SBA loans for freight brokers, forwarders and customs brokers

What SBA lenders approved for freight arrangers

Freight transportation arrangement (NAICS 488510) covers the businesses that move freight without hauling it: truckload and less-than-truckload brokers, freight forwarders, customs brokers and logistics intermediaries. From FY2024 through June 2026 they took 367 SBA 7(a) loans worth $161,851,100 from 91 lenders. The median loan, $150,000, sits on the national median of $150,300, and the middle half ran from $67,500 to $350,000.

What sets the industry apart is the spread. The 90th percentile was $978,960, and 36 loans, 9.8%, were $1 million or more: a small broker borrows for working capital and software, while a forwarder with a warehouse or a buyer of an established brokerage borrows many times that. The median rate at approval was 10.5%, a quarter point over the national 10.25%, and only 7.6% of loans carried a fixed rate.

Gross billings are not the number a lender uses

A brokerage's income statement usually leads with everything it billed shippers, most of which it passes straight to carriers. Lenders strip that out. The figure that matters is net revenue, the spread between what the shipper pays and what the carrier is paid, and then how much of that spread survives salaries, agent commissions and software. A broker that bills 10,000 and pays carriers 8,500 has 1,500 to run the business on, and its debt capacity is sized on what is left of the 1,500, not on the 10,000.

Margins in brokerage move with the freight market. When carrier capacity is tight, spot rates rise faster than contract rates and a broker's margin compresses; when capacity is loose the reverse happens. A lender reading two or three years of results wants to see how net revenue held up through a turn, not just the best year. SBA requires debt service coverage of at least 1.15x, and conventional banks commonly look for 1.25x; for a change of ownership from 1 October 2026 SBA also requires 1.25x on historical results. See debt service coverage ratio.

The cash cycle: carriers are paid before shippers pay

The working capital problem in this industry is structural. Carriers expect to be paid quickly, often through quick-pay programs, while shippers pay on invoice terms. Every load a growing broker adds widens the gap. That is why so many brokerages factor their receivables, and why the most common SBA need here is working capital rather than equipment.

A factoring agreement matters to an SBA lender for two reasons. SBA will not refinance a factoring agreement with a 7(a) loan, and the factor usually holds a first lien on receivables that has to be released before a new lender can take them. The usual path is to replace the factor with a receivables line, where asset-based lenders typically advance 80% to 90% of eligible receivables, exclude invoices more than 90 days past invoice, and commonly cap any single customer at 20% to 25% of the eligible pool. SBA's own revolving product, CAPLines, is another route. See moving from factoring to a line of credit and lines of credit for freight brokers.

For a freight broker, the concentration cap in a borrowing base often matters more than the advance rate: one large shipper can leave much of the receivables book ineligible.

SBA Express, standard 7(a) and 504

SBA Express goes up to $500,000 and runs on the lender's own credit process, which suits a brokerage that needs working capital or a technology build. The trade-off is the guaranty: SBA guarantees 50% of an Express loan, against 85% of a standard 7(a) of $150,000 or less and 75% above that. With little hard collateral in the business, an Express lender carries more of the risk and may ask for more, including a lien on the owner's home.

Standard 7(a) is the better tool for anything larger: an acquisition, a warehouse purchase blended with working capital, or a refinance of expensive short-term debt, where the refinance must lower the payment by at least 10% and the debt must have been current for the last 12 months. See SBA 7(a) vs SBA Express.

The 25 SBA 504 projects, at a median of $1,058,000, are most likely forwarders and logistics firms buying the warehouse or cross-dock they work from. A 504 borrower must occupy at least 51% of an existing building, and since July 2026 the 504 and 7(a) limits are counted separately. See SBA 7(a) vs 504 and SBA loans for warehousing.

Buying a brokerage: few deals, and big ones

Only 17 SBA loans, 4.6% of the industry's lending, financed a change of ownership, well under the national 10.4%. But their median was $2,078,500 at 8.5%, far above the industry median and at a lower rate; loans above $350,000 fall under SBA's tightest variable-rate cap, the base rate plus 3%. Buyers of brokerages are paying for relationships, not assets, so nearly the whole price is goodwill. Where the amount financed, less appraised real estate and equipment, exceeds $250,000, SBA requires an independent business valuation and the purchase loan cannot exceed it.

• Who owns the customer. In an agent-based brokerage, the agents may control the shipper relationships and can leave. Lenders read the agent agreements, non-solicitation terms and each agent's share of net revenue. See customer concentration in an acquisition.
• Authority and bond. Operating authority, the broker bond and any customs license sit with the entity or a licensed individual. Whether they carry over depends on the deal's structure; see asset vs stock purchase.
• Equity and seller paper. At least 10% of total project costs as equity; a seller note counts toward half of that only on full standby for the life of the SBA loan. SBA prohibits an earnout, so price protection tied to shipper retention has to take another form.
• Transition. The seller cannot stay as an owner, officer or employee, and may consult for up to 12 months, or up to 24 months under SOP 50 10 8.1 from 1 October 2026.
• Diligence. From 1 October 2026, financial due diligence is required on every change of ownership, and a quality of earnings report on acquisitions of $3 million or more excluding real estate. The larger brokerage purchases in this data would cross that line.

A deal larger than SBA's $5 million limit needs conventional or private credit, often a senior loan with seller paper. See financing a freight brokerage acquisition and acquisitions above the SBA limit.

Preparing a freight brokerage file

Start with the SBA list: 2–3 years of business tax returns, a P&L and balance sheet with a year-to-date P&L through last month-end, a debt schedule with copies of any notes being refinanced, and personal tax returns and a personal financial statement for each owner of 20% or more. Then add what a freight lender needs to see through the billings: an AR aging by customer with days outstanding, an AP aging to carriers, net revenue by customer and by month, the agent agreements, proof of authority and bond, cargo and contingent liability insurance, and the factoring agreement with a current payoff.

Once the documents are in, Transparent builds the full lender package — financing model, lender presentation, blind teaser and underwriting memo — in a day, and puts it in front of the lenders in its book that fit the file: 278 write SBA 7(a) and 504, and 235 write asset-based loans and lines. On SBA loans the lender pays Transparent, not the borrower. See the package and how we underwrite.