FMCSA's carrier census lists 7,674 active carriers based in the Atlanta area — 7,132 with one to nine trucks, 383 operators running 10 to 49, and 132 with 50 or more — roughly 84,526 power units between them. 1 Every one of them is hiring the same drivers you are.
We're a truck driver recruiting agency, not a lead reseller and not a staffing firm. Our recruiters talk to every driver by phone, screen them against your requirements, and submit ready-to-hire packets. You pay per placed driver — half when the driver starts, half after the first 14 days — and nothing up front. That is the whole model, and it is the same in Atlanta as it is in Chicago, where we started.
If your recruiting partner gets paid before a driver ever starts, you didn't buy recruiting. You bought a contact list.
What recruiting in Atlanta actually looks like
Atlanta is the freight capital of the Southeast, and the map explains why: I-75, I-85 and I-20 meet inside a perimeter ringed with distribution centers, from the older cluster around Forest Park and the airport to the newer mega-DCs down I-75 through McDonough and up I-85 through Braselton. Savannah's port traffic ends up here too, on rail and on trucks, which makes Atlanta a drayage market without a coastline. The for-hire fleet count is high but the purity is low — a lot of those trucks belong to private and retail fleets — so the carriers that recruit through agencies are competing against big-company benefits, not just each other's pay.
Traffic is the local tax: a home-daily route that avoids the Connector at rush hour is worth real money to a driver, and the carriers that plan around it say so in the job.
The lanes: I-75 · I-85 · I-20 · I-285 perimeter · I-675 · Hartsfield-Jackson air cargo · Savannah port drayage inland.
Atlanta recruiting is about geography inside the perimeter. A home-daily route that avoids the Connector at rush hour is worth real money to a driver, and the carriers that plan around traffic and say so in the posting hire faster than the ones offering a few more cents a mile. The DC belts down I-75 through McDonough and up I-85 through Braselton are the growth markets; the older cluster around the airport and Forest Park is dense and competitive.
Many of the metro's trucks are private and retail fleets, so a for-hire carrier is competing against corporate benefits, not just pay. Savannah port drayage that ends in Atlanta wants TWIC and experience; we screen for it when the lane calls for it. Our nearest office is North Miami, and Atlanta recruiting runs by phone.
Where the 10-plus-truck fleets sit, by ZIP: 30297 (29), 30071 (28), 30336 (25), 30066 (22), 30339 (21).
What drivers in Atlanta are paid
BLS puts the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metro area at $59,100, with a mean of $59,400 (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025).
Two caveats before you build an offer on it. The figure blends local hourly seats with OTR mileage pay, so it is neither; and it lags the market by up to a year. Treat it as the floor a driver already knows, not the number that makes them switch. The carriers that fill seats here publish the actual pay — by the mile, the hour or the day — and the actual home time. We wrote up the posting mistakes that cost carriers applications if you want the checklist.
- $59,100
- median annual wage, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro
- $59,400
- mean annual wage, May 2025 (BLS OEWS 53-3032)
How pay-per-driver works for a Atlanta carrier
- 01
Intake call
We map your lanes, equipment, pay, home time and hiring requirements for Atlanta. If we can't guarantee you enough driver volume, we say so on this call — not three invoices later.
- 02
Screening and interviews by our recruiters
Our recruiters interview every driver by phone and verify CDL, endorsements, experience and work history against your requirements. No raw lists ever reach your desk.
- 03
Submission packets through Onboard
Qualified drivers go to you as complete submission packets through Onboard, our in-house platform. The packet lands in your inbox and you decide from there — no portal to learn. The pipeline is tracked through drug test to hire.
- 04
Placement, arrival and follow-through
You pay per placed driver — half when the driver starts, half after the first 14 days — and we stay involved through arrival and the early weeks. Recruiting for Atlanta runs from our North Miami, FL office, 660 miles away.
We don't need a desk in Atlanta to place drivers in Atlanta — and we won't put a virtual-office pin on a map to pretend we have one.
The model in full is on Pay Per Driver. The team behind it works from our North Miami, FL office. Why the first 48 hours decide most hires: speed to hire.
Who this fits in Atlanta — and who it doesn't
Fleets of 10 to 49 trucks are our core. The census counts 383 operators of that size in the Atlanta area: big enough to have open seats every month, too small to carry a recruiting department. Pay-per-driver gives them one without the payroll.
