All You Need to Know About Commercial Fleet Financing
Running a fleet of any kind—be it construction, trucking, what have you—can be daunting. The idea of investing in big-ticket transportation is a huge financial decision to wrap your head around.
That’s why equipment financing as a small business loan for commercial fleets can be such a game changer, especially so for those who rely on expensive transportation equipment to run their businesses.
One of the many sources of this valuable funding type is the Texas-based company Commercial Fleet Financing. Whether you’re just now hearing this name, or you’re about to apply for equipment financing from them, you’re in the right place to decide whether of they’re the right choice for your business.
Here’s your comprehensive guide to Commercial Fleet Financing and all of its top competitors.
Commercial Fleet Financing: An Overview
Though Commercial Fleet Financing provides a long list of upsides to their equipment financing on their site—like 24 hour funding, no age restriction on equipment, and no business tax return requirement—they only list these upsides. They don’t provide ranges of terms that their financing will come with and, as a result, are less transparent than your other business financing options.
Who Commercial Fleet Financing Is
If Commercial Fleet Financing is a new name for you, you might be asking yourself who they are.
Good question! Commercial Fleet Financing is a Dallas-based company that’s been providing equipment financing for 22 years.
In those 22 years, they’ve funded over $1 billion worth of equipment financing to over 10,000 customers and have been named in Inc. Magazine’s top 5000 fastest growing companies for the consecutive years.
If you need to buy or finance semi trucks, trailers, or equipment for your small business growth, but you want to defer their costs, then Commercial Fleet Financing could very well be the lender for you.
What Commercial Fleet Financing Funds
These qualifications are all well and good, but 22 years of business can only tell you so much.
So, what exactly can Commercial Fleet Financing offer your business?
Through this company, you’ll be able to access the following types of transportation financing:
- Truck and Trailer Financing
- Tow Truck Financing
- Moving Truck Financing
- Construction Equipment Financing
- Light and Medium Duty Fleet Financing
A Unique Product from Commercial Fleet Financing: Auction Lines of Credit
One of Commercial Fleet Financing’s most unique products are their auction lines of credit. Because many business owners save money by purchasing their fleet vehicles through auctions, Commercial Fleet Financing offers an equipment financing with the flexibility needed to do so.
When you go to purchase a piece of equipment at an auction, you’re not certain how much capital you’ll need to make a given purchase—or if you’ll even make a purchase in the first place.
As a result, a business line of credit—particularly what Commercial Fleet Financing calls their “auction lines of credit”—are ideal funding options for financing equipment you obtain through an auction. They allow you to withdraw funds up to a given credit limit, and pay off those funds gradually.
The beauty is, you won’t have to repay anything at all if you don’t end up withdrawing from your line of credit. So, if you don’t find any equipment you want to bid on at a given auction, then you won’t have any outstanding debt to repay.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Commercial Fleet Financing
The Advantages
And, as their website shares,each of the forms of equipment financing that Commercial Fleet Financing offers can boast the following features:
- Simple 1 page credit application for applications for up to $150,000 of financing
- No tax return requirement
- 24 hour funding
- No Age Restriction on the equipment
The Disadvantages
One notable downside to Commercial Fleet Financing?
They only list the perks of their equipment financing on their website. Though you can find the best type of financing out there for you and your business, there’s really no perfect small business financing out there.
Every source of small business financing will come with its own downsides, and if a company isn’t sharing its downsides with you from the beginning, then it’s not being completely transparent with you.
And, as you’ve probably gathered, that’s how Commercial Fleet Financing operates. Now, don’t get us wrong—their product could very well be the right fit for you, but you’ll need to do a bit more digging to make sure that its undisclosed downsides aren’t dealbreakers for you.
Your Top Commercial Fleet Financing Alternatives
Transparency is key when it comes to small business lending, and unfortunately, Commercial Fleet Financing doesn’t offer much more information about their products and rates unless you want to call in or go through a full underwriting process.
Not to worry, though—there are tons of lenders out there who are willing to be straightforward and honest with you from the get-go, even if it means you might decide not to apply for their funding.
If you’re looking for an equipment financer that will let you know exactly what you’re getting into from the very beginning, then you should consider these 3 top equipment financing lenders over Commercial Fleet Financing.
Funding Circle
First up on our list of top small business equipment finance providers is the peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle.
This lender is an international leader within the small business lending market, and their equipment financing certainly lives up to their reputation.
Let’s take a look at what exactly Funding Circle equipment financing can offer you business.
- Loan amounts that can range from $25,000 to $500,000
- Repayments terms as short as 6 months to as long as 5 years
- Interest rates that can dip as low as 4.99%
- A personal credit score of at least 620
- At least 24 months in business
- And that’s it!
