Employment
73,320
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 488410
NAICS 488410 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Motor Vehicle Towing - Industry Benchmarks
$51,644/yr average annual pay, with 865 SBA loans on record for NAICS 488410.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin
- 73K
- Workers employed
- $51,644/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $436M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 488410
California leads Motor Vehicle Towing activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 73K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $51,644/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $436M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Motor Vehicle Towing
Motor Vehicle Towing sits inside Transportation and Warehousing, a sector that runs a 6.0% net margin overall.
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.
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.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $3.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.9
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 profitable is Motor Vehicle Towing?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 488410 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
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.
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: Its Census employment total exceeds 65% of that same 801-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Motor Vehicle Towing
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 10,566 establishments, 73,320 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 865 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 488410 · 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.