NAICS 484110, 484121 · California overview

General Freight Trucking in Sutter County

Sutter County had 311 Trucking establishments in 2023, ranking 12 of 47 California counties and accounting for 1.8% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
311
Rank 12 of 47 counties
Employees
1,264
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$58M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
31.5
98,787 residents

More recent reading

BLS QCEW, 2026Q1

The figures above are County Business Patterns, which carries the size distribution but runs about two years behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes quarterly, so this is the same industry roughly 3 years later. The two count different universes, Census counts establishments with paid employees in the March pay period and BLS counts worksites covered by unemployment insurance during the quarter, so the numbers are not directly comparable and either can be the larger.

Establishments
325
2026Q1
Employment
1,622
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$905
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+4.8%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

12.59 location quotient. Trucking employment in Sutter County is about 12.6 times more concentrated than in the United States as a whole.

Computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not derived here. Above 1.0 means the industry is a larger share of local employment than of national employment.

Establishments by size

Employee-count distribution for Trucking in Sutter County. 13 of 311 establishments (4%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-428090.0%
5-9113.5%
10-1992.9%
20-4941.3%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 127.0% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
2020137n/a
2021181+44
2022248+67
2023311+63

How this market compares

Sutter County against every other county in California on the same measure. The median excludes places under 2,000 residents, where per-capita figures are arithmetically true but analytically useless.

Densely served31.5 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 2.9

Well above the state median for this industry. A crowded market: expect established competitors and price pressure, but also a deeper pool of businesses to buy.

Vs state median
+1002%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#12
of 47 counties
Rank by density
#1
of 47 ranked
Since 2020
+127%
Change in establishments

Density compares general freight trucking provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Sutter is more fragmented than California as a whole: a larger share of very small operators. Fragmented markets are where roll-ups are assembled, and where an owner nearing retirement has no obvious internal buyer.

Share of establishmentsSutterCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer90.0%83.6%+6.4%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target7.7%14.1%-6.3%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing4.2%8.2%-4.0%

What acquirers look at

Rate-cycle exposure is severe and equipment debt is usually understated in seller financials. Dedicated contract lanes are worth far more than spot exposure.

Cities in Sutter

The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.

Other industries in Sutter

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2026Q1). Quarterly establishment counts and employment for employers covered by unemployment insurance. Retrieved 2026-09-08.