Freight factoring is a common term in the trucking business. If you’re a trucker or a fleet manager, you may still not fully understand what it is. Thankfully, we’ve done the research to help you better understand what freight factoring is and how to choose the right company for you and your business.
Freight Factoring is one of the best tools for a trucking business to get money up front without having to wait for your client to pay their invoice. When you get a signed invoice from your client, that tells you that the delivery was made and they’re going to pay you. However, getting your freight payment can be a lengthy process. Most of the time, your freight payment won’t come until one to three months after you’ve made the delivery. For a trucking business, where fuel costs and other logistics need upfront payments and cash flow, this can be a difficult thing.
This is where freight factoring comes in. Freight factoring companies, or factoring companies as they’re generally known, will hand you cash upfront for your invoices. Although they can help your business generate the working capital it needs to stay afloat, you need to watch out for hidden costs that might cost you and your business more in the end.
Although all factoring companies are there to provide you and your business with better access to funding, not all of them are the same. To find the best factoring companies, you need to look at their rates, services, and the specific industries they specialize in.
There are a lot of options on the market, so determining what works best for your business can be frustrating. You need a company that not only fits with your specific industry, but can meet your needs financially. Below, we’ve compiled the details on what to look for when choosing the best freight factoring company for you. We’ve also compiled plenty of information on the top freight factoring companies on the market so you can make a better informed decision and choose the right freight factoring company for you.
Understanding Factoring Companies
Factoring is a financial service that takes outstanding invoices and turns them into cold hard cash up front. This gives you some much needed capital to run your business and not have to wait for your client’s invoices to process. With this upfront cash, you can meet payroll, cover business expenses, and have the funding you need to grow your business.
Factoring companies offer their services to many industries, including manufacturing, distribution, textiles, and the oil industry. However, few industries rely on factoring more than the trucking industry does. This is where freight factoring companies come in.
If you’re in the trucking industry, freight factoring companies will assist you by helping you maintain cash flow. This up-front cash will help you manage fuel costs, payroll, and keep your fleet maintained. In addition, if you’re riding out a fluctuating market, balancing your operational costs, or looking to grow, you may look to freight factoring companies for their services. Depending on your business’ needs, there are two types of freight factoring you need to know.
Recourse Factoring: Factoring companies that specialize in recourse factoring will take a lower cut for their services. Although this will lead to more money for you up front, there is a catch. If your client cannot pay their invoice, it’s up to you to buy it back. That can be tricky, especially when you’ve got a bottom line to maintain and workers to pay.
Non-Recourse Factoring: The other option for you is finding a company that offers non-recourse factoring. The major difference is that if your client fails to pay their invoice to the factoring company, that burden is on them and not you. Although this cuts your risk in the long run, you’ll be getting a lower amount for the invoice. The more of a cut the non-recourse factoring company takes, the less amount of up-front cash will come to your business.
Factoring companies stay in business by charging you fees for buying your invoice and paying you several months ahead. If your client cannot pay the factoring company what they owe them after factoring, then the factoring company will end up collecting that money from you, also known as a recourse. No matter which company you work with, chances are there will be some type of clause in your contract that allows for some form of a recourse.
Top Factoring Companies
Deciding which freight factoring company to go with shouldn’t make you pull your hair out. Many companies have plenty of experience in the industry and offer great invoicing deals with little to no hidden costs. Below are our top freight factoring companies to choose from to help you make the right decision for your business needs.
TAFS
When it comes to having one of the best reputations in the business, speedy funding, and factoring options tailored for your business needs, few companies can beat TAFS. We like TAFS because of its quick turnaround and communication, discounts on partnerships and fuel, and ability to get you cash up front 365 days a week, within 1 hour, and on weekends and holidays.
Funding Maximum: Depends on quote
Financing Speed: Same day to within 1 hour, holidays and weekends
Discount Rates: 2.49% for 1 truck companies. Larger companies need a custom factoring rate
Advance Rate: Up to 100%
Recourse Factoring: Yes
Non-recourse Factoring: No
Special Services: fuel discounts and business partnerships
Downsides: TAFS has received some negative reviews for their customer service
APEX
Apex Capital is arguably one of the fastest freight factoring companies in the market. With its handy mobile app and payment system, you can expect to receive your payment within 24 hours or fewer. Other advantages include great customer service, recourse and non-recourse funding, and competitive fuel card services.
