What 20+ Years of Trailer Security Sales Can Tell Us About Where Trailers Are Being Used
After more than 20 years in the trailer security business, we have systems scattered across the United States and beyond.
Recently, I looked at a map showing the current locations of many of our GPS-equipped systems. Instead of looking at individual customers, I started looking at the bigger picture.
Why are there concentrations in certain parts of the country?
Rather than guessing, I started comparing what I was seeing with actual government data on businesses, construction, transportation and freight movement.
The results make the map considerably more interesting.
The Midwest Stands Out
One of the most obvious concentrations is across the Midwest.
Our map shows systems throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, with additional locations extending west into Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.
That matters because this part of the country is also a major manufacturing, construction and freight region.
The U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns database allows us to examine individual industries by county, metropolitan area and even ZIP code. The 2023 database includes establishment counts, employment and payroll information by industry. Census.gov
That includes industries closely associated with the types of customers we have worked with for years: construction companies, specialty contractors, transportation businesses and manufacturers.
For perspective, the Census Bureau reports tens of thousands of establishments nationwide in individual specialty-trade categories alone. These aren't hypothetical markets. They represent real businesses employing people, operating equipment and, in many cases, moving tools and equipment between jobsites. Census Data
Our Midwest concentration also overlaps an area with substantial manufacturing and transportation activity.
That doesn't prove those industries caused our sales pattern. It does tell us the concentration isn't sitting in an economic vacuum.
The East Coast Shows a Different Pattern
Another interesting area runs from the Carolinas through Virginia and Maryland into Pennsylvania and the Northeast.
Our map shows systems throughout this corridor rather than being concentrated around a single metropolitan area.
Again, population explains part of that. There are simply more businesses and people in the eastern United States than in large portions of the Mountain West.
But population doesn't appear to explain everything.
The customer locations often follow regions with substantial commercial, construction and transportation activity.
That's important because trailers aren't evenly distributed among the population. A household in downtown Manhattan and an electrical contractor in Virginia shouldn't carry equal weight when you're trying to understand the market for trailer security.
The second one is considerably more likely to have something attached to a hitch.
Florida Is Hard to Ignore
Florida also stands out on our map.
We have systems around Central Florida, along the Atlantic side of the state, in Southwest Florida and throughout South Florida.
Again, Florida's large population is part of the explanation.
But Florida also contains a large construction and service economy where trailers are routinely used by contractors and other businesses. Census County Business Patterns lets us separate those industries from overall population and examine where the businesses themselves are located. Census.gov
That distinction matters.
We aren't selling a consumer product that should simply follow population. We're selling security systems for trailers carrying race cars, tools, equipment, vehicles and other valuable property.
The number and type of businesses in an area may tell us more than the number of residents.
California Produced One of the More Interesting Observations
California has quite a few systems on our map, but their distribution caught my attention.
There is a noticeable concentration in Northern and Central California, while Southern California appears lighter than I would expect based strictly on population.
That is useful because it provides a reality check.
If our sales simply followed population, some of the largest metropolitan areas should dominate the map.
They don't.
The same question can be asked about other states. Texas, for example, doesn't dominate our map to the degree its size, population and commercial activity might suggest.
Those gaps may ultimately be more useful to us than the clusters.
Then There Is Freight
One of the most interesting comparisons involves freight movement.
The federal government maintains something called the Freight Analysis Framework, or FAF.
In July 2026, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics released FAF6, a new benchmark based on 2022 data. It estimates freight tonnage and value by origin, destination, commodity and transportation mode. It combines the Commodity Flow Survey with information from agriculture, energy, foreign trade and several other government sources. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
In plain English, it provides a very detailed picture of where freight actually moves in the United States.
The Federal Highway Administration also maintains highway freight information that models truck movements over individual highway corridors. FHWA specifically cautions that modeled highway flows aren't substitutes for local traffic studies, which is worth mentioning because every dataset has limits. FHWA Operations
When our customer map is viewed alongside the country's major commercial and freight regions, there are some obvious areas of overlap.
That's logical considering what trailers do.
They move things.
Race cars. Construction equipment. Tools. Mobile workspaces. Vehicles. Testing equipment. Government equipment. Landscaping equipment. And plenty of other things someone would rather not have disappear overnight.
What the Map Does Not Tell Us
There is one important limitation.
A map showing where our systems are located does not prove why they're there.
A concentration in Indiana could result from manufacturing, racing, contractors, freight activity, our reputation in that region, customer referrals or several factors working together.
Government freight data has limitations as well. BTS notes that the Commodity Flow Survey directly accounts for roughly 70% of FAF freight flows by value, while FAF uses additional sources and estimates to cover industries and freight movements outside the survey. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
So I'm not interested in forcing a convenient explanation onto the map.
I'm more interested in what the map can teach us.
The Empty Spaces May Be the Most Valuable Part
After looking at all of this, something else becomes apparent.
Where we don't have systems may be just as interesting as where we do.
If an area has a large concentration of contractors, transportation businesses, manufacturing, motorsports and commercial trailer activity but relatively few of our systems, that's worth knowing.
It identifies a market where the customer base exists but our penetration doesn't.
After more than 20 years, our customer map isn't simply a collection of yellow squares anymore.
It's becoming a pretty interesting piece of business data.
And it may be showing us where we should be looking next.
Sources
The underlying economic information used for this comparison comes primarily from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 County Business Patterns database and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration Freight Analysis Framework.
U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns
Bureau of Transportation Statistics Freight Analysis Framework
