Trucking Business Loans: How to Start or Purchase a Trucking Company With an SBA Loan

Trucking SBA loans by the numbers

The SBA's own loan records show what trucking borrowers do with SBA money. Most loans are small and short, for equipment and working capital, and most go through SBA Express. Purchases of a whole company are rare, and they are large.^[1]

The hard part: charge-offs

A loan is charged off when the lender gives up collecting it and records a loss. For trucking 7(a) loans made in FY2010 through FY2016, 7.9% were charged off by count, or 4.1% of dollars. All-industry loans of similar size and term also charged off at 7.9% by count, or 4.9% of dollars. Recent loans look worse so far: 9.7% of FY2022 trucking loans have already been charged off, against 4.8% for comparable loans, and 8.3% of FY2023 loans, against 3.9%. Most of those loans are still being repaid, so the final rates may rise. Many were made when freight rates were high.

Age raises the risk. It is not a verdict. What you control: years of documented trucking work, cash left in the bank after closing, a spread of customers, fuel surcharges in your customer contracts, and a loan term that doesn't outlive the truck.

Starting a trucking company vs purchasing one

The SBA sorts your deal before it looks at your numbers. A company in operation 1 year or less is a start-up. Purchasing a running carrier is a change of ownership, and for a first-time owner it is an Initial Acquisition, the strictest type. The two paths use different tests.

Starting your own carrier

Many new carriers start with an owner-operator who has been leased on to another carrier. Under that lease, the carrier had exclusive possession, control and use of the truck (49 CFR 376.12), held the authority and the insurance, and was the only customer. Your Schedule C returns show you can run a truck profitably. They don't show you can find freight, chase a slow payer or run a safety program, and a lender will see both. Your new company needs, in its own name:

• Its own USDOT number, registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
• Its own operating authority.^[2]
• Insurance filings showing at least the federal minimum liability coverage.
• A drug and alcohol testing program for every driver, the owner included (49 CFR Part 382).
• Customers of its own, often freight brokers at first.

A new USDOT number makes your company a new entrant: 18 months of federal safety monitoring, with a safety audit within the first 12 months. The authority isn't permanent until the company completes that period.^[3] A failed audit can take trucks off the road, which is why lenders ask about it. Build driver files, testing records, hours-of-service records and maintenance records the month you file for authority, and ask FMCSA directly how the audit works.

When FMCSA requires a USDOT number, the SBA requires your lender to check the SAFER system and keep evidence of two things: an active USDOT number in good standing, and a physical address that matches your company's, with no P.O. box.^[4] The SOP doesn't say when the number must be active relative to approval or closing. Your lender decides, so ask at the first meeting.

Purchasing a trucking company for sale

When you purchase a carrier, the structure of the deal decides what comes with it.

• Stock purchase. Your company purchases the carrier's stock, and the carrier stays the same company. In a stock purchase, the company still holds its numbers. Its safety history and any truck loans come with it.
• Asset purchase. Your company purchases the trucks, trailers and customer list. Plan for your company's own USDOT number and either new authority or an FMCSA-approved transfer, and new authority starts the new entrant period. An asset purchase is always an Initial Acquisition.

Confirm both points with a transportation attorney, including whether your purchase needs any FMCSA filing at all. Those are federal transportation rules, and the SBA's rules don't answer them. Finish federal filings before closing: a lender may hold money in a closing escrow for no more than 5 business days.

The seller can't stay on as a driver, employee or officer after an Initial Acquisition. A paid consultant role is allowed for up to 24 months in total. Whether the seller could stay on as a leased-on owner-operator, the SOP doesn't answer, so expect your lender to say no. Shipper and broker contracts may need the other side's consent in a sale, which is contract law, not an SBA rule.

One more line to know: purchasing a closed company's trucks, or a single truck, without continuing its operations may be treated as a start-up, with start-up rules. A purchase finances a running business.

Which SBA loan fits a trucking company

Most trucking deals use 7(a), the SBA's general business loan, because it can pay for trucks, trailers, working capital and the purchase of a company. A 504 loan has one job in trucking: a terminal.

