Founder Data ReportMore Than a Third of the New Solo Businesses of the Last Decade Drive or Deliver
You can’t afford to risk your business without a Sidekick at your side.
The IRS counted seven million more sole proprietorships in 2023 than in 2013. Nearly two and a half million of them are couriers, drivers and other ground transport — and the tax tables hide it behind a reclassification that makes the obvious comparison wrong.
The IRS counted 31,125,909 nonfarm sole proprietorships in tax year 2023 against 24,074,684 in 2013 — 7,051,225 more. 2,437,440 of that growth, 34.6% of it, came from three lines of one industry: couriers and messengers, taxi and ridesharing services, and other ground transport. Together they went from 486,693 returns to 2,924,133. Transportation and warehousing as a whole supplied 38.9% of the decade’s growth, more than any other industry and 7.9 times its share of the 2013 count. What they earn is the other half of the story: average business receipts of $13,387 per courier return in 2023, and net income across the whole group averaging $1,693 against $9,840 ten years earlier in the same 2023 dollars.
- Sole proprietorships grew by 7,051,225 returns between tax years 2013 and 2023. 2,437,440 of that is driving and delivering.
- Couriers and messengers alone went from 196,864 returns to 1,434,245 — 7.3 times as many.
- The IRS did not publish a taxi and ridesharing line until tax year 2017. Before that those filers sat inside ‘other ground transportation’, so neither row can be read on its own across the decade — only the two together.
- Average business receipts on a courier return in 2023: $13,387. On all sole proprietorship returns: $66,285.
- 80.8% of this group reported a profit in 2013. 69.2% did in 2023 — which is now slightly above the national average, not below it.
Nearly two and a half million new returns in one corner of one industry
Across the whole decade the IRS added 7,051,225 sole proprietorship returns. Transportation and warehousing supplied 38.9% of them — the largest contribution of any industry, from a sector that was only 4.9% of the 2013 count. Inside it, the growth is concentrated in work that a phone dispatches: couriers and messengers went from 196,864 returns to 1,434,245, and taxi, ridesharing and other ground transport from 289,829 to 1,489,888. Trucking, the traditional owner-operator business, grew too — from 597,806 to 837,211 — but that is 10% of what the phone-dispatched lines added.
Zero-based axis; a dot marks every tax year and the value is printed on alternate ones. The three IRS lines are summed at every point because the taxi and ridesharing line does not exist before tax year 2017; the sum is continuous across that break and never falls more than 1.2% in a year, while the ‘other ground transportation’ row alone drops 76.7% between 2016 and 2017.
Source: IRS, Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Returns, Table 1, tax years 2013-2023 (files 13sp01br.xls through 23sp01br.xls), retrieved from irs.gov on September 17, 2026. Dollar figures deflated to 2023 dollars with the BLS CPI-U annual average, U.S. city average, all items.
The reclassification that makes the obvious comparison wrong
There is a trap in this table and it is worth naming, because it would turn an honest reading into a false one. The IRS Statistics of Income tables carry no taxi or ridesharing line at all until tax year 2017. Before that, those filers were counted inside ‘other transit and ground transportation’, which is why that row swells from 289,829 returns in 2013 to 1,020,896 in 2016 — and then collapses to 238,363 the moment the taxi line appears beside it. Nothing happened to those businesses. A heading was split. Read either row on its own and you get a fictional boom followed by a fictional bust; read them together and the series is smooth. Every figure in this piece uses the combined lines for exactly that reason.
All six bars share one scale topping out at 1,600,000 returns; slate is 2013 and orange 2023. The middle row combines the taxi and ridesharing line with other ground transportation in both years, because in 2013 only the second of those existed.
Source: IRS, Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Returns, Table 1, tax years 2013-2023 (files 13sp01br.xls through 23sp01br.xls), retrieved from irs.gov on September 17, 2026. Dollar figures deflated to 2023 dollars with the BLS CPI-U annual average, U.S. city average, all items.
A courier return reported average business receipts of $13,387 in 2023. That is revenue, before the car.
What the work actually pays
Business receipts are revenue, not income — the number before fuel, the car, the phone and everything else. On a courier return in tax year 2023 that figure averaged $13,387. On a taxi or ridesharing return, $33,949. Across all 31,125,909 sole proprietorship returns the average was $66,285, and on a truck-transportation return $136,625. The previous piece in this series showed that the largest named deduction on a Schedule C is the car; on these returns, the car is close to the entire business.
Receipts, not profit. Bars are scaled against a $150,000 axis and the exact figure is printed beside each. The slate bar is the all-industry average across every sole proprietorship return.
Source: IRS, Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Returns, Table 1, tax years 2013-2023 (files 13sp01br.xls through 23sp01br.xls), retrieved from irs.gov on September 17, 2026. Dollar figures deflated to 2023 dollars with the BLS CPI-U annual average, U.S. city average, all items.
They are not the reason the national profit share fell
It is tempting to draw a straight line from this arrival to the decline in how many solo businesses make money, and the arithmetic will not support it. In 2013 this group was more likely than average to report a profit — 80.8% against 74.7% nationally — so adding more of them, on its own, pushes the national profitable share up rather than down. What did happen is that the group’s own profitability fell to 69.2% while its real net income per return dropped from $9,840 to $1,693. That is a real collapse in what the work pays. It is just not a composition story, and the same decline shows up in fourteen other industries that never hired a driver.
Net income here is net income less deficit across every return in the group, profitable or not, deflated to 2023 dollars at the CPI-U annual average (x1.308).
Source: IRS, Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Returns, Table 1, tax years 2013-2023 (files 13sp01br.xls through 23sp01br.xls), retrieved from irs.gov on September 17, 2026. Dollar figures deflated to 2023 dollars with the BLS CPI-U annual average, U.S. city average, all items.
The usual caveat applies with more force here than anywhere else in these tables: a Schedule C is filed by anyone with self-employment income, and a great many of these returns are part-time. A person who delivered on forty evenings files the same form as an owner-operator with a truck. That is why the count grows so fast and why the averages are so low, and it is the honest reason not to read two and a half million new returns as two and a half million new companies.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many US sole proprietorships drive or deliver?
2,924,133 nonfarm sole proprietorship returns for tax year 2023 fell in the courier and messenger, taxi and ridesharing, or other ground transportation lines of the IRS Statistics of Income tables — against 486,693 in 2013.
What share of new solo businesses are gig driving and delivery?
34.6%. The IRS counted 7,051,225 more sole proprietorships in tax year 2023 than in 2013, and 2,437,440 of that increase came from those three lines.
Why can't you compare the IRS taxi and ridesharing line back to 2013?
Because it does not exist before tax year 2017. Those filers were counted inside 'other transit and ground transportation', which runs from 289,829 returns in 2013 to 1,020,896 in 2016 and then falls to 238,363 in 2017 when the taxi line is split out. The two lines summed are continuous; either alone is not.
How much does a gig delivery business make?
On an average courier and messenger return for tax year 2023, business receipts were $13,387 — revenue, before vehicle and other costs. Across the whole drive-and-deliver group, net income less deficit averaged $1,693 per return, against $9,840 in 2013 measured in the same 2023 dollars.
Did gig work cause the fall in how many solo businesses make money?
No. In 2013 this group reported a profit at 80.8%, above the 74.7% national rate, so a shift toward it pushes the national figure up rather than down. The shift-share industry-mix term for the decade is +0.9 points, and removing these filers still leaves everyone else falling 5.77 points across the decade, against 5.86 points nationally.
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This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.