The modern manufacturing sector in the United States is truly vast, and many factories and farms are producing goods and foodstuffs every day. But these manufacturers also need a way to deliver those goods, and that is where the carrier sector comes in. Many carrier companies are in operation today, and the largest ones have seagoing ships to deliver goods around the world’s oceans. Others may have freight trains for land deliveries, and jets can deliver goods at high speed. In between all this are semi trucks, which are no less important than those larger vehicles. Many carrier companies today are on the smaller side, and will have a small fleet of hardworking trucks to make deliveries for shipper clients. But to get financing for a truck, such as first time semi truck financing, a carrier company owner should know how to handle heavy duty truck loans. In fact, many business owners today admit that they are not as financially literate as they should be. Fortunately, those sorts of skills are always possible to learn, including how to handle first time semi truck financing. With the right know-how, even a novice carrier owner can work out first time semi truck financing and get some fair loans.
Business and Finances
No company can be launched without capital, which ranges from money and loans to a building, trucks, repair equipment, and more. The numbers show that starting a new business is risky, and some business owners make it even harder on themselves by not knowing crucial information about finances. Around 30% of businesses in the U.S. fail because the owner ran out of funds, and some 60% of small business owners believe that they are not knowledgeable enough about accounting or finance matters. A business will have its own credit score that lenders will care about, but some businesses have bad credit scores, and around 45% of business owners are not aware that they even have such a score at all. Lacking this sort of information could be crippling for the owner of a small truck company, and that owner probably cannot rely on banks to help them out. Big banks are reluctant to make loans to small companies, which are seen as risky ventures. Only a small percentage of loans from small businesses are made from these banks. Instead, small business owners can turn to specialized business lenders. This can make first time semi truck financing quite possible.
Getting Some Loans
To get proper loans for business purposes, a truck carrier owner should be aware that they have a business credit score, and make that score as high as possible. That owner should also (by any means necessary) know how much they need to borrow, and how much interest they can handle on a loan. Why get loans? A truck company may need them to lease or purchase a new or used truck and its trailer, and without trucks, there is no business. So, when the owner is ready to expand the fleet, they will turn to not big banks, but specialized truck lenders.
The idea is that these lenders are more cooperative than big banks, and they are more likely to approve loans to truck companies. In fact, many of these lenders may offer a deal to a business with a poor credit score, though there may be penalties, such as high interest rates. The lender will still have some standard, though, and it may look into the borrower’s financial history for red flags such as previous bankruptcies or delinquent loan payments.
If all goes well, the carrier may get a fair loan to finance or purchase a truck and/or its trailer, and the lender may use the vehicle as collateral. This makes it a secured loan, and thus the lender may feel safer about approving that loan. The better the borrower’s credit score is, the lower the interest rate, and the borrower might get as much as 100% of the truck’s value in a loan. In other cases, the borrower may offer their own vehicles for the loan and use those trucks’ value for a loan. The borrower will want details about the truck, such as its age, condition, and photographic evidence of its condition.