Finance for Freight Services

In the U.K. alone, freight forwarding is set to contribute around  £21.69bn to the economy each year. This situation is mirrored across the world, and building a freight business has never looked more attractive. But The freight business is changing fast. The internet has made the old business model of freight brokerage – where work was done by third parties and organisation and contacts were all that were required to succeed less viable.

The modern freight company is likely to be a freight forwarding business handling customer shipments themselves. Depending on the size of the shipment and the destination, a freight forwarding business could collect goods from a customer, store them at a warehouse, group smaller shipments into one larger consignment, and even deliver them.

Like freight brokers, forwarders may commission other carrier companies to handle shipments—particularly when goods need to be transported overseas, but they may need vehicles, a secure storage facility for shipments, and skilled staff and materials for packing.

Your funding options

Fortunately, at Rangewell we can provide solutions to all your funding needs, including:

• Asset Finance
• Premises Finance
• Operating Finance

Asset Finance - providing the vehicles and equipment you need

You will need a van or 7.5-ton lorry to collect from customers, and you may need an articulated HGV to take containers, depending on the scale of your business plans. You will almost certainly need a forklift truck to load pallets onto vehicles.

You will also need office equipment and IT – your business will depend on electronic communications.

Asset Finance solutions let you spread the costs of your vehicles and other equipment and repay the lender while they are already working for your business. They include a range of funding types, but all can have a major advantage over other types of funding. The finance is secured on the assets themselves - meaning the lender can repossess them if you don’t keep up repayments, reducing the risk to them and consequently the costs to you.

Hire Purchase

Hire Purchase works exactly as it sounds. You ‘hire’ your vehicles until you’ve paid enough to ‘purchase’ them.

Arrangements generally last between 6 and 60 months. You pay a deposit plus fixed monthly instalments for the agreed term, after which the assets become yours.

With HP, you can pay for the equipment you want for the long term. It may be better suited to equipment with a long life, such as office equipment rather than vehicles.

Lease Finance

Leasing gives you flexibility. You are renting the vehicle, or another asset, and can regularly upgrade it as you need to. With some leasing arrangements you have the option to have maintenance and insurance to be included.

Leasing may be appropriate for high-cost items such as vans and forklifts which may otherwise be difficult to afford.

Contract Hire

Contract Hire is another type of Asset Finance arrangement which is often used for new or nearly new vehicles. It lets you budget ahead in confidence and avoid the risks associated with vehicle ownership – like maintenance costs and depreciation.

You set up a contract with a finance company which will buy the vehicle you need and let you hire it for a fixed period, with an agreed mileage. They will be responsible for maintenance and will simply take back the vehicle at the end of the contract.

Payments are calculated on the purchase value less the estimated value of the vehicle at the end of the agreement. This helps keep your monthly repayments down because the vehicle will be sold on by the finance company. You are, in effect, financing the vehicle only for the time when you are using it.

At Rangewell, we can help find funding solutions based on Asset Finance for all types of vehicles and equipment, both new and used.

Funding for your premises

You will need a secure warehouse and loading facility in a location which is convenient for your customers.

If you can find an ideal site, you could also consider buying your premises with a Commercial Mortgage, which will let you spread the cost of buying over 20 years or more and allow you to improve the site to fit your needs. It could also actually reduce your monthly outgoings. Some lenders have a minimum of £75,000 or more for Commercial Mortgages, but there is no set upper limit.

If you already own your premises, taking out a Commercial Mortgage on it might be a cost-effective way to raise funds to use elsewhere in your business too.  

Working Capital Finance

The early days of any business are challenging. As its name suggests, Working Capital Finance is designed to boost the capital available when your business is not generating sufficient capital itself. It's often used to provide cash to pay staff and operating costs while business is slow during the early stages or during a period of growth when your cash flow is already stretched. It is usually designed to be repaid in the short- to medium-term, once your business is established and running.

Find out about Working Capital Finance here.

Invoice Finance

Taking care of the needs of a large corporate retailer could help your fright business succeed, but many large organisations can be slow at paying. You will still have people to pay and overheads to deal with.

Invoice Finance can provide an answer, allowing you to get paid up to 90% of the value of each invoice you send as soon as you send it, and the remainder when your client pays.

It means your cash flow can keep pace with the amount of work you are doing and helps support growth – because you will always be able to take on more work, secure in the knowledge that you will be getting paid, fast.

You may have other costs to deal with. We can help you arrange Business Loans that can let you deal with them.

Unsecured Loans

Unsecured Loans are like personal loans, but based on the creditworthiness of your business, and don’t involve holding any of your assets as security. Loans are repaid in monthly or quarterly instalments over an agreed term, usually under 5 years.

Modern lenders can provide Unsecured lending fast, but you might need to provide a personal guarantee.

You usually can’t borrow more than one month’s turnover without security, and most Unsecured Loans providers will not lend more than £250,000. For a new business operation, many lenders might only be prepared to offer a Secured Loan.

Secured Loans

Secured Loans are ‘secured’ because the lender will require security in case you cannot pay the loan back. This could be your home or even your business premises.

Providing this security means that the lender can give you longer to repay, and lower interest rates. This means that monthly repayments can be easier to fit in with your cash flow and it may be possible to borrow large sums of money if you can provide suitable security.

Our lending teams can discuss your needs, and help you find the kind of loan to fit your business needs.

Tax Loans

Tax is an issue for every business and yours is no exception. A large quarterly VAT or annual tax demand can cause serious problems for your cash flow, particularly when it falls at the same time as other costs.

However, funding is available to let you spread the cost of your tax demands into affordable monthly payments. This will help ensure that you can avoid cashflow problems, and makes it easier for you to budget ahead - and avoid trouble from the taxman.

Find out more about Tax Loans.

How we help you capitalise your freight operation

At Rangewell we work across the entire lending market and we have finance experts with personal experience in the needs of the freight industry.

This expertise works for you. Our team knows the lenders who specialise in your sector which means that we can help you find the most competitive rates for all types of vehicle finance solutions – from both the established lenders, and the new Alternative Funding providers.

Call us now to see how we can help you raise the finance you need. From funding for courier services to haulage services financing and funding for freight, Rangewell is here.