01 Prime movers
Deep national resale — we lead with the odometer, not the build year. A four-year-old linehaul unit can carry more distance than a ten-year-old local one; lenders assessing on build year alone misread that both ways.
By asset
How each truck type behaves.
Prime movers hold the deepest resale market, trailers depreciate slowest, tippers move with the civil cycle, and specialised rigid bodies narrow the buyer pool. Each changes the term, the balloon and the lender to approach — the lender is pricing a resale market as well as your business.
02 Rigids
The lender values the cab-chassis confidently and the body cautiously. When the body is fitted after purchase you have two invoices, two suppliers and one asset — ask how your funder treats a separately invoiced body build, and raise it before you order.
03 Tippers
A civil-sector decision dressed as a truck decision. Resale tracks construction activity, which in the Capital Region tracks ACT and NSW project pipelines. Contracted work carries the file — a signed haulage rate helps.
04 Trailers
No engine, so they outlast several prime movers and hold residual well; age, plate and compliance history do the valuation work. Finance them on separate schedules from the tractor — tying a trailer with ten years left to the truck's term is a common, expensive mistake.
05 Dollies
Low value. Ask whether the amount clears the funder's minimum for a standalone contract; if not, fund them inside a combination purchase on one asset schedule, or from working capital.
The asset reads above are our own view from the transport files we've placed — not lender policy and not market data. Illustrative and deal-dependent, subject to lender assessment.
Structure
Set term and balloon against your replacement cycle.
01 No balloon
Nil due at end of term.
02 30% balloon
$60,000 due at the end of the term.
A balloon lowers your monthly repayment by deferring principal to the end of the term. It works when the truck is worth more than the balloon on the day it falls due, and it hurts when the term outruns the asset.
Take a prime mover financed at $200,000 over 60 months (illustrative arithmetic only, deal-dependent and subject to lender assessment):
The $1,000-a-month difference isn't a saving — it's $60,000 moved to month 60. If you meant to replace that truck at year four, the balloon lands on an asset you no longer want. Set the term to your replacement cycle, then set the balloon under the expected trade value.
There are three exits at balloon: pay it, refinance it, or sell and settle from the proceeds. Refinancing is a fresh credit decision on an older asset, never automatic. On the transport files we place, most settle under a chattel mortgage — you own the asset from the start, and business.gov.au notes the balloon reduces regular payments. That's our experience, not market data.
Fleet
Fleet or single truck — does the structure change?
Yes. A master facility with separate asset schedules finances several trucks under one approved limit, while each unit keeps its own term, balloon and payout figure.
It matters the day you upgrade one truck and not the others. With six trucks on one loan, selling truck three means unpicking the facility. With six schedules, you take a payout on schedule three alone, discharge the PPSR registration against that VIN, and the other five run untouched.
Once the limit is approved, the next truck is a drawdown, not a new application. Ask what your funder re-verifies at each drawdown.
Buying
Buying used, private sale or at auction.
A dealer purchase hands the lender a tax invoice, a GST-registered seller and a clean title trail. A private sale or auction supplies none of that, so the lender adds steps rather than declining.
01 Search the PPSR first
The Personal Property Securities Register is the national register of security interests in personal property. Search it by VIN, not rego, before you pay (source: ppsr.gov.au).
02 Inspection
On the private-sale truck files we place, an independent inspection or valuation is common, and funds go direct to the seller against verified account details. Ask what your funder wants before you pay a deposit.
03 Auctions
Bid with approval already in place — a truck auction leaves no room to arrange finance afterwards. Our farm machinery page sets out the full clearing-sale and auction process.
04 Age at the end, not the start
A seven-year-old truck on a five-year term is twelve years old when the balloon falls due. That drives the term offered.
Cash flow
Repayments built around seasonal or contract income.
Sometimes. Repayments can be shaped to match how a transport business is paid: seasonal schedules, stepped repayments, or a first payment set after the first invoice cycle. Which of those is available varies by funder and by asset, so ask before the deal is submitted.
Grain cartage peaks at harvest. Livestock work moves with the season. Civil haulage stops when the site is under water. A flat monthly repayment on a quarterly income shape manufactures a cashflow problem.
The more common issue is simpler: on the files we place, head-contractor payment terms usually run well past the first repayment date, so the truck costs money before it earns any.
Bigger picture
When a truck deal becomes a property or working-capital conversation.
Often at truck four or five. Fleet growth creates two problems truck loans don't solve.
The first is where the trucks live. Once yard rent bites, buying a depot or hardstand becomes a commercial property finance question, with its own LVR and valuation issues.
The second is the gap between running a truck and being paid for it. Two more trucks add fuel, tyres, wages and insurance immediately, while revenue arrives on the contractor's terms — a working-capital conversation. We handle both, alongside equipment finance and excavators and yellow goods. George Popadalis runs every file personally, with 20+ years across banking & finance behind it.