Profit Margin
2.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 485
NAICS 485 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$40,323/yr average annual pay, with 1,426 SBA loans on record for NAICS 485.
- 2.1%
- Net margin
- 459K
- Workers employed
- $40,323/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $467M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 485
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation runs a 2.1% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 20K establishments employing 459K workers.
- 2.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 459K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $40,323/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $467M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a 2.1% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $29.4B in aggregate receipts across 34,326 returns, averaging $856.2M per establishment.
20,377 establishments employ 458,871 workers (22.5/location) at $40,323/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Pennsylvania.
Total Receipts
$29.4B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$601.2M
Pre-tax net income
Employment
458,871
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$40,323/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
20,377
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 30,667; establishment count increased by 664. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation revenue goes
Workforce scale
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation margin vs national reference points
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation net margin 6.8%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
34,326 returns 100%
Margin: 2.1% · Receipts: $29.4B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 34,326
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $856.2M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $18.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 22.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Charter Bus Industry NAICS 4855 | N/A |
| Interurban and Rural Bus Transportation NAICS 4852 | N/A |
| Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation NAICS 4859 | N/A |
| School and Employee Bus Transportation NAICS 4854 | N/A |
| Taxi and Limousine Service NAICS 4853 | N/A |
| Urban Transit Systems NAICS 4851 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 66,729 |
| California | 44,337 |
| Pennsylvania | 34,443 |
| Illinois | 25,835 |
| Massachusetts | 25,490 |
| New Jersey | 23,539 |
| Texas | 20,318 |
| Minnesota | 17,083 |
| Florida | 14,215 |
| Connecticut | 14,101 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,426
Total Loan Volume
$467M
Avg Loan Size
$327K
Jobs Supported
17,807
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,343 (94%)
504 83 (6%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
202 loans in this industry
New Business Share
27.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 158
2021 120
2022 168
2023 254
2024 342
2025 348
2026 36
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation?
$29.4B in total annual receipts across all Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation businesses. Average per business: $856.2M.
How profitable is Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation?
2.1% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation?
20,377 business establishments. Together they employ 458,871 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation?
$40,323/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 22.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation employment?
New York leads with 66,729 workers. California (44,337) and Pennsylvania (34,443) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation receive?
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation businesses received 1,426 SBA loans totaling $467 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $327K. These loans supported 17,807 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation reports a higher net margin than 10% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 35% of that same 77-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation
- Net margin: 2.1% vs sector. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 20,377 establishments, 458,871 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,426 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 485 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.