Truck terms: 10 years at most

No tractor or trailer loan runs past 10 years. Federal rules allow a longer term on equipment only when its useful life is longer than 10 years.^[5] The IRS class life is 4 years for over-the-road tractors and 6 years for heavy trucks and trailers, so the SOP's 15-year equipment option never applies to them. A purchase of a whole company without real estate is also capped at 10 years. Within that cap, your lender must set the shortest appropriate term, and a used tractor can get less. A longer term lowers the payment, but a loan that outlives the truck leaves you paying for equipment that no longer runs.

504 for a terminal

A 504 combines a bank first mortgage, a debenture from a Certified Development Company (CDC) and your own money. The assets must have a useful life of at least 10 years and sit at a fixed location, which rules out every truck and trailer. A terminal fits: an office, a shop, a wash bay, a fuel tank and the yard. An existing business puts in 10%, or 15% if the CDC decides the property is Special Purpose. A truck terminal is not on the SBA's Special Purpose list, but the list is not all-inclusive, and the CDC decides. Extra land you don't need now can't be paid for with SBA money.

A truck yard can count toward occupancy as space actively used in the business, but parking areas don't. Whether a given lot is a yard or parking is your lender's call. Trucking sites with service bays, truck washing or fuel tanks are on the SBA's environmentally sensitive list, so a terminal with any of them starts with a Phase I environmental site assessment, whatever the loan size.

Down payment: what counts as your 10%

The minimum is 10% of total project cost on both paths. What goes into that cost, and what counts as your money, differs.

• Start-up: total project cost is every cost required to become operational, whatever the source of funds: trucks, trailers, authority and registration costs, logging devices, deposits and working capital. Filing fees and deposits you already paid count toward your 10% when your lender verifies them with paid invoices, canceled checks or bank statements. A trucking course you paid for doesn't count. A truck you contribute, valued above its net book value, needs an independent appraisal. Ask your lender whether it counts a contributed truck in total project cost at all.
• Initial Acquisition: 10% of the price plus closing costs, valuation costs and working capital, and it "cannot be reduced or eliminated." A seller note counts only on full standby, meaning no principal or interest payments for the entire term of the SBA loan, and limited sources like that can cover no more than half of the 10%.
• Business Expansion: when your carrier has two full fiscal years under its current owners and purchases 100% of another carrier in the same industry group, your lender may reduce the 10%.

Total debt, including any seller note that isn't on full standby, can't exceed the business valuation. If the price is above it, the difference has to be equity. Many lenders ask for more than 10%.

Cash flow and debt service coverage

Debt service coverage (DSC) is cash flow divided by loan payments. A ratio of 1.25 means $1.25 of cash flow for every $1.00 of payments. The floor depends on the deal:

Three trucking details move these numbers. First, truck notes that stay with a company you purchase count in its debt payments. Second, the industry group: dry van is general freight (group 4841), while flatbed, tanker and refrigerated are specialized freight (group 4842). A dry-van carrier purchasing a refrigerated carrier crosses groups, so it is an Initial Acquisition at 1.25, not a Business Expansion at 1.15. Your lender assigns the code, so ask early which one it will use.

Third, diesel. U.S. retail diesel averaged $3.66 a gallon in 2025 and $6.29 in September 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.^[6] A seller's statements from a cheaper-diesel year can make a company look healthier than it is today. Ask how much of the increase the customer contracts pass on through a fuel surcharge. And if the seller drove a truck, you will have to pay someone to drive it.

The SOP sets no formula for the household test. A common lender method adds business cash flow, your salary and any spouse's wages, takes off estimated taxes and living costs, and divides what is left by the business debt payments plus personal debt payments.

Collateral: tractors, trailers and freight bills

On a purchase, the lender must show the loan is "fully secured" or take the next steps the SOP sets out. Trucks and trailers are used equipment, so for this test they count at no more than 50% of net book value, or 80% of value from an orderly liquidation appraisal (what they would bring in a planned sale). The appraisal value replaces book value; it isn't added to it. Tractors that were depreciated quickly often carry little book value, which is why an orderly liquidation appraisal often helps.

