Hire fleet finance is funding used by a hire company or dealer to buy the machines and vehicles it then hires out to its own customers. Rather than paying for fleet assets outright, the business funds them over a term and services the payments from hire income. CW Asset Finance is a credit broker, not a lender.
It differs from funding a machine for an end user in ways lenders care about:
- Utilisation matters more than the buyer’s own use. The lender is looking at whether the fleet earns, so hire rates, typical utilisation and contract length come into it.
- Fleet renewal is continuous. Many hire businesses replace kit on a cycle, so the funding structure often has to work across repeat purchases rather than one deal.
- Residual value is central. Machines that come off hire and are sold on need a market, so make, spec and condition feed directly into the lender’s view.
- Not every funder does it. Hire fleets sit outside some lenders’ criteria altogether, which is where a panel of more than 60 lenders is useful.
If you are financing your own fleet, you are the customer in that transaction, and for an incorporated hire business the agreement is outside the consumer credit regime. Introducing your hire customers to a broker for their own purchases is a separate activity, and how it is treated depends on whether those customers are companies, sole traders or private individuals and on how much you do. This is general information, not legal or compliance advice, and your position depends on your customer mix.
There is more on the hire-fleet-finance page. Terms and availability are subject to lender underwriting; nothing here is a promise of funding.