The short version
- Truck finance is business asset finance for commercial vehicles, written most often as a chattel mortgage. The operator owns the truck from settlement and the lender holds a security interest on the PPSR until the loan clears.
- Indicative rates in August 2026 run 6.5 to 11% p.a. for new trucks and 8 to 14% for older or non-standard units. Asset age, trading history and the documentation path are what move the band.
- Dealer finance on a new truck can be genuinely cheap, because the manufacturer's finance arm subsidises the rate to move stock. The margin tends to sit in the add-ons and the balloon, so the all-in figure is the only number worth comparing.
- Trucks escape the two tax ceilings that apply to cars. There is no car limit on depreciation, no cap on the GST credit, and a truck over 3.5 tonnes can be depreciated over 7.5 years instead of 15.
Truck finance gets written about as if every deal were a new prime mover on a dealer floor. The actual market is wider than that. It runs from a $60K used rigid bought to put a second driver on the road, to a $700K B-double combination financed with its trailers on a multi-asset facility, and the structure, the lender list and the pricing all shift across that range. This guide covers the structures, the current cost of money, the dealer-versus-broker question, and the tax treatment. It is written for owner-drivers, transport operators and the businesses that run trucks inside a wider operation — the same ground as our transport and logistics work.
What truck finance covers
Any vehicle bought for a commercial purpose can be financed as a business asset. In the truck market that means prime movers; rigid trucks with tipper, curtainsider, tilt-tray or refrigerated bodies; trailers, financed with the prime mover or on their own facility; vocational units such as crane trucks, concrete agitators and vacuum excavation trucks; and light commercial vehicles, including utes bought and used for business.
Trailers are worth a separate note. Lenders model trailer residuals differently to prime movers, and an operator building a fleet will often run a multi-asset facility so each addition doesn't need a fresh application. Vocational trucks carry another wrinkle: the body is often worth more than the cab-chassis under it, and not every lender is comfortable funding the built-up value. A concrete agitator or a vacuum unit narrows the lender list before price even enters the conversation.
How truck finance is structured
The chattel mortgage dominates, for the same reasons it dominates asset finance generally. The business owns the truck from day one. The lender pays the dealer or vendor at settlement and registers a security interest on the Personal Property Securities Register until the loan is discharged. The GST on the purchase price comes back on the next BAS, depreciation flows through the business's tax return, and the interest in each repayment is deductible.
Hire purchase still appears, structurally similar but with the lender holding title until the final payment. Finance and operating leases turn up in fleet structures, where a business would rather refresh trucks on a cycle and hand back the residual risk than own a depreciating asset outright. The chattel mortgage vs operating lease comparison walks the tax mechanics line by line. One structure that does not belong here: a novated lease is an employee salary-packaging arrangement, not business truck finance.
Documentation runs on two paths. Full-doc means two years of tax returns and financials plus a recent BAS. Low-doc substitutes six to twelve months of BAS or an accountant's declaration, and it is the working path for established operators — most lenders want at least two years of ABN trading history before offering it. Some lenders also run replacement-asset policies: an operator replacing a truck like-for-like, with a clean repayment history, can skip most of the serviceability pack.
Clean deals settle in three to seven business days. Dealer stock moves fastest. Private sales add time for an inspection and a PPSR check on the seller's own finance, which has to be paid out before the new security registers.
What truck finance costs
Three bands cover most of the market in August 2026.
- New truck, established business, full-doc: 6.5 to 8.5% p.a. The major banks run dedicated truck books, and the manufacturer finance arms — PACCAR Financial behind Kenworth and DAF, Volvo Financial Services behind Volvo and Mack, Daimler Truck Financial behind Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and Fuso — compete hard here, sometimes below the band when a campaign is running.
- Low-doc, or a truck five to ten years old: 8.5 to 11% p.a. The specialist asset-finance lenders take most of this volume — Pepper, ScotPac and Lumi among them, with Volkswagen Financial Services active on light commercials.
- Over ten years old, non-standard bodies, or a newer ABN: 11 to 14% p.a. A smaller group of specialists, usually with an inspection report and a deposit.
Deposits follow the same axis. Zero deposit is normal on a new truck for an established operator. Used trucks over five years old usually carry 10 to 20%, and over ten years it is case-by-case. Balloons of 20 to 40% are standard, sized against the expected kilometres at term end: a linehaul prime mover doing 200,000 km a year supports a smaller balloon than a metro rigid doing 40,000. Terms run three to seven years, with five the usual landing point. An establishment fee and a monthly account fee are standard, and they belong in the total-cost comparison even though they look small next to the rate.
Dealer finance vs broker-arranged
The honest version first: on a brand-new truck, dealer finance is sometimes the best deal in the market. The captive finance arms subsidise rate to move stock, and a genuine campaign rate on a current-model prime mover is real money. A broker who pretends otherwise is selling, not advising.
What needs checking is everything around the rate. Three places carry the margin. First, the add-ons priced into the contract — extended warranties, insurance, tyre and servicing bundles. Each one is a separate margin line, and each can usually be bought cheaper standalone. Second, the balloon: a bigger balloon makes the monthly repayment look sharp while pushing cost to the end of the term. Third, the term itself, since a seven-year quote will always look cheaper per month than a five-year one.
The comparison that matters is same term, same balloon, all-in cost including fees and every add-on. On plenty of new-truck deals the campaign rate survives that comparison and the right answer is to take it — a broker can still place the deal through the captive. On the rest, the panel wins once the numbers are normalised.
What lenders look at
Trading history first: two years of ABN history is the usual floor for low-doc terms, and newer entities pay for the gap in rate or deposit. Then the work itself. An operator with contracts across several customers reads better than one subcontracted entirely to a single principal, because the lender prices what happens if that principal cuts rates or capacity.
On the asset, lenders care about age at the end of the term, not the start. Most write trucks to somewhere between 15 and 20 years old at term end, which is more generous than the car market because a well-maintained truck earns for decades. High-kilometre prime movers past that point are case-by-case with an inspection report. Kilometres, maintenance history, deposit or trade-in equity, and the credit files of the entity and its directors round out the assessment.
GST and depreciation on a financed truck
The tax treatment is where trucks genuinely differ from cars, and it is worth getting right before signing anything.
Under a chattel mortgage the business owns the truck at settlement, so a GST-registered business claims the full GST credit on the purchase price in its next BAS. For cars, that credit is capped at one-eleventh of the car limit ($69,883 for FY2026-27) and depreciation is capped at the limit itself. A truck is not a car under the ATO's definition — the caps apply to vehicles carrying under one tonne and fewer than nine passengers — so neither ceiling applies. The trap sits with utes: a dual-cab with a payload under one tonne is a car in the ATO's eyes regardless of how it is used, and both caps bite.
Depreciation runs under Division 40. The ATO's effective-life tables put a truck over 3.5 tonnes at 15 years, but a statutory cap lets the business depreciate it over 7.5 instead, which pulls the deductions forward hard. Trailers cap at 10 years. Interest on each repayment is deductible. The instant asset write-off rarely enters the picture at truck prices — the threshold sits at $20,000, which covers a toolbox, not a prime mover.
If you're pricing a truck and want a second view before signing the dealer's finance contract — or a read on which lender writes your deal at the best all-in — call 1300 094 529, or start with the application form. Most enquiries get a response within four business hours.