Profit Margin
2.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 485
NAICS 485 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
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.
Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation sits in the 35th percentile for employment and the 11th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation ranks #50 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #67 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (2.1% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (458,871 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Transportation and Warehousing · 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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.