FMCSA's carrier census lists 7,181 active carriers based in the Phoenix area — 6,509 with one to nine trucks, 440 operators running 10 to 49, and 153 with 50 or more — roughly 85,161 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 Phoenix 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 Phoenix actually looks like
Phoenix grew a freight economy in the last ten years, mostly along I-10 on the west side: Tolleson, Goodyear and Buckeye are the warehouse belt now, with the older industrial base south of the airport and out toward Mesa and Chandler. The lanes are long — Los Angeles is six hours, Dallas is fifteen, and a lot of the city's freight comes in from Southern California on trucks that would rather turn around than stay. That makes Phoenix a good market for regional carriers that can offer a California turn and a home-daily reset, and a hard one for anyone whose real business is OTR.
Summer heat is an equipment and a driver issue in a way it isn't anywhere else on this list; the carriers that talk about APUs and start times in the posting are the ones drivers believe.
The lanes: I-10 · I-17 · US-60 · Loop 101 / 202 / 303 · Nogales and Lukeville border lanes.
Phoenix recruiting is a regional-carrier market. So much of the city's freight comes in from Southern California that drivers here know the I-10 turn intimately, and a carrier that can offer a California out-and-back with a home-daily or every-other-day reset has an offer that fits the local pool. OTR from Phoenix competes with national fleets that use the city as a hub.
Summer heat is an equipment and a driver issue in a way it is not anywhere else on this list — APUs, start times and how the carrier handles a 115-degree afternoon come up on every screen from May to September, and carriers that address them in the posting are believed. The west-side warehouse belt in Tolleson and Goodyear is where the seats are. Our nearest office is Lancaster, Texas; Phoenix recruiting runs by phone.
Where the 10-plus-truck fleets sit, by ZIP: 85009 (48), 85043 (48), 85040 (32), 85034 (29), 85027 (18).
What drivers in Phoenix are paid
BLS puts the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metro area at $59,770, with a mean of $59,790 (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.
- $59,770
- median annual wage, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro
- $59,790
- mean annual wage, May 2025 (BLS OEWS 53-3032)
How pay-per-driver works for a Phoenix carrier
- 01
Intake call
We map your lanes, equipment, pay, home time and hiring requirements for Phoenix. 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 Phoenix runs from our Lancaster, TX office, 1,060 miles away.
We don't need a desk in Phoenix to place drivers in Phoenix — 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 Lancaster, TX office. Why the first 48 hours decide most hires: speed to hire.
Who this fits in Phoenix — and who it doesn't
Fleets of 10 to 49 trucks are our core. The census counts 440 operators of that size in the Phoenix 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 — 153 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 Phoenix 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 Phoenix?
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 Phoenix-specific price list.
How many trucking companies are based in Phoenix?
FMCSA's carrier census lists 7,181 active carriers with a business address in the Phoenix area (Phoenix, Tolleson, Goodyear, Avondale and nearby): 6,509 with one to nine trucks, 440 operators with 10 to 49, and 153 with 50 or more, roughly 85,161 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 Phoenix?
BLS puts the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metro area at $59,770, with a mean of $59,790 (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 Phoenix?
No. Our nearest office is Lancaster, TX, about 1,060 miles away. We don't need a desk in Phoenix to place drivers in Phoenix — 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 Phoenix 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.
Do you recruit regional out-and-back drivers in Phoenix?
Yes. Regional out-and-back from Phoenix is what most drivers we talk to actually want — real weekly home time and a lane they can learn. When the pay per mile and the home-time rule are both stated, these are among the fastest seats we fill.
Drivers in Phoenix: 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 Phoenix, Tolleson, Goodyear, Avondale, Buckeye, Glendale, Peoria, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Casa Grande, Surprise, Litchfield Park, Laveen; 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 OEUM003806000000053303213 (median) and OEUM003806000000053303204 (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 →