FMCSA's carrier census lists 10,237 active carriers based in the Dallas area — 9,494 with one to nine trucks, 541 operators running 10 to 49, and 165 with 50 or more — roughly 109,768 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 Dallas 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 Dallas actually looks like
Dallas–Fort Worth is two freight markets that share a metro. The south side — Lancaster, Hutchins, Wilmer — is the inland port: rail ramps, mega-DCs and a wall of dry-van shuttle work that is home-daily and very sensitive to a dollar an hour. The north side, Alliance in Fort Worth up through Denton, is the newer logistics belt with the same shape and slightly younger fleets.
In between sits the largest concentration of mid-size for-hire carriers in Texas, most of them running the Texas triangle and I-20 east. Drivers here compare offers across the whole metro, so a carrier in Irving is competing with one in Fort Worth for the same phone call. Regional out-and-back with real home time wins that call more often than a higher mileage number.
The lanes: I-35E / I-35W · I-20 · I-30 · I-45 · Alliance and the inland port.
Recruiting in DFW is a pricing exercise before it is a sourcing exercise. The metro has more open seats than any driver could visit, so a driver's first question is not whether you have work but what the week looks like and what it pays. Carriers that answer both in the posting get callbacks; carriers that say 'competitive' get skipped.
The south-side DC belt sets a floor for home-daily pay that a regional carrier has to beat with real home time, not a bigger mileage number. We screen DFW drivers on lane preference first — Texas triangle, I-20 east, or local shuttle — because a mismatch there is the most common reason a placement fails in the first month. Lancaster is our base for this market, so the yard visit and the walk-in are both on the table.
Where the 10-plus-truck fleets sit, by ZIP: 75050 (34), 75243 (29), 75006 (23), 75247 (22), 75062 (22).
What drivers in Dallas are paid
BLS puts the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX metro area at $59,530, with a mean of $62,720 (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.
- $59,530
- median annual wage, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro
- $62,720
- mean annual wage, May 2025 (BLS OEWS 53-3032)
How pay-per-driver works for a Dallas carrier
- 01
Intake call
We map your lanes, equipment, pay, home time and hiring requirements for Dallas. 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 Dallas runs from our Lancaster, TX office, 15 miles away.
Our Lancaster, TX office is 15 miles from Dallas. The recruiters who work this market are based there.
The model in full is on Pay Per Driver. The team behind it works from our Lancaster, TX office. Why the first 48 hours decide most hires: speed to hire.
Who this fits in Dallas — and who it doesn't
Fleets of 10 to 49 trucks are our core. The census counts 541 operators of that size in the Dallas 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 — 165 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 Dallas 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 Dallas?
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 Dallas-specific price list.
How many trucking companies are based in Dallas?
FMCSA's carrier census lists 10,237 active carriers with a business address in the Dallas area (Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving and nearby): 9,494 with one to nine trucks, 541 operators with 10 to 49, and 165 with 50 or more, roughly 109,768 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 Dallas?
BLS puts the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX metro area at $59,530, with a mean of $62,720 (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 Dallas?
Yes — our Lancaster, TX office is about 15 miles from Dallas, and the recruiters who work this market are based there.
How fast can you get drivers for a Dallas 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 Dallas?
Yes. Distribution-center shuttles and rail-ramp drayage are the bulk of local CDL-A work around Dallas: 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 Dallas: 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 Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Grand Prairie, Garland, Mesquite, Lancaster, Hutchins, Wilmer, Haltom City, Alliance, Denton, Lewisville, Carrollton, Plano; 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 OEUM001910000000053303213 (median) and OEUM001910000000053303204 (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 →