Funding Maximum: Need custom quote
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: 2% flat fee for all invoices
Advance Rate: 80%-90%
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: APEX offers a fuel credit line beginning at $2500, free credit checks, no monthly fees or cancelation fees
Downsides: You need a quote for pricing
RTS Financial
RTS is another great choice for your freight factoring needs because of its industry expertise, same day funding, and advance rate of 97% for some clients. It has been in business since 1995 and is one of the leading companies for freight factoring services. In addition, it offers a competitive fuel card program, and an easy-to-use app to help you receive funding easily.
Funding Maximum: Depends on contract
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: Depends on contract
Advance Rate: Up to 97% of the total
Recourse Factoring: No
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: Discounts for USA military veterans, fuel card program offering credit line of up to $3,200 per truck and discounts at over 2000 gas stations nation-wide.
Downsides: Need lengthy online application for pricing info
OTR Solutions
If you run a mid-sized fleet, then OTR Solutions, formerly OTR Capital, is an excellent choice for your freight factoring needs. OTR Solutions offers competitive rates, additional services, and free credit checks. Like the other top companies, OTR Capital offers their clients an easy-to-use app to get your money hassle-free.
Funding Maximum: Depends on Contract
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: 2% flat rate
Advance Rate: 90% to 96% of the total
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: Capital Fuel Card program gives you discounts at over 8000 truck stops throughout the USA
Downsides: Stricter credit approvals than some competitors
Triumph
Triumph is one of the leading freight factoring companies for a reason. Its high advance rate, easy-to-use online app that issues easy credit checks, fuel card program, and fast financing time, makes Triumph one of the most trusted names in the industry. Founded in 2004 near Dallas, TX, Triumph has strived to become the top freight factoring company in the market, and it shows.
Funding Maximum: Depends on contract, likely up to $20 million for the largest clients
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: Depends on contract
Advance Rate: Very high, up to 100%
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: MyTriumph web portal offers you handy real time monitoring of your factoring account, easy communication, credit checks, and more, all in a beautifully designed mobile app
Downsides: Less transparent fees for new clients, $300 origination fee
eCapital
Founded in 2006, eCapital has quickly become one of the leading companies in the freight factoring market. Its low rates and quick financing time make it the perfect choice for small to medium-sized businesses. eCapital has an efficient client portal that makes it easy for its customers to retrieve their funds.
Funding Maximum: Depends on contract
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: Depends on contract
Advance Rate: Up to 90%
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: eCapital offers its clients eCapital VISA commercial cards making it easy to access your money and provide business cards for your employees
Downsides: Lack of transparent pricing
AltLINE
Under the umbrella of the Southern Bank, AltLINE makes it easy for companies running small to large fleets to receive the funding they need to prosper. Although its funding times are slower than some of its top competitors, AltLINE offers great financing services that are easy to understand and dependable. AltLINE has been in business since 1936, making it one of the most veteran companies in freight factoring.
Funding Maximum: Depends on contract
Financing Speed: Within 2 days
Discount Rates: Depends on contract, usually between 0.5% to 5%
Advance Rate: Up to 90%
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: No
Special Services: A/R Financing
Downsides: Funding and Origination fees may add up, funding time slower than some competitors
TCI Business Capital
TCI Business Capital is a dependable freight factoring company that’s useful for getting larger invoices paid for slow-paying customers. TCI works well with medium to large-sized trucking companies because of its month-to-month contract flexibility and high funding maximum. Contracts can change month to month and the company often works to get you a better rate. Founded in 1994, TCI Business Capital has become one of the top rated freight factoring companies in the country.
Funding Maximum: Depends on contract, possibly up 20 million for its largest clients
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: Depends on contract
Advance Rate: Usually up to 90%
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: Cheaper factoring fees for large invoices
Downsides: Minimum monthly invoice total of $50,000
Porter Freight Funding
Since 1991, Porter Freight Funding has been one of the leading companies in the freight factoring industry. Porter Freight Funding offers its customers no long-term contracts and plenty of extra services like a dispatching network, a handy mobile app, and fuel cards. Porter Freight Funding gives its customers a lot of flexibility for choosing which invoices to factor and their customer service is often rated highly.
Funding Maximum: Depends on contract
Financing Speed: Within 24 hours
Discount Rates: Depends on contract
Advance Rate: Up to 100%
Recourse Factoring: YES
Non-recourse Factoring: YES
Special Services: Free fuel card and dispatching network
Downsides: Fees are not public and depend on each quote
Evaluating the Best Factoring Companies
To choose the best freight factoring companies for you and your company, it’s important to consider several factors after getting your quote. Each company offers different rates and fee percentages and requires different prerequisites from you. How much money you and your business saves and how much you get from your invoices depends on the following factors.
