The truck: equipment financing, and what decides the down payment
A used tractor from a dealer is one of the most-financed assets in small business. Lenders read the truck's age and mileage, your first truck's settlement history, your personal credit, and your time under your own authority. Ten to fifteen percent down is typical; a first-time fleet owner with a rough score or under a year of authority will be asked for more, and a truck over ten years old or past a mileage threshold may not be financeable at all through mainstream lenders.
Terms run three to five years. Get the total cost in dollars and check for a balloon. And do not finance the truck on a cash advance because it was faster: a $60,000 tractor on a nine-month advance is the single most expensive mistake in this industry.
The ramp: the cost nobody puts in the spreadsheet
The second truck does not earn on day one. A driver has to be hired, onboarded and dispatched; the truck has to be plated, insured and inspected; and the first loads settle on the broker's terms, thirty days out in many cases, or on a factor's schedule if you use one. Meanwhile the driver is paid weekly from week one, the fuel card is charged daily, and the insurance premium landed the day the truck was added.
Operators who added a second truck and nearly lost both describe the same six to eight weeks: the first truck's cash carried the second's costs, and by the time the second truck's settlements arrived, the first one was behind on its own note. The truck was never the problem. The ramp was.
Funding the ramp separately
A working capital loan or a cash advance sized to two months of the second truck's operating cost — driver pay, fuel, insurance, plates — underwritten on your first truck's deposits. Half to one and a half times a month's settlements is the usual range, so an owner-operator netting $20,000 a month in settlements can generally raise the ramp in one offer, funded in one to three business days.
Better still, a line of credit set up against the first truck's history before the second is bought: drawn for the ramp, repaid as the second truck's settlements arrive, and sitting there for the first breakdown afterward. It takes longer to qualify for and is worth applying for before the truck, not after.
Ask for weekly payments that match settlement day. A daily debit on an account that fills up on Fridays is an overdraft waiting to happen.
The honest question before either
Is there enough freight for two trucks at rates that cover a driver's pay? An owner-operator earns because they do not pay a driver. A fleet of two earns only if the second truck's loads cover a wage, the truck note, insurance and fuel with margin left. Run that number with real rates from your lanes before you run any application. The trucking forums are full of one-truck operators who became two-truck operators and then became one-truck operators again with a bigger note.