2022 period: 14,222 in 2018, 13,040 in 2019, 11,460 in 2020, 12,342 in 2021 and 12,496 in 2022. The series includes more than trucking companies, including bus companies and hazmat entities.
FMCSA’s 2022 intervention counts were:
- 3,609 onsite comprehensive interventions.
- 5,375 onsite focused interventions.
- 3,356 offsite interventions.
- 55 cargo-tank-facility reviews.
- 105 non-rated reviews.
These categories are enforcement classifications and reviews, not counts of unique carriers.
The 2022 safety-rating table listed 33,706 satisfactory carriers, 11,850 conditional carriers and 1,007 unsatisfactory carriers. It also listed 747,014 carriers with no safety rating, and the table totaled 793,577 carriers across its listed classes; no rating is distinct from the three rated categories and is not a prevalence estimate for all trucking firms.
Source for the violations, investigations, interventions and ratings: 2023 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics.
Truck Regulation Statistics for Crashes, Injuries and Freight Exposure
Crash statistics provide an outcome context for regulation, but involvement is not the same as causation. The FMCSA 2021 figures combine large trucks and buses unless otherwise stated.
| 2021 measure | United States count or share |
|---|---|
| Fatal crashes involving a large truck or bus | 5,340 |
| Share of 39,508 fatal roadway crashes | 13.5% |
| Estimated nonfatal crashes, all types | 6,064,000 |
| Estimated nonfatal crashes involving a large truck or bus | 531,000 |
| Share of estimated nonfatal crashes | 8.7% |
Source: 2023 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics. The nonfatal figures are estimates, and the large-truck-or-bus category does not establish responsibility for the crash.
FMCSA A&I reported 164,199 large-truck-and-bus crashes, 4,521 fatalities and 85,870 injuries in calendar year 2025. The A&I page states that crash reporting was still ongoing, so these figures are provisional rather than final year-end outcomes.
Source: A&I Online – Motor Carrier Analysis and Information Resources Online.
Truck Emissions Regulation Statistics and Heavy-Duty Standards
EPA’s Phase 3 heavy-duty greenhouse-gas standards describe regulatory stringency and modeled benefits, not adoption rates or observed reductions. The final standards cover model years 2027–2032 and vary by vehicle type.
EPA estimates that by model year 2032, standards could be up to 60% stronger for heavy-duty vocational vehicles versus Phase 2. For tractor day cabs and sleeper cabs, EPA estimates standards could be up to 40% stronger than Phase 2.
The modeled outcomes include one billion tons of greenhouse-gas emissions avoided over the rule horizon and $13 billion in annualized net benefits. These are rule-model estimates combining climate, public-health and owner/operator effects, not post-implementation measurements.
EPA’s final-rule analysis estimates approximately $10 billion in annualized climate benefits and up to $300 million in annualized benefits from reduced fine-particulate emissions. It also estimates $3.5 billion in annualized heavy-duty industry savings against about $1.1 billion in annualized industry costs.
Source: Final Standards to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Heavy-Duty Vehicles for Model Year 2027 and Beyond. The figures are regulatory-model estimates, not realized savings or revenue.
Truck Regulation Costs, Paperwork Burdens and Freight-Growth Outlook
Compliance costs can include paperwork as well as equipment and operating changes. A GAO review of FMCSA’s driver-vehicle inspection report rule says the rule affected motor carriers subject to 49 CFR 396.11, except passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicle operators.
The prior approved information collection estimated 50,214,032 annual burden hours. The change allowing a no-defect report reduced the estimated burden by 46,669,294 annual hours, and GAO reports an annual value of $1.7 billion using an assumed labor cost of $37 per hour.
Source: Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance; Driver-Vehicle Inspection Report (DVIR). These are paperwork-burden estimates based on FMCSA assumptions; the dollar figure is derived from estimated hours and the assumed hourly labor cost.
Regulation also operates within a growing freight system. FAF5 forecasts United States freight tonnage to grow 50% from 2020 to 2050, reaching 28.7 billion tons, while freight value is forecast to double to $36.2 trillion in 2017 dollars.
Trucks carried 65% of United States freight tonnage in the baseline cited by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The figures are broad freight-flow measures, not truck-regulation compliance statistics or truck-only tonnage forecasts.
Source: Freight Activity in the U.S Expected to Grow Fifty Percent by 2050.
EPA separately estimates $13 billion in annualized net benefits through 2055 for the final heavy-duty standards. That long-horizon figure should be read alongside the modeled cost, benefit and emissions assumptions rather than as an observed financial result.