Employment
73,320
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 48841
NAICS 48841 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Motor Vehicle Towing - Industry Benchmarks
$51,644/yr average annual pay, with 865 SBA loans on record for NAICS 48841.
- 11K
- Establishments
- 73K
- Workers employed
- $51,644/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $436M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 48841
California leads Motor Vehicle Towing activity nationally, across 11K establishments employing 73K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 11K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 73K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $51,644/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $436M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Motor Vehicle Towing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Motor Vehicle Towing 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Motor Vehicle Towing
Motor Vehicle Towing sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
10,566 establishments employ 73,320 workers (6.9/location) at $51,644/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Ohio.
Motor Vehicle Towing sits in the 50th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$51,644/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
10,566
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 3,495; establishment count increased by 12. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $3.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Motor Vehicle Towing NAICS 488410 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 11,338 |
| Texas | 6,219 |
| Ohio | 3,266 |
| Illinois | 2,810 |
| Pennsylvania | 2,686 |
| New York | 2,475 |
| Virginia | 2,335 |
| Georgia | 2,313 |
| Michigan | 2,288 |
| North Carolina | 2,242 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
865
Total Loan Volume
$436M
Avg Loan Size
$504K
Jobs Supported
7,080
Program Breakdown
7(a) 757 (88%)
504 108 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
75 loans in this industry
New Business Share
24.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 122
2021 115
2022 137
2023 148
2024 149
2025 165
2026 29
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Motor Vehicle Towing?
10,566 business establishments. Together they employ 73,320 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Motor Vehicle Towing?
$51,644/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Motor Vehicle Towing employment?
California leads with 11,338 workers. Texas (6,219) and Ohio (3,266) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Motor Vehicle Towing receive?
Motor Vehicle Towing businesses received 865 SBA loans totaling $436 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $504K. These loans supported 7,080 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Motor Vehicle Towing, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Motor Vehicle Towing ranks #277 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (73,320 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · 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 48841 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.