Borrow against a semi, box truck, dump truck, or tow truck you already own — and keep it on the road earning while you pay it back.
A commercial truck title loan is business-purpose financing secured by a commercial vehicle you already own: the lender places a lien on the title and advances a percentage of the truck's value, while you keep possession and keep the truck in revenue service.
If you own a truck outright, that truck is a parked asset with cash locked inside it. A title loan unlocks that cash without taking the truck off the road. The mechanics are straightforward:
The reason owner-operators and small fleets reach for this instead of an unsecured business loan is simple: the collateral does the heavy lifting. When a lender can value and recover the asset, your credit file matters far less than it would on a signature loan.
The phrase "title loan" carries baggage, and it is worth being precise, because two very different products share the name.
| Consumer car title loan | Commercial truck title loan | |
|---|---|---|
| Borrower | An individual, personal use | A business or owner-operator, business use |
| Collateral | A personal vehicle | A revenue-producing commercial unit |
| Typical term | Often 30 days, rolled over repeatedly | Amortized over months |
| Underwriting | Little or none beyond the vehicle | Truck value plus business cash flow |
| Regulation | Capped, restricted, or banned in many states | Commercial lending rules |
Not sure what your truck supports? Send the year, make, model and mileage and get a real number back rather than a guess.
Check My TruckEverything on this page refers to the commercial product: business-purpose financing for a company or owner-operator, secured by a titled commercial vehicle. If you need money for personal reasons, this is the wrong product and we are the wrong people to ask.
Owners searching for a truck refinance loan and owners searching for a title loan often want the same outcome — cash, or a lower payment — but the right structure depends on whether there is still a lender on the title.
| Your situation | The structure | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Truck paid off, clean title | Title loan against the unit | The largest cash advance, simplest closing |
| Still owe, but the truck is worth well more | Cash-out refinance | Pays off the old lender, returns the surplus to you |
| Still owe, payment is too high | Rate-and-term refinance | Lower or restructured payment, no cash out |
| Owe close to what it is worth | Neither works | No equity to draw against |
That last row matters. A truck that is upside down, or barely above water, has nothing to lend against. If that is where you are, the productive conversation is about working capital or fixing the payment, not pulling equity that is not there.
Lenders in this space want titled, commercially used units with an active resale market. Broadly:
What usually stops a deal: a rebuilt, rebranded, or salvaged title; unclear or contested ownership; an open bankruptcy; sizeable unresolved tax liens; or a unit so old, so high-mileage, or so specialized that there is no dependable resale market for it. Engine make and model matter more than owners expect — some drivetrains are much harder to place than others, and that shows up directly in what a lender will advance.
Two owners with the same truck model can get very different numbers. What drives it:
Because lenders advance against liquidation value rather than retail asking price, the honest first step is finding out what the unit is actually worth to a lender. Our guide to equipment and machinery appraisal walks through fair market, orderly liquidation, and forced liquidation value and why the gap between them decides your number.
It tends to make sense when: you own a truck free and clear and need capital for something that earns; you are covering a repair, an insurance renewal, or an IFTA bill that would otherwise park the unit; you are funding a down payment to add a second truck; or you are replacing expensive short-term debt with a secured loan at a lower cost of capital.
It tends not to make sense when: the truck is your only asset and revenue is already unstable, because you are putting the thing that earns your living behind a lien; the amount you need is small enough that a line of credit would serve better; or you are borrowing to cover a shortfall that will simply recur next month. Adding a secured payment to an operation that cannot carry the payments it already has makes the problem worse, not better.
If you are carrying merchant cash advances and thinking about using truck equity to clear them, that specific move has its own tradeoffs. See using asset equity to pay off MCAs.
Deals in this category move quickly when the paperwork is complete. They stall when the title is not in hand, ownership is unclear, or the payoff figure is a guess.
A title loan is one route. Depending on what you own, others may raise more or cost less:
Owners who hold both trucks and property often do best combining them, because more collateral in the deal generally means a better structure on the whole package.
Title lenders, refinance desks, and asset-based lenders all value the same truck differently, and the spread between the best and worst offer on an identical unit is wide. Rather than call each one, tell us about your truck once and compare what is actually available against it. It is free, there is no obligation, and checking won't affect your credit.
Owners almost always start from the wrong number. The figure in your head is usually a dealer's asking price or what you paid. A lender works from what it could recover in a quick sale, which is a materially lower number, and then advances a percentage of that.
A rough sense of how the gap compounds on a typical late-model sleeper:
| Figure | What it represents | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Dealer asking price | Retail, reconditioned, with a warranty | Highest |
| Clean trade / book value | What a dealer would allow you | Lower |
| Orderly liquidation | Sold over a reasonable window | Lower again |
| Forced liquidation | Auctioned quickly | Lowest |
| Your advance | A percentage of the liquidation figure | Lower still |
That is not a lender being unreasonable. It is what a repossessed unit with unknown maintenance history actually fetches at auction. The practical takeaway: get the value established before you build a plan around a number. Our guide to equipment and machinery appraisal explains fair market, orderly liquidation, and forced liquidation value and why lenders use the lower ones.
