Owner Driver Finance for Australian Operators

We finance new, used, demonstrator, dealer and private-sale trucks across all major makes including Kenworth, Scania, Volvo, Mack, Western Star, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz and DAF. Your specialist matches the finance to your work and the lender to your file.

Pre-approval is typically inside 24 hours once you submit the form. Settlement timing then depends on the lender and asset details, with many Australian deals settling within a week of pre-approval.

No. Many of our lenders score the deal on freight income and asset value rather than requiring property security. Non-property owners regularly settle owner driver finance through Equifund.

Not always. $0 deposit is available for prime applications, especially for established operators with active freight contracts. Other deals may require a deposit depending on the asset, the lender and the loan term.

Yes. We finance dealer purchases, private sales, auctions and end-of-lease buyouts. The owner driver just needs to meet the lender's age and condition requirements.

Yes. Many Australian operators refinance to access a better rate, restructure repayments around their income cycle, release equity from the asset, or consolidate multiple owner driver loans into one facility.

We have a panel of 80+ Australian lenders spanning major banks, specialist asset financiers and non-bank lenders that specifically understand freight income and transport assets. Your specialist matches your file to the right lender for the deal.

Yes. We regularly settle multi-owner driver deals for Australian fleets, often splitting the package across more than one lender to fit each asset's spec and your overall structure.

Yes. Owner Drivers, attachments, trailers and related equipment are all on the panel. Equipment security can be structured independently of owner driver finance if that better suits the deal.

A chattel mortgage gives you immediate ownership of the owner driver while the lender holds it as security. You claim GST upfront and depreciate the truck for tax. It is the most common structure for established Australian owner-operators. A finance lease keeps the owner driver on the lender's books with set monthly payments and an optional residual paid at the end of the term. Useful for fleet operators managing income cycle against vehicle turnover. Your Australia-based owner driver finance specialist will recommend the structure that suits your business and tax position. Read the full chattel mortgage vs finance lease comparison.

Freight income recognition is how a specialist lender reads income from freight invoices, contractor payments and BAS rather than treating only PAYG salary as income. Bank credit templates often miss this. Specialist lenders read freight income accurately, which is why established Australian operators frequently get approved on deals that mainstream banks decline.

Low-doc owner driver finance is approval on a reduced documentation set, usually a Director declaration plus business activity statements or recent bank statements, rather than full financials. It is faster to process and common for established small-fleet operators in Australia who would rather not produce two years of full tax returns for a single asset purchase.

Pre-approval is a conditional finance approval issued before you commit to a owner driver. It sets the maximum loan amount, indicative rate, term and repayment structure so you can negotiate with dealers, private sellers or auction houses on solid ground. Equifund pre-approvals are typically issued within 24 hours of form submission.

An Australian Credit Licence (ACL) is a licence issued by ASIC permitting a business to engage in credit activities under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. Equifund holds Australian Credit Licence 389328. Working with an ACL holder is a baseline regulatory protection for the borrower and a baseline trust signal for any Australian finance provider.

Yes. Specialist transport and ABN-aware lenders on our panel recognise signed mother-carrier sub-contract agreements, regular day-rate and tonne-rate work and contracted route allocations as recurring income, and approve prime movers, rigids and trailers without consumer credit scoring.

Yes. First-truck owner drivers stepping out of a wages driver role can structure finance against the signed mother-carrier contract, the previous wage-driver employment history and the asset value, without the standard two-year ABN-history requirement that high-street banks impose.

Yes. Owner drivers moving from one to two or more trucks can set up a master facility on our panel that approves additional trucks inside the limit as new contracts come on, reducing credit hits and the admin of re-applying for each new asset.