Profit Margin
15.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 492
NAICS 492 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Couriers and Messengers - Industry Benchmarks
1,546 SBA loans on record, $770M in volume, for NAICS 492.
- 15.1%
- Net margin
- 1.2M
- Workers employed
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $770M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 492
Couriers and Messengers runs a 15.1% pre-tax net margin - above average for US industries - across 16K establishments employing 1.2M workers.
- 15.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.2M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $770M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Couriers and Messengers
Couriers and Messengers sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a 15.1% net margin (above average for US industries), $18.8B in aggregate receipts across 1,406,958 returns, averaging $13.4M per establishment.
16,226 establishments employ 1,185,718 workers (73.1/location). California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$18.8B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$2.8B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,185,718
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
N/A
Annual compensation
Establishments
16,226
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 12,264; establishment count decreased by 807. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Couriers and Messengers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Couriers and Messengers margin vs national reference points
Couriers and Messengers net margin 50.3%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
Sole Proprietorship
1,406,958 returns 100%
Margin: 15.1% · Receipts: $18.8B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 1,406,958
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $13.4M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 73.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Couriers and Express Delivery Services NAICS 4921 | N/A |
| Local Messengers and Local Delivery NAICS 4922 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 155,857 |
| Texas | 96,073 |
| Florida | 79,538 |
| Illinois | 66,805 |
| New York | 59,946 |
| New Jersey | 50,436 |
| Pennsylvania | 46,969 |
| Georgia | 46,578 |
| Ohio | 38,855 |
| North Carolina | 35,879 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,546
Total Loan Volume
$770M
Avg Loan Size
$498K
Jobs Supported
23,681
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,524 (99%)
504 22 (1%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
117 loans in this industry
New Business Share
36.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 219
2021 245
2022 208
2023 244
2024 280
2025 302
2026 48
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Couriers and Messengers?
$18.8B in total annual receipts across all Couriers and Messengers businesses. Average per business: $13.4M.
How profitable is Couriers and Messengers?
15.1% net profit margin, above average for US industries.
How many businesses are in Couriers and Messengers?
16,226 business establishments. Together they employ 1,185,718 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Couriers and Messengers?
Average payroll data for Couriers and Messengers is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.
Which states have the most Couriers and Messengers employment?
California leads with 155,857 workers. Texas (96,073) and Florida (79,538) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Couriers and Messengers receive?
Couriers and Messengers businesses received 1,546 SBA loans totaling $770 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $498K. These loans supported 23,681 jobs at origination. Most lending (99%) 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: Couriers and Messengers reports a higher net margin than 90% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 61% 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.
- Publishing Industries (except Internet) 1,262,348
- Nonstore Retailers 1,108,365
- Machinery Manufacturing 1,086,146
Benchmarking Couriers and Messengers
- Net margin: 15.1% vs sector. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 16,226 establishments, 1,185,718 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,546 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 492 · 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.