• Freight bills. Your freight bills are your accounts receivable. On a purchase, the lender must take a lien on them, counted at 10% of book value.
• Vehicles with existing loans. A lender is not required to take a lien on a vehicle that already has one, or on one worth $20,000 or less when the SBA loan number is assigned.
• Titles. Trucks and trailers are titled vehicles. How the lender's lien gets noted on each title is state law, so confirm it with your attorney for every unit.
• The USDOT number and authority. A USDOT number is never collateral. Whether a carrier's operating authority is a "transferable license" the lender must lien in a purchase is your lender's call.
• Start-ups on 7(a) Small. The lender takes a first lien on the trucks and trailers the loan pays for. Your home is optional collateral, the lender's choice.

When a purchase loan isn't fully secured, the lender must take available equity in personal real estate you own alone, unless that equity is under 25% of the property's value. A shortfall by itself is not a reason to decline the loan. When a loan isn't fully secured and the business depends on one owner, the SBA requires life insurance on that owner in the amount of the shortfall.

Insurance

Federal law, not the SBA, sets the liability floor. A for-hire carrier hauling nonhazardous property across state lines in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 of public liability coverage.^[7] The SBA sets no liability amount of its own, and many lenders want more than the federal minimum. Hazard insurance is required on collateral for loans over $50,000, with the lender as loss payee. Whether truck physical damage coverage meets that requirement is your lender's call, so get the answer in writing.

Dealer financing

Truck dealers often offer their own financing. If a dealer note takes first lien on a truck and the SBA loan sits behind it, for the same purpose, approved within 90 days of each other, that is piggyback financing, and a 7(a) loan can't be part of it. Don't sign a dealer's finance paperwork "just to hold the truck" while your SBA loan is in process.

Working capital: factoring vs a line of credit

A freight bill is the carrier's invoice for a delivered load. Shippers and brokers pay it weeks later, but diesel is due at the pump and drivers are due on payday. A carrier can be fully booked and still run out of cash. There are three ways to cover that gap, and the SBA treats them very differently.

Working capital inside the loan

A start-up or purchase loan can include working capital to carry fuel and payroll until the first freight bills pay. It is part of total project cost, so your 10% applies to it too.

Factoring: a door that only swings one way

Factoring means selling or pledging your freight bills to a factoring company for cash right away. It closes the gap fast, and it causes two problems for SBA borrowers. Factoring agreements are not eligible for refinancing with an SBA loan, now or later. And a factor that owns or holds your freight bills sits where your lender's lien needs to go. In a first-time purchase, whether a factor's open advances are business debt the purchase can pay off is your lender's call. In a purchase between existing owners, paying a factor with loan money would be refinancing, which isn't allowed. If the company you are purchasing factors its freight bills today, plan the exit before closing, with non-SBA money:

• Let open bills pay the factor, or settle the balance with cash that isn't SBA loan money.
• Get a written release of the factor's lien and its notices to customers.
• Send customers new payment instructions, in writing.

A merchant cash advance is similar. An active one can't be refinanced with an SBA loan. One can be refinanced only after it has been converted to a term loan and amortized for at least 24 months.

The Working Capital CAPLine

A Working Capital CAPLine is the SBA's revolving line backed by receivables. It is for day-to-day operating costs after closing. No CAPLine or other SBA revolving line, Express lines included, can pay for a change of ownership. And line money that goes into a tractor must be moved into a term loan within 90 days after the lender finds out.

• Advance rate: up to 80% of eligible freight bills.
• Bills more than 90 days past due come out of the borrowing base, and so do disputed bills, such as cargo claims or short-pays over detention.
• The 20% rule: accounts from one customer that make up more than 20% of your receivables "should not be included" unless an exception applies, such as a long-standing positive credit history. Small carriers that lean on one broker feel this first.
• Out of margin: if a monthly report shows your balance above the formula, or a required report is missing, the lender must immediately require a payment that brings the balance back within the formula, or more eligible collateral. No new advances can be made until the line is back in balance, unless the SBA gives prior written consent.

