Guide · If you need money this week
Brokers pay in 30 to 45 days and fuel is due today. Quick pay, factoring, or an advance?
By Alex Makowski Published
For every load, quick pay from the broker — usually 1 to 3 percent for payment in a day or two — is the cheapest per-invoice tool, and factoring at 1 to 5 percent is the next. For a one-time gap, a small working capital advance on your settlement history, funded in one to three business days, is cheaper than turning on factoring for a month. Neither should be permanent: a line of credit is what an owner-operator with a year of clean settlements should be working toward.
In this guide
- 01The gap that has always been there
- 02Per load: quick pay and factoring
- 03One time: a working capital advance on your settlements
- 04Permanent: a line of credit, once you qualify
- Won't affect your credit
- Free, no obligation
- Up to $500K
01
The gap that has always been there
Brokers pay in 30 days on paper and 45 or more in practice, and the truck payment, the fuel, the insurance and any driver you pay do not wait for it. Owner-operators describe this as the number one cash killer for small carriers, and they are right: a truck grossing $30,000 a month is permanently owed a month and a half of it.
There are three tools for it, they cost different amounts, and the mistake is using the per-load tools for a one-time gap or the one-time tool for a per-load problem.
02
Per load: quick pay and factoring
Quick pay is the broker paying in one to two days for a fee, usually 1 to 3 percent of the rate. It is the cheapest per-invoice money in trucking and it needs no application. The catch is that it is quietly expensive at scale: 3 percent on $30,000 a month is more than $10,000 a year out of the margin, and it is easy to stop noticing.
Factoring is selling the invoice to a factor who pays you most of it in a day and collects from the broker, for 1 to 5 percent of the invoice depending on volume and recourse. At $20,000 a month and 3 percent, that is $600 a month for money forty days early. Many small carriers run on it. We do not place factoring; the numbers are here so the comparison is honest.
Cost of $50,000, by product
03
One time: a working capital advance on your settlements
If the gap is this month — a slow broker, a repair that landed in the same week as the insurance, two loads that both went to net-45 — a small working capital advance on three to six months of settlement history is faster to arrange than a factoring relationship and cheaper than factoring every load for a quarter to fix one bad month. Decision in about a day, money in one to three business days, amounts around half to one and a half times a month's settlements.
Borrow the gap, ask for weekly payments that land after settlement day, and get the total in dollars. A small advance's fixed fees matter more than its factor.
04
Permanent: a line of credit, once you qualify
An owner-operator with eighteen months under authority, clean settlements and a personal score in the 600s can qualify for a business line of credit, drawn when a broker is slow and repaid when they pay, costing interest only on the days it is drawn. It is the only tool of the four that does not charge a percentage of every load, and it is the reason established small carriers stop using quick pay. Apply for it in a good quarter, not the week the fuel card is declined.
Written by
Alex Makowski, Owner
Alex Makowski owns and runs Business Loans for America and has been placing funding for U.S. small businesses since 2021. Businesses he has worked with have secured $50M+ in financing across 1,200+ placements. He writes and reviews every guide on this site.
FAQ
Related questions.
- Does using quick pay or factoring hurt my chances of an advance later?
- A funder reads your bank deposits. Factored settlements arrive from the factor rather than the broker, which is visible and normal. Neither is a mark against you; a settlement history that stops is.
- Can I get an advance if I'm leased to a carrier rather than running under my own authority?
- Yes. Settlements from a carrier are usually more regular than broker payments and read well. Send the settlement statements with the bank statements.
- Is a fuel card a form of financing?
- A fuel card with a billing cycle is short supplier credit — fuel bought today, paid at the end of the cycle — and many carriers use it as their first week of float. It is not a replacement for the tools above when the gap is longer than the cycle.
Guides
More on if you need money this week
Big catering event
A deposit covers some of it. A corporate client paying in 60 days covers none of it on time.
Between closings
Commission advances cost 10 to 30 percent of the check. A brokerage has cheaper options.
Customer went bankrupt
This is a loss, not a delay. Fund the hole it leaves, file the claim, and stop selling on open terms to anyone that size.
Workers' comp audit bill
Check the sub certificates first; half of these bills shrink. Then the insurer's installment plan, then funding.
Lease balloon due
A machine you will keep for years should be refinanced as equipment, not paid off with working capital.
The bank said no
A decline is a statement about one lender's model, not about whether your business can be funded.
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration — LoansFederal loan programmes, eligibility and what the SBA does and does not guarantee.
One application, every lender we work with
Find out what you qualify for before you need it.
Eleven questions, about two minutes. You see offers side by side and take one, or none.
- Won't affect your credit
- Free, no obligation
- Decisions usually inside 24 hours
- Up to $500K