Fleets of 50 or more — 132 here — use us two ways: as overflow when their own recruiters are behind, or as the whole department for a terminal or a lane they can't staff from headquarters. Either way the fee is the same and the retention terms are the same.
Who we turn down: private fleets that only hire through their own HR, and surge hiring that needs bodies by Monday and none by June. We won't sign a carrier we can't keep supplied, and we won't place a driver into a seat we expect to disappear. If you want to know how we think about drivers who stay, start with finding CDL drivers who stay. Selling to trucking companies rather than hiring drivers? That's a different service — Marketing for Trucking.
Our numbers
No third party audited these. They're our own operating numbers — the claims we make publicly about our own shop, and the standard you should hold us to on a call.
- 100+
- drivers our operation places per month
- 3,000+
- lifetime CDL hires
- 50+
- carrier partners
- 24 hrs
- to first drivers for a new carrier
“They came in, fixed our recruiting, and now manage the whole operation with AI. We just do a 30-min call weekly — they handle the rest.”
More carrier feedback, in the carriers' own words: results.
Questions Atlanta carriers ask us
Ask any agency the same questions. Then compare who does the work and when the money changes hands — staffing and recruiting are not the same purchase.
How much does a truck driver recruiting agency cost in Atlanta?
We charge per placed driver — no retainer, no weekly fee. The placement fee is quoted per engagement (it depends on your lanes, pay and equipment) and paid half when the driver starts and half after the driver's first 14 days, so part of our fee is only due once the driver has stayed. There is no Atlanta-specific price list.
How many trucking companies are based in Atlanta?
FMCSA's carrier census lists 7,674 active carriers with a business address in the Atlanta area (Atlanta, Forest Park, College Park, Conley and nearby): 7,132 with one to nine trucks, 383 operators with 10 to 49, and 132 with 50 or more, roughly 84,526 power units in all. Fleet sizes are self-reported on the MCS-150, so read it as a scale, not a headcount.
What do truck drivers make in Atlanta?
BLS puts the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metro area at $59,100, with a mean of $59,400 (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025). That blends local hourly seats with OTR mileage pay and lags the market by up to a year — treat it as the floor a driver already knows, not the offer that makes them switch.
Do you have an office in Atlanta?
No. Our nearest office is North Miami, FL, about 660 miles away. We don't need a desk in Atlanta to place drivers in Atlanta — recruiting is phone, text and paperwork — and we won't put a virtual-office pin on a map to pretend otherwise.
How fast can you get drivers for a Atlanta carrier?
Our claim, from our own operation: first drivers in 24 hours for a carrier whose intake is complete. Full ramp-up depends on your pay, lanes, home time, and how quickly your side reviews and approves submissions — the carriers that reply the same day fill seats first.
Can you staff DC shuttle and intermodal seats in Atlanta?
Yes. Distribution-center shuttles and rail-ramp drayage are the bulk of local CDL-A work around Atlanta: predictable, home-daily, and competitive on pay. We tell drivers exactly which DC or ramp the seat serves, because that detail is what decides a yes.
Drivers in Atlanta: browse current CDL-A jobs or get matched to a carrier — free for drivers.
1 FMCSA Company Census (2026-09-26): active carriers based in Atlanta, Forest Park, College Park, Conley, Ellenwood, Lithia Springs, Austell, Fairburn, Union City, McDonough, Stockbridge, Locust Grove, Jackson, Norcross, Lawrenceville, Buford, Braselton, Marietta, Kennesaw, Cartersville, Doraville, Tucker; MCS-150 filed in the last 24 months; 1–20,000 trucks; fewer than 10 buses. 10+ truck counts merge registrations sharing an address or D-U-N-S number. Totals and the 1–9 band count active USDOT registrations; fleet sizes are self-reported on the MCS-150, so read them as a scale, not a headcount.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025, occupation 53-3032, series OEUM001206000000053303213 (median) and OEUM001206000000053303204 (mean).
Written by
Andrius Pletniovas — Founder, CDL Agency
Andrius Pletniovas (Andrius Digital) is the founder of CDL Agency, a truck-driver recruiting and marketing company that has placed 3,000+ CDL drivers for 50+ carriers across the U.S. He writes about driver recruiting, retention, and the trucking market from running the agency every day.
More about Andrius →Official personal website →