What moves your number up: complete service records, a mainstream engine with an active resale market, lower mileage for the model year, a clean and lien-free title, and photographs that show the unit has been looked after. What moves it down: an engine that is hard to place, deferred maintenance, an accident history, or a title with anything unusual on it.If the goal is cash and you own the truck, three structures compete. They differ mainly in whether you keep the unit and whether you keep the title.
| Title loan | Sale-leaseback | Outright sale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep driving it | Yes | Yes | No |
| Keep the title | Yes | No, with buy-back | No |
| Cash raised | Percentage of value | Often more | Full market value |
| Ongoing payment | Yes | Yes, lease | None |
| Best when | You need the unit and the cash | You want maximum cash and can lease | The unit is surplus or idle |
The one owners overlook is the third column. If a truck is sitting because you cannot crew it, financing it to raise cash means paying interest on an asset that is not earning. Selling it and keeping the proceeds is frequently the better answer, and no lender will volunteer that. Tell us the situation and we will say which of the three raises the most net of cost.
The process is short when the paperwork is in order, and the steps are predictable:
Deals stall for boring reasons: the title is not physically in hand, ownership does not match the business name, or a payoff figure turns out to be a guess. Sorting those before you apply is the difference between days and weeks. Start the review and we will tell you what is missing before it costs you time.
It is business-purpose financing secured by a commercial vehicle you already own. The lender places a lien on the truck's title and advances a percentage of its value; you keep possession and keep the truck working. It raises capital from equity already sitting in the equipment rather than financing a purchase.
No. A consumer car title loan is a short-term personal loan, often due in 30 days, and is capped, restricted, or banned in many states. A commercial truck title loan is a business-purpose loan to a company or owner-operator, secured by a revenue-producing titled asset, underwritten on both the truck's value and the business's ability to repay, and amortized over months. Different products, different rules.
Not always. A clean, lien-free title produces the largest advance and the simplest closing. If you still owe, the usual route is a cash-out refinance that pays off the existing lender and returns the surplus equity to you — which only works if the truck is worth meaningfully more than the payoff. If you owe close to what it is worth, there is nothing to draw against.
A percentage of the truck's value, and lenders lend against liquidation value rather than retail asking price. Year, mileage, engine make and model, maintenance records, condition, and resale demand all move the number. A newer, low-mileage sleeper with a mainstream engine and a clean title supports far more than a high-mileage unit with a rebuilt title.
Yes — that is the whole point of the structure. The lender records a lien on the title as security, but you keep possession and keep the unit in revenue service. Expect to maintain insurance naming the lender as lienholder, and expect most lenders to require ACH payments and a GPS unit.
Often, yes. Because the loan is secured by a titled asset the lender can value and recover, credit carries less weight than on an unsecured business loan. Lenders in this space do work with challenged credit, thin files, start-ups, and discharged bankruptcies. Credit still affects how much you can draw. An open bankruptcy, sizeable unresolved tax liens, or a rebuilt or salvaged title will usually stop a deal regardless of score.
Titled commercial units with an active resale market: sleeper and day cab tractors, box and straight trucks, dump trucks, tow trucks and wreckers, service and vacuum trucks, and in many cases trailers and reefers. Rebuilt or salvage titles, unclear ownership, and units with no dependable resale market are generally excluded.
A percentage of the truck's liquidation value rather than its retail price, which is why the figure usually comes in below what owners expect. Year, mileage, engine make and model, condition, maintenance records, and whether the title is clean and lien-free all move it. A newer low-mileage sleeper with a mainstream drivetrain supports substantially more than a high-mileage unit with a hard-to-place engine.
No. You keep possession and keep the truck in revenue service for the whole term. The lender records a lien against the title as security only. Expect to maintain insurance naming them as lienholder, and expect most lenders to require ACH payments and a GPS unit on the vehicle.
Only if there is real equity. The usual structure is a cash-out refinance that pays off the existing lender and returns the surplus to you, which requires the truck to be worth meaningfully more than the payoff. If you owe close to what it is worth, there is nothing to draw against and the productive conversation is about the payment instead.
The title, VIN, and current registration; year, make, model, mileage, engine and transmission details; photos and any maintenance records; proof of insurance; recent business bank statements, usually three months; and a current payoff quote if a lender is still on the title. Having the title physically in hand is the single biggest determinant of speed.
Start with the value. Tell us what you own and Axiant shows you what a title loan, a cash-out refinance, and the other asset-backed routes would each raise against it, so you can pick the one that frees up the most cash for the lowest cost. One application, real offers, no obligation, and checking won't affect your credit.