Advance Rates: This is the percentage of your invoice value that the freight factoring company will advance you upfront. Minus the factoring fees, some companies will advance you as much as 100%. However, it’s important to consider other hidden fees and percentages before choosing a company based on the advanced rates. Choose a company whose advance rates align with your cash flow needs.
Discount Rates: These are the fees that the factoring company charges you for their services. Normally, these rates are shown as a percentage of the invoice’s value. Most discount rates are between 1% and 5%. It’s important to get quotes from as many of the leading freight factoring companies as possible so you can compare their discount rates and make sure they do not outweigh the benefits of factoring.
Factoring Fees: These are additional fees, such as credit check fees, termination fees, and any admin costs associated with your contract. Look for companies that are upfront about these fees or include them in their services for free.
Aging Fees: Will the factoring company charge you for older invoices? Check the contract to see how long an invoice can go unpaid before acquiring extra fees.
Extra Fees: Many companies will add on fees for early contract termination, administration fees for handling your contract, or even setup fees.
Funding Maximum: When you get your quote, check the maximum amount of funding or factoring facility you can receive. This is the limit to how much money you can collect based on the amount of your outstanding invoices. This number depends on the size of your business and what types of clients you work with.
Recourse or non-Recourse Funding: Check and see if they offer recourse or non-recourse funding or both.
Eligibility Requirements: These are the requirements that the factoring company needs from you. Your invoice amounts, business size and type, credit score, and even background checks are common eligibility requirements that freight factoring companies need from you before offering you a contract.
Financing Speed: This is the time it takes for the factoring company to pay you. Look for companies who can pay you within 24 hours and on holidays and weekends.
Reviews and Testimonials: It’s important to pay attention to reviews by any squeaky wheels who’ve worked with these companies. Most clients are quick to provide public feedback and this feedback can summarize what it’s like to work with these freight factoring companies.
Like any business purchase or contract, it’s always important to read the fine print before agreeing to a freight factoring company’s services. Be careful if a deal sounds too good to be true. Chances are there’s something you’re missing, whether it be hidden fees or the factoring company is cutting costs in other areas like customer service or financing speed.
Keep an eye out for companies that offer extra benefits to their services. Things like dispatching services, small business loans, fuel cards, or roadside assistance, may end up saving you money in the end, even though their initial rates are higher. Many companies even offer to work with you on holidays and weekends instead of a normal Monday to Friday, nine-to-five schedule. All of this information will be in the fine print and it’s up to you to read closely so you can pick the right company and save your business money.
How Factoring Services Work for the Trucking Industry
Freight or trucking factoring deals with selling a trucking company’s outstanding invoices to a company, known as a factoring company, for cash up front. For trucking companies that depend on consistent revenue to handle payroll and pay for fuel, this service can be lifesaving.
Trucking companies rely on freight factoring companies for their factoring needs. These companies usually offer additional services to trucking companies like back-office support, collections management, fuel cards, and credit checks on potential clients.
The steps you’ll have to take to work with a factoring company are as follows:
- Your client needs goods to be shipped from point A to B.
- You’re hired to deliver the goods. You decide to apply to work with a factoring company so you don’t have to wait for an invoice from your client and you get money up front to cover your business costs.
- You notify your client that you’ve made an arrangement with a factoring company. Your factoring company runs a credit check on your client before moving forward.
- Once the factoring company agrees to work with you and your client and you sign a contract after agreeing to the terms, including the advanced rates, discount rates, and other charges.
- Your driver makes the delivery to your client and gets a signed invoice stating the amount.
- You send the invoice to your factoring company, usually over an efficient digital platform or application. The factoring company makes sure the invoice is correct and the load has been delivered.
- You get your advanced rate based on the invoice total minus the amount your factoring company receives.
- Your factoring company takes on the responsibility of collecting the money from your client.
Working with a factoring company is like applying for a mortgage or credit card. They have to evaluate you and your client first as legitimate businesses that can live up to your side of the deal. For taking you on as a client and taking the risk of an unpaid or late invoice payment, freight factoring companies have to run some checks on you and your client first.
Their first job is to look at your credit history. Many companies will run credit checks for free, yet others will not. It’s important to factor in this cost when setting up a contract. Next, they will have you check your customer’s credit too. It’s in the factoring company’s best interest to make sure your client will pay their invoice on time.
Next, the factoring company will want to check more things about your business before moving forward. Factoring companies want to know what type of business you run, what your cash flow and client base are like, and your history of using freight factoring.
Once the checks are done and the invoices are made, the factoring company will want to make sure they’re legit. By doing so, they cover themselves from becoming the victims of fraud.
