About Semi Trucks, Big Rigs, And Over the Road Trucks
Semi Trucks, Big Rigs and Over the Road Trucks special financing opportunities are available to the startup and seasoned businesses as this banking crisis continues Never before have we seen so many repo semi trucks available for special acquisition and financing, a lender’s nightmare.
Banks are changing their lending requirements every month for new and seasoned businesses. Some have so many repos on their lot, they are trying to negotiate for the customers that are behind on payments not to return their trucks.
The first option, for the buyer,is to visit their local dealer and find their truck there. This is great place to start and obtain pertinent information that will be used later in the data gathering process. From there, it is recommended searching the internet and its mass volume of data that is available. The potential buyer can visit such sites as truck paper and truck trader etc to view thousands of listings of trucks available across the United States. He is able to sort and sift through this vast data and should be able to find a truck, in any city and/or state across the U.S, that meets his acquisition requirements. Once he has located a source of trucks available to him, he is able to contact these sellers and negotiate a deal that might be able to meet his needs. Once he is agreed to a price and its particulars, his next hurdle is to find adequate financing in today’s complex lending world of this commodity.
Today, the financing arena for semi trucks has become much smaller. Lenders, in the past, that use to finance this niche market have either pulled their portfolio funds out of this area or have modified its’ lending requirements. It is not unheard of today that a start up business must commit to a down payment of between 10% - 30% of the acquisition cost of the truck to enter this market. The seasoned business with good credit might be able to get in as little as one payment down plus documents fees but must have either A or B Credit. Other seasoned businesses that don’t meet these credit requirements, may be required to put up 10-20% down or either put up additional collateral as their credit scores fall below 600.
A third factor to consider is the off lease truck. These trucks are being returned to the lender and they must act accordingly with this third factor. By definition, an off lease semi truck, over the road truck, big rig etc has been returned to the lender as the lease has expired. The lessee has made a decision to return the item in lieu of exercising the buyout option. A repossession is different than an off lease because it has arisen due to a default of the lessee for non payment terms or a violation of the terms of the lease. Either way, the lender has taken these trucks back and/and now must recondition these trucks and either sell these trucks or re-lease them.
The lender can either advertise their off lease and repo inventories through their internal sales force, trade journals such as truck paper, truck trader etc or utilize outside professionals such as brokers to move their inventories as quick as possible. Sometimes, as these inventories either sit or whatever reasons aren’t moving, the lender will put these items up for auction.
Potential deals for over the road trucks, semi trucks and big rigs for the customers relate to the following manufacturers: Petebilt, Mack, Kenworth, International, Freightliner, and Volvo.
In conclusion, this is a buyer’s market for semi trucks, big rigs and over the road trucks. One should evaluate all the factors relating to this acquisition including gas costs, air emissions, environmental type requirements.
