Financing for trucking companies
Fuel and payroll go out weekly; the invoice pays in thirty, sixty or ninety. Almost every trucking file we see is about that gap.
How the money reads
An underwriter reads six months of statements. This is what yours usually says.
- Deposits arrive per load or per settlement, so the month is lumpy rather than level.
- Fuel and driver pay leave on a weekly rhythm regardless.
- Factoring, if you use it, shows in the statements — send them anyway, it is normal and it is read as normal.
The thing that slows these files down
If the receivables are already assigned to a factor, say so at the start. It does not stop a file, but a lender finding it in the statements themselves costs a day.
What it usually pays for
- A tractor, a trailer, or a reefer unit
- Covering fuel and payroll while receivables age
- Insurance and licensing when they land together
What an underwriter asks
The same four things decide every file: revenue and how long you have been making it, the cash cushion, bounced payments, and what you already pay other lenders. Here is what those look like in this trade.
- Are the invoices already factored?
- Factoring is ordinary in haulage and it does not stop a file. What a lender needs to know is whether the receivables are already assigned, because the same invoice cannot be pledged twice. Said at the start it costs nothing.
- What is already owed against the trucks?
- Most tractors carry a loan or a lease. Those payments count toward the ceiling on what you pay lenders in total, which is capped at 20% of monthly revenue across everything you already owe. Two units on finance leaves less room than one at the same revenue.
- How many customers is the revenue?
- A carrier running most of its miles for one broker reads differently from the same revenue spread across five. It is a question, not a decline — answer it in a line and the exchange never happens.
The whole method, in one page: giving yourself the best shot.
Asking for the right amount
About a month of revenue is the usual anchor. Count what settled into the account, not what you invoiced: if you factor, the statements show the advance, and that is the figure being read.
Across every trade the anchor is the same: roughly a month of revenue, and never more than the statements support. Everything you already pay lenders counts toward a ceiling of 20% of monthly revenue, so what is already running matters as much as what you are asking for.
When to ask
Freight is usually soft in the first quarter and tight in the autumn. Six months ending in February show the slow half of your year; six ending in October show the fast half. Both are fine. It is worth knowing which one you are sending.
Have these ready as well
On top of the standard file — six months of statements, your incorporation documents, your CRA business number and photo ID.
- Your safety registration — CVOR in Ontario, the National Safety Code number elsewhere
- Certificates of insurance for the units
- The factoring agreement, if you have one
- A bill of sale or dealer invoice for anything you are financing
What usually fits
In this order, more often than not — though the file decides, not the trade.
Equipment financing
The oven, the van, the line. Financed against the thing itself, so the payment sits against what the thing earns.
$10,000 – $1,000,000
Revenue-based line of credit
Draw what you need, pay for what you draw, and the limit moves with what you turn over. For months that are uneven rather than short.
Up to $500,000
Asset-based lending
Your receivables, inventory or equipment doing some work while you still hold them. Usually the cheapest money on this page.
$50,000 – $2,000,000
Where these files get harder
None of these is an automatic no. They are the things that turn a one-day decision into a conversation, and all of them are better said by you than found by an underwriter.
- Trucks registered to you personally rather than to the company
- Cargo or liability insurance that has lapsed
- Bounced payments clustered in the same weeks as fuel — it reads as running on the edge, whatever the annual figure says
Questions
- Does using a factor hurt my application?
- No. It is normal in this trade and it is read as normal. Mention it on the way in so a lender is not discovering it in the statements.
- I am an owner-operator with one truck. Am I too small?
- Not on size. We fund incorporated businesses from $5,000. The file still has to be a company rather than you personally, and the truck should be registered to it.
- Can I finance a truck I am buying privately?
- Usually, with a bill of sale, the VIN and proof of insurance. A private sale takes a little longer than a dealer one because the paperwork is thinner.
- My deposits are lumpy because of settlement timing. Is that a problem?
- No. Per-load and per-settlement deposits are what this trade looks like. Underwriters read haulage accounts every day and a lumpy month is not read as an unstable one.