Self-employment method
Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation
111,215 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 111,215 people who filed under this code in 2022, 38.89% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 111,215 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 26,387 | 23.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 16,866 | 15.2% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 26,343 | 23.7% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 18,857 | 17.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 14,171 | 12.7% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 7,057 | 6.3% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,055 | 0.9% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 283 | 0.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 140 | 0.1% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $17,019 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.
111,215 people filed under this code. A field that large has a settled price, a settled set of expectations, and no shortage of people willing to meet both.
7.7% cleared $100,000 in receipts. That is a meaningful upper tier and it is worth asking what separates them, because it is rarely effort alone.
Independent passenger transport suits people who can fill a vehicle reliably, since the economics turn entirely on load factor rather than on hours driven.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
The top quarter of Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation earns 8.0x the bottom quarter — under $5,416 against over $43,260, a spread of $37,844. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation earns under $5,416 — $44,604 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this on a vehicle payment that assumes full loads; empty running is what actually happens.
43,251 filers out of 111,215 — 38.9% — reported under $10,000 in gross receipts in 2022. At that share the bottom band is not a warning about beginners; it is a description of a large part of the field.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 8.0x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $17,019 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation should plan around it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $5,416 at the 25th percentile, $17,019 at the midpoint, $43,260 at the 75th. $37,844 separates the quarter of Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Getting to $43,260, the 75th percentile, is worth $26,241 a year more than the $17,019 midpoint and $37,844 more than the $5,416 a quarter of Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation settle for.
From $17,019 the drop to $5,416 is $11,603 and the climb to $43,260 is $26,241. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.60 an hour at the 25th percentile, $8.18 at the midpoint and $20.79 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 26,387 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 16,866. $10,000 to $24,999, 26,343. Over $100,000, 8,535 — and 1,478 over $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $17,019 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $17,019 wage and should never be read as one.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $17,019 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else