If you see a bad report coming, call your lender before you send it.

Affiliation and size: counted by ownership

To get an SBA loan, a business has to be small. For most trucking codes, including general freight truckload (484121) and specialized freight such as refrigerated (484220, 484230), the limit is $34.0 million in average annual receipts; 484122 has $43.0 million.^[8] Receipts of affiliates count together.

Affiliation under current SBA rules turns on ownership. The 2023 rule removed control as a basis for it. When your company owns more than 50% of another business, the two are affiliated, whatever industries they are in. When you own more than 50% of the applicant and more than 50% of another business in the same three-digit subsector (484 for trucking), those companies are affiliated too. Spouses' and minor children's shares in the same business are combined. List every company you and your spouse own a piece of, with percentages, and give that list to your lender.

Three worked deals

Every number below comes from the FUNDED Trucking Company Guide. Interest rates are illustrative: 9.50% on 7(a) loans, under the SBA maximum for each loan's size. Your rate is whatever you and your lender agree on, within those maximums.

Marisol: purchasing a 12-truck dry-van carrier

Marisol Ferreira ran a truck terminal for another carrier for 12 years. A retiring owner is selling his dry-van truckload company: 12 tractors, 30 dry-van trailers and 12 drivers, with $3,000,000 of revenue last year. Her new holding LLC purchases 100% of the stock, so the carrier keeps its numbers, its history and its truck loans.

A $25,439 drop in cash flow takes her to 1.25, which is why she asks how much of today's diesel price the customer contracts pass on. Her collateral, counted at SBA discounts: the 9 tractors without existing notes and all 30 trailers carry $200,000 of book value (counted at $100,000), but an orderly liquidation appraisal values them at $720,000, counted at 80%, or $576,000. Freight bills of $300,000 add $30,000. That is $606,000 against a $1,260,000 loan, a $654,000 shortfall. Her lender takes a lien on her $200,000 of home equity, and requires a $654,000 life insurance policy, figured before the home lien. The seller stays as a paid consultant for 12 months, then leaves.

Darnell: from lease-on to his own authority

Darnell Mensah drove for 11 years, the last 6 with his own tractor leased on to another carrier. His new LLC gets its own USDOT number and authority, takes in his paid-off tractor, purchases a second used tractor and two used dry-van trailers, and hires one driver.

Darnell chose not to factor. The $50,000 of working capital carries fuel and payroll, and his freight bills stay free for a lender's lien. A year later he asks about a Working Capital CAPLine. He has $100,000 of freight bills outstanding, and one broker owes $40,000 of it, 40%. At 80% of eligible bills, his line is $48,000 if the whole broker account comes out, or $64,000 if only the part over 20% does. Which reading applies is his lender's call. If no broker were over 20%, the line would be $80,000. The fix that lasts is more customers.

Ruth: purchasing a second carrier, then a terminal

Ruth Abernathy has owned a refrigerated long-haul carrier for 9 years. Her company purchases 100% of the stock of a local refrigerated carrier for $640,000 (independent valuation $660,000). Both haul refrigerated food in group 4842, so the deal is a Business Expansion with a 1.15 floor. Total project cost is $650,000, and her lender keeps the $65,000 of equity, paid from company cash, even though it could have reduced it. The $585,000 loan costs $90,837 a year at 9.50%. Combined cash flow of $375,000 against $310,837 of total debt service gives 1.21. On its own, the target covers just 0.94; her carrier carries the deal. The two companies' receipts count together for size: $5,500,000. Refrigerated food trucking gets a 0% upfront fee on 7(a) loans of $700,000 or less, so her fee is $0. Hauling other freight, it would be $13,162.50.

A dry-van carrier making the same purchase would cross industry groups. That makes it an Initial Acquisition at 1.25, where 1.21 falls short: the largest loan that clears 1.25 is $515,208, so that carrier would need $69,792 more down.

