The definitions
FMCSA’s rules define interstate commerce as trade, traffic or transportation in the United States (49 CFR 390.5):
- between a place in one state and a place outside it, including outside the United States;
- between two places in one state, through another state or a place outside the United States; or
- between two places in one state, as part of trade or transportation that begins or ends outside the state or the country.
Intrastate commerce is everything else. The third part of the definition is the one that surprises people: a load that never leaves Texas can still be interstate commerce if it is the last leg of a shipment that started in another state.
Why it matters
Interstate operation brings carriers under the federal rules: a USDOT number for commercial motor vehicles, the MCS-150 biennial update, and, for for-hire carriers of regulated freight, operating authority with federal minimum insurance. Carriers that stay within one state answer mainly to their state, and many states require a USDOT number for intrastate commercial vehicles too.
Carriers declare their operation on the MCS-150. Our op_scope column carries it as interstate, intrastate_hazmat or intrastate_non_hazmat.
How carriers split
Nationally, 30.9% of active carriers are registered for interstate operation and 68.9% for intrastate operation. The share varies widely by state:
| Vermont | 70.6% |
|---|---|
| Rhode Island | 68.6% |
| New Hampshire | 68.1% |
| South Dakota | 67.3% |
| Delaware | 64.6% |
If you sell to long-haul carriers, filter on op_scope = interstate. Cargo is a strong hint too: in the current data, most carriers of building materials, garbage and grain are intrastate, while most refrigerated carriers are interstate.
Sources
Figures marked as current come from the FMCSA Company Census snapshot of November 7, 2026, as published on this site. How the data is built