- 6 months business bank statements
- Most recent personal tax return
- 2 most recent business tax returns
- Your balance sheet for the past year
- Your profit & loss statement for the past year
- Business debt schedule
- Copy of your driver’s license
- Equipment Quote
Terms
For starters, Funding Circle equipment financing can offer your small business some of the very best terms available on the market.
If you decide to fund with them, you’ll gain access to the following ranges of terms:
Business Qualifications
Before you get too excited, make sure that you’re eligible for this product. To be eligible for Funding Circle equipment financing, you’ll need to fulfill the following minimum requirements:
If your business fulfills those 2 minimum requirements, then your last step to take before applying will be to gather all of the paperwork.
Application Requirements
For your application for Funding Circle equipment financing, you’ll need the following documents:
Funding Speed
Have you compiled your stack of necessary documents to apply for Funding Circle equipment financing?
Your next move to is apply.
Because you’ve gone through all of the prep work like making sure you’re eligible and compiling all of your paperwork, Funding Circle will be able to fund your application for equipment financing in as little as 24 hours.
Direct Capital
Another top equipment financing lender that offers optimal transparency is the online lender Direct Capital.
Though Direct Capital offers a whole host of financing options to small business owners like you, their equipment financing really stands out from the crowd.
Let’s take a look at the details on what Direct Capital’s equipment financing can offer your small business.
- Loan amounts that can be up to $250,000
- Repayment terms that can be as long as 72 months but never shorter than 12 months
- Annual interest rates that can dip as low as 5.49%
- A personal credit score of at least 620
- At least 2 years in business
- At least $150,000 in annual revenue
- 3 months business bank statements
- 1 year of business tax returns
- Certificate of good standing
- Voided business check
- Copy of driver’s license
- Equipment quote
Terms
If you want to finance commercial equipment for your small business with Direct Capital, then you’ll be able to access the following ranges of terms:
Business Qualifications
In order to access these ideal equipment financing terms, though, you and your business will need to come to the table with a few qualifications.
Before you apply for Direct Capital equipment financing, make sure you fulfill their eligibility requirements:
Application Requirements
Does that sound like you and your business? If so, your next step will be to get all of your paperwork ready before diving into the application process.
The Direct Capital equipment financing application will require the following documents:
Funding Speed
If you’ve gotten your hands on all of that paperwork, then it’s time to apply!
If you can move quickly, then you can get funded with Direct Capital equipment financing in as little as a single day.
Crest Capital
Last but certainly not least, Crest Capital rounds out our list of top alternatives to Commercial Fleet Financing.
This lender specializes in small business equipment financing, and it has a program that’s specifically meant for vehicle financing.
- They can offer low rates and flexible terms
- They won’t saddle you with mileage limits
- They don’t come with any surprise fees
- They can approve you within hours
- They don’t impose any age restrictions on used trucks
- They allow refinancing with their product
- They allow financing equipment bought from a private seller
One Caveat for Crest Capital
One notable downside?
This equipment financing lender shares a fatal flaw with Commercial Fleet Financing—they only tell you the good stuff. There’s no source of small business funding out there that’s perfect, and any honest lender will be frank about their imperfections.
Just like Commercial Fleet Financing, Crest Capital only reports the good stuff. That said, the good stuff is pretty great.
The Perks That Crest Capital Boasts
With a grain of salt that comes with their incomplete transparency, let’s take a look at all of the perks that Crest Capital vehicle financing boasts:
The Bottom Line for Commercial Fleet Financing
Though we can give you all of the facts, we’re not in the position to make this decision for you. At the end of the day, only you can decide what’s best for your business when it comes to financing new transportation equipment.
If you want our advice, though, we can tell you that transparency is key—it’s crucial to know what you’re getting yourself into, ideally before you even dive into the application process. Though some equipment financing lenders can offer great products, if they’re not transparent about all of their features—the good, the bad, and maybe even the ugly—then you’ll have no idea if their products downsides are facets that prove to be deal breakers.
Meredith Wood
Meredith Wood is the founding editor of the Fundera Ledger and a vice president at Fundera. She launched the Fundera Ledger in 2014 and has specialized in financial advice for small business owners for almost a decade. Meredith is frequently sought out for her expertise in small business lending. She is a monthly columnist for AllBusiness, and her advice has appeared in the SBA, SCORE, Yahoo, Amex OPEN Forum, Fox Business, American Banker, Small Business Trends, MyCorporation, Small Biz Daily, StartupNation, and more. Email: meredith@fundera.com.
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