Just like a mortgage, you may be rejected if you don’t satisfy a factoring company’s prerequisites. If you don’t meet the minimum credit score, have not been in business for long enough, or cannot meet the minimum annual income, then your business may not qualify for freight factoring. There are, however, many companies to choose from and not all the companies have the same requirements. Make sure to shop around to make sure you qualify.
Alternatives to Factoring
Working with a freight factoring company has plenty of advantages. These advantages include faster funding, better cash flow, no collateral, and general ease of approval. All these factors make factoring a good choice for many trucking businesses, no matter their size.
However, freight factoring comes with some risks and added costs that may hurt your bottom line and be bad for business. Things like factoring fees, quality of services related to your line of credit, lack of control over invoice collection, and risk of paying unpaid invoices plus extra fees in the future, all make some businesses look to alternatives.
Here are some alternatives to factoring for trucking companies to keep in mind:
Lines of Credit: This popular financing alternative is good for small businesses. This is a short-term option for small trucking businesses to get working capital to cover their costs. For a line of credit arrangement, your bank or financial institution will give you access to a specified amount of funds, which you can withdraw as you need. There are some high qualification requirements to meet. If you have strong creditworthiness, you could find lines of credit more cost-effective and easy to access than factoring. However, if you have poor credit, you may find it difficult to get a line of credit or find one with favorable terms. So again, make sure to shop around and weigh your options.
Credit Cards for Businesses: This alternative lets you keep 100% of your invoice profits, although you’ll still have to wait to get paid. With a business credit card, you’ll get the money up front to keep your operations running while getting rewards, such as cash back, travel miles, or credit for fuel. However, interest charges and late payments may end up costing you more than freight factoring fees would.
Asset-Based Lending: Asset-based lending relies on your company’s assets, such as inventory, equipment, accounts receivable, or real estate, as collateral for a loan. Asset-based lending can be a good option if your business has powerful assets but may not have the creditworthiness that you’d need for lines of credit. Although this option gives you longer payment terms, it’s still not as fast as factoring in getting you money up front to cover your expenses.
Fuel Advances: Few costs affect businesses in the trucking industry more than fuel costs. Many businesses turn to factoring to help offset fuel costs so their drivers can make their deliveries within budget. Fuel advances are a special option for businesses in the trucking industry to get money upfront for the cost of fuel for an upcoming load. Once the load is delivered, the company doing the fuel advancing collects the amount from the invoice plus the fee you agreed upon.
This option gives you a quick alternative to money up front and makes your fuel budgeting more efficient. However, fuel advancing can end up costing you more than a standard freight factoring service and only covers fuel cost.
For many companies in the trucking industry, there are plenty of options when it comes to getting financing up front to cover your business expenses. Fuel, payroll, maintenance, and equipment can all put a dent in your bottom line, so having these options when you can’t afford to wait for an invoice to go through is very important.
FAQs
Q: Why Should I Use Freight Factoring?
A: If you’re in the trucking industry and need cash upfront without having to wait one to three months to get paid for an invoice, then freight factoring may be right for you. Freight factoring is quick and often affordable for trucking companies and takes away the stress of collecting money from an invoice on your own. Oftentimes, freight factoring companies offer plenty of perks that will help your business grow.
Q: How Much Will I Pay?
A: This depends on what services you’re looking for, how big your company is, and many other factors. Freight factoring lets you get your money upfront for a small fee and each company provides you with an individual quote based on several factors. Like any service, it’s important to shop around to choose the best deal for you and your business.
Q: Will my Clients Like that I’m Using Freight Factoring?
A: By now, most businesses in several industries are aware of factoring services. The industry has been around for many decades and it’s unlikely that your client will be unaware of it. Also, factoring companies work hard to give you and your client the most professional service possible. Your clients will appreciate working with professionals who know the ins and outs of invoicing and collections.
Q: What’s the Difference Between Recourse and non-Recourse Funding?
A: Recourse Factoring is when a company charges you less for their services but will require you to pay for any unpaid invoices from your clients. Non-Recourse Factoring means if your client cannot pay their invoice to the factoring company, that burden is on them and not you. Although this cuts your risk in the long run, you’ll be getting a lower amount for the invoice. Most companies have some form of recourse written in their contract, so pay attention to the small print and weigh your options.
Q: Why Would I Need to Check my Customer’s Credit Before Factoring?
A: If you’re waiting over a month or more to receive your money after delivering an expensive load, then you should be sure your client is able to pay you. Each load comes with inherent risks, so it’s important to verify your client’s credit beforehand. The good thing is that most factoring companies give you tools for checking your client’s credit. Although you’ll sometimes pay for this service, it will give you and your factoring company peace of mind and confidence in your client.
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