Business loans for removalists: funding pantechs, storage and the winter dip

Ask a removalist when they need another truck and the honest answer is “last December”. Bookings stack up from October, the weeks around Christmas and the end of January sell out, and every end-of-month Friday is full. Then winter arrives, the phone goes quiet, and the truck repayments keep coming out on the same day as always.

That rhythm drives almost everything about how removalists borrow and how lenders read them. Get the timing right and finance is fairly straightforward. Get it wrong and you end up applying in July with three slow months on top of your bank statements.

How do lenders read a removals business?

To a lender, a removals company is a small transport business with a strong seasonal swing and a fleet that works hard. The things that move an application along:

• Twelve months of statements, not three. A lender wants to see the summer surge and the winter trough side by side, and to check the good months really do carry the slow ones. Many unsecured lenders only ask for six months, which can look much better or much worse depending on when you apply.
• The fleet list. Each truck’s age, kilometres, body type and what’s owing on it. Removalists often run a mix of new and old trucks, and lenders add up every contract.
• How the work comes in. Lenders like a mix: private household moves, corporate relocations, real estate agency referrals, office moves and interstate work. A business living on one source, such as a single online booking platform, gets more questions.
• Damage and claims history. Frequent insurance claims for damaged furniture or vehicles push premiums up and can raise doubts about how the business is run.

What do removalists usually finance?

Purchase	Common structure	Worth knowing
Pantech truck, new or used	Truck finance or a chattel mortgage	The truck is the security; a balloon can lower repayments
Tail lift, piano trolley, ramps	Added to the truck contract or bought outright	Small items may qualify for the $20k instant asset write-off
Storage modules or containers	Equipment finance	Each module earns its own monthly fee
Warehouse lease set-up and racking	Equipment finance, or an unsecured business loan	Racking resells poorly, so some lenders cap it
Winter wages and fixed costs	Business line of credit	Draw it in June, clear it by February
Buying another removals business	Business acquisition loans	Trucks plus goodwill, often needing property security

Before signing on a truck, run the numbers through the equipment finance calculator and then ask yourself whether you could make that repayment in your slowest month, not your busiest.

Is a pantech easy to finance?

Pantechs sit in a middle zone. The cab chassis underneath is usually a mainstream truck brand with a healthy resale market. The body on top, with its timber or aluminium lining, tie rails and tail lift, adds a lot to the price but less to what a lender could recover at auction. For a late-model truck on a popular chassis, finance is routine. For an older truck with a custom body, expect a shorter term, a deposit, or both.

Truck size also changes your costs and obligations:

• Licence classes. Medium and heavy rigid trucks need the matching licence, which limits who you can hire as a driver. Lenders occasionally ask who drives what.
• Heavy vehicle rules. Trucks over 4.5 tonnes GVM fall under the Heavy Vehicle National Law in most states, so fatigue, mass and maintenance obligations apply. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator publishes the details.
• Fuel tax credits. Diesel used on public roads in a truck above 4.5 tonnes GVM attracts a fuel tax credit at the heavy vehicle rate, which the ATO updates each February and August. A van or small truck at or under that mass gets nothing for on-road use. That’s a real cost difference when you’re choosing between one large truck and two smaller ones.

Why does winter worry lenders?

Because it’s when removalists get into trouble. A business that books well over summer but spends the surplus can find itself short by June, with the truck repayments, insurance, depot rent and a permanent crew still to pay. That’s when the expensive short-term loans tend to appear on statements, and those loans make the next application harder.

What lenders want to see is evidence you plan for it. Some ways owners do that:

• Keep part of the summer cash aside. Even a separate account with a few months of fixed costs in it looks very good on a statement.
• Arrange a credit line while times are good. Applying in February, with summer income fresh on the statements, gets a better result than applying in June.
• Grow the storage side. Monthly storage fees keep coming in when moves dry up, and lenders treat them as steadier income.
• Chase commercial work. Office relocations and business moves don’t follow the residential calendar quite so closely.

Our guide to business loans for seasonal businesses goes further into how lenders treat uneven income, and the cash runway calculator shows how many slow weeks your current cash would cover.

Planning next summer’s fleet already? Tell us what you’re planning and someone who knows truck lending will go over what’s achievable. Enquiring leaves no trace on your credit file.

Customer deposits, cancellations and cash flow

Most removalists take a deposit when a move is booked, often weeks ahead. Those deposits look like income in the bank account, but a sensible lender knows some will be refunded if a settlement falls through or a move is postponed. Don’t count them as spare cash to service a new loan.

The bigger cash flow risk is the opposite: a large corporate or interstate job invoiced on account and paid 30 days later, with wages, fuel and tolls paid in the meantime. For removalists doing a lot of business-to-business work, invoice finance can release much of that money early.

What should you have ready before applying?

1. Business bank statements for twelve months, so lenders can see both the peak and the lull
2. A fleet register: make, model, year, kilometres, body type and finance owing for each truck
3. The quote or listing for the truck or storage you want, and a PPSR search if buying used
4. Your insurance schedule, including goods in transit and public liability
5. Latest tax returns and BAS, or your ATO portal statement if the accountant is behind
6. A rough booking calendar or summary showing how far ahead peak season is filling

A worked example: buying a truck before the rush

Hypothetical, with invented figures. A family-run removals business on the Gold Coast runs two pantechs and a small storage shed with 30 modules. By August, the owners can see the coming summer is already heavily booked, with interstate jobs and a regular contract with a real estate group.

The owners locate a four-year-old 8-tonne pantech with a tail lift for $96k. Their bank says yes in principle but wants the property they own to be valued first, which will take several weeks. A specialist truck lender approves a chattel mortgage over the truck with a $10k deposit and a balloon, mainly on the strength of twelve months of statements showing a solid summer, two existing truck loans paid on time and the forward bookings.

They also add 20 storage modules through equipment finance. When winter comes, the storage fees cover most of the new truck’s repayment, which is exactly what the lender hoped to see at the next review.

Ready before the busy season hits?

Removals rewards the operators who line up trucks and storage before the phones start ringing. We regularly help with truck purchases, storage expansions and winter cash flow, including for businesses a bank couldn’t fit in its timeframe.

Our enquiry is short and takes about as long as wrapping a lamp, roughly sixty seconds. Your credit history stays unchecked when you send it, and the details go to us alone, rather than being forwarded to a string of financiers who would each chase you by phone. A real member of our team looks at your fleet and bookings and phones you back. Fill the form in carefully, especially the parts on turnover and truck finance, so the match we come back with suits you from the outset.

Talk to us about your next truck →