Fuel is bought daily. Drivers are paid weekly. The customer pays in six.
Road haulage operators face payment terms averaging 42 days while fuel and driver costs fall due weekly. That gap is not a sign of a badly run business. It is the structure of the industry.
Why it is harder than it looks
Fragmentation
Around 92% of road freight businesses employ fewer than ten people, so the sector is highly fragmented and made up largely of micro operators with limited capacity to absorb sustained cost increases.
Costs
Vehicle operating costs rose by more than 12% in the year to April 2026, driven by a 36% rise in diesel, a 7% increase in vehicle insurance and almost 8% growth in driver employment costs.
Margins
Around 2%. Operators have told the RHA for three years running that costs are outstripping rates, with some customers not having moved their prices since 2019.
Drivers
Driver wages now represent 25 to 30% of total road freight costs. They are also the least flexible. Drivers do not wait.
Where it actually breaks
A payment run comes in late and Friday is still Friday.
A new contract starts. More drivers, more fuel, more vehicles, all paid for before the first invoice on that contract settles.
An invoice finance facility is reduced or withdrawn, and the buffer covering the month goes with it.
A quiet quarter follows a heavy one and the fixed costs do not move with the volume.
None of that is a failing business.
It is the normal shape of contract logistics, and it is why the sector runs on working capital rather than reserves.
What usually fits
A facility that sits there until you need it
Drawn when a payment run slips, repaid when it lands, sitting idle in between.
A term facility
Where the requirement is a vehicle, a depot, or funding the start of a contract already won.
Invoice finance, where it is right
We will say so and arrange it. It is not our specialism and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
If the gap between the work and the money is the problem, that is a structure question rather than a credit one.
What we need
Send six months of statements and you will know where you stand, usually the same day.
Six months of business bank statements. The statements show the cycle, and that is what matters here. Money in, wages out, and how tight the middle of the month gets.