The next year, her company purchases a terminal on 5 acres for $1,300,000 and installs $200,000 of shop lifts, a wash system and plug-in posts for refrigerated trailers. On the $1,500,000 504 project, the bank lends $750,000 (50%), the CDC $600,000 (40%), and her company puts in $150,000 (10%). Had the CDC called it Special Purpose, her share would have been $225,000. With $120,000 of yard and shop rent ending, documented cash flow of $520,000 covers all $421,943 of debt service, including $111,106 a year on the 504, at 1.23 against a 1.15 floor. The debenture needs 7 jobs at one per $95,000, and she plans 8. She passed on 2 extra acres offered for $200,000, because land held for later can't be paid for with SBA money.

Common mistakes on trucking SBA loans

• Signing a factoring agreement "just for a few months" while you wait on an SBA approval. The factor's claim on your freight bills can stall closing, and SBA money can never pay it off.
• Leaving a merchant cash advance open. An active advance blocks refinancing. Pay it off before you apply, from non-SBA money.
• Planning on 15 years for a truck. Tractors and trailers top out at 10, and your lender may set less.
• Asking a 504 to pay for trucks. 504 pays for the terminal. Trucks and trailers go in a 7(a).
• Trusting the seller's fuel year. Rebuild the cash flow at today's diesel price and today's driver pay, and check the fuel surcharge in every customer contract.
• Assuming the numbers transfer. In an asset purchase, plan for your own USDOT number and new or transferred authority, and finish the federal filings before a 5-business-day escrow.
• A SAFER record that doesn't match. A different suite number or a mailbox address can stall the file. Keep the MCS-150 current.
• Leaning on one broker. An account over 20% of your receivables can shrink a future line of credit, and its slow payment hits your cash flow all at once.
• Counting on the seller to keep driving. After an Initial Acquisition, the seller can't stay as a driver or employee. Budget for someone to drive that truck.
• Assuming time leased on counts as "employed." When a single owner sells 100% to an employee as an Owner Buyout, the SOP requires at least 24 months of employment there. Whether leased-on owner-operator time counts, it doesn't say. Ask first.

What to bring your lender

• For a start-up: your Schedule C returns and lease agreements for every year you were leased on, and a list of every federal filing your new company needs.
• For a purchase: the seller's federal tax returns for the last two fiscal years, interim statements, and an aging report of open freight bills.
• The SAFER record for your company or the target, checked line by line against your application, with the current MCS-150.
• Total project cost, with written quotes for trucks and trailers, and the sources of your 10%, with paid invoices for any prepaid costs.
• A list of every truck and trailer: year, title, current lien and payoff, with an orderly liquidation appraisal if book values are low.
• Month-by-month projections, with your diesel price, fuel surcharge, driver pay and payment timing written out.
• Any factoring agreement or merchant cash advance, with a payoff letter, and every dealer financing offer in writing.
• A personal financial statement for each owner of 20% or more, and a list of every business you and your spouse own a share of.
• Your questions: when must the USDOT number be active, how do you treat one broker over 20%, does truck physical damage coverage meet your hazard requirement, and do you lien the operating authority?

Run your own numbers, free

• Equity injection calculator: your 10% and the half cap on seller notes
• SBA loan calculator: the payment at 5, 7 or 10 years
• Global DSCR calculator: the household test
• Collateral adequacy calculator: the SBA discounts on your trucks and trailers
• SBA guaranty fee calculator: the FY2027 upfront fee
• Every free tool

Related guides

• SBA Start-up Loans
• SBA Collateral Requirements
• SBA Loan Down Payment
• SBA 7(a) vs 504
• SBA Landscaping Business Financing
• SBA HVAC and Plumbing Financing
• What Changed in SOP 50 10 8.1

SBA rules on this page come from SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 (effective October 1, 2026), 13 CFR Parts 120 and 121, and current SBA notices. Federal trucking rules (USDOT numbers, operating authority, the new entrant program, insurance minimums and leases) come from Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, not the SBA. Titles, registration, fuel tax, intrastate authority and driver licensing involve state and federal law outside the SBA's rules, so check them with FMCSA, your state and a transportation attorney. Education only. Not a lender. Not affiliated with the SBA. Your lender makes the final call.