Bin cleaning truck financing

A bin cleaning truck lifts a residential trash or recycling cart, pressure-washes it with hot water inside a closed hood, and recycles the water so nothing runs into the street. It's a route business, and most of the people buying the equipment are starting one. iFinancial Group finances the truck or the trailer unit, new or used, on a one-page application. No tax returns and no audited financial statements to apply, no minimum and up to $1,000,000.

Who you're dealing with

iFinancial Group has funded equipment since 1997, roughly $600 million of it, in all 50 states. We're a direct lender, not a broker, so the file is underwritten in house and not shopped around. Our customers have ranged from independent manufacturers to global technology companies. We've barely advertised in almost three decades. The business came from repeat customers, referrals, and vendors sending us their customers.

What you're financing

Trailer-mounted bin washers, a single or dual cart lifter with a hot water pressure system and a water recovery tank on a tandem axle trailer, typically list new from about $30,000 to $75,000. Truck-mounted systems on a Class 4 to 6 chassis, with dual lifters, a larger fresh and recovered water capacity and filtration that lets the truck run a full day without dumping, run roughly $100,000 to $250,000. The higher end carries a built-in dump system for the recovered water and solids.

Those are market ranges. The number of lifters, the heater, the filtration system and whether the chassis is new or used move it.

What goes on the same approval

A truck-mounted unit is the chassis from a dealer and the washing system from the builder, two invoices, one approval. The trailer under a trailer unit, the tow vehicle on many deals, the water heater, the filtration upgrade, the route software and the wrap on the truck that does the advertising all belong to the equipment package.

Freight, setup and training are soft costs and can go on the same deal, on many deals up to 30% of the total.

Who buys them and how the payment gets covered

Mostly new operators, often with a background in landscaping, pressure washing or waste, and sometimes an existing pressure washing or junk removal company adding a route. The revenue model is subscription: a monthly or quarterly fee per household, so a route of a few hundred homes covers a payment with room to spare, and it's recurring.

Routes build over the first year rather than arriving all at once, which is why a payment that starts lower and steps up as the route fills is worth asking about. That's what step payments are for.

New or used

Used trailer units typically trade from about $15,000 to $45,000, and used truck-mounted systems from $50,000 to $150,000. The market is small, so used units often come from an operator leaving the business, and they tend to sell with the route software and sometimes the customer list.

On a used unit, check the lifter hydraulics, the pressure pump hours, the heater and the recovered water tank. On the financing side it's the bill of sale, the title if it's a truck, and proof of what was paid.

The first-year business question

Most bin cleaning companies are under two years old when they buy their first truck, and most banks won't look at a business that young without a lot of history it doesn't have. We don't decline on time in business alone. It starts with the one-page application, and a newer business will typically need a little more up front: the owner's own background, what's already been sold, and the plan for the route.

The unit itself holds up as collateral. It's a specialized machine with a small but real resale market, and a route business that's running tends to keep running.

How it works with iFinancial Group

It's the same one-page application whether the equipment is small or the deal runs to $1,000,000: no tax returns and no audited financial statements to apply, no minimum and up to $1,000,000. Decisions typically come back within 24 hours, and an approval holds up to 60 days. New and used equipment, terms up to 84 months, and soft costs up to 30% so freight, setup and training can go in the same deal. Payment structures beyond level payments are there when the equipment earns unevenly. We've been doing this since 1997, in all 50 states.

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