Mitsubishi HC Capital America stayed in truck financing through a three-and-a-half-year freight recession that drove many banks out of the sector, and its over-the-road volume has since improved by roughly 30%, according to Kirk Mann, executive vice president and general manager of the company's transportation vendor solutions business. Mann told FreightWaves that remaining competition is mostly OEM captive finance arms, a couple of large independents and a few bank-led groups, and that 85% of motor carriers with fewer than two years of operating experience and their own operating authority failed over a three-year stretch of the downturn. He described an asset bubble in which a Freightliner Cascadia 13-speed with a tall sleeper and fewer than 500,000 miles was worth $45,000 but financed at about $110,000, while J.D. Power data show a typical 4-year-old sleeper tractor that sold for roughly $30,000 to $50,000 between the Great Recession and the pandemic peaked near $118,000 in early 2022, a 136% jump, before Class 8 average retail prices settled at $60,986 as of September, per ACT Research. Mann said the lender has improved recoveries on transportation assets by 15% through a dedicated asset management function, and that financing now runs from roughly 5.25% for investment-grade private fleets up to 12% or higher for lower-credit small operators, with fleets of 50 to 200 units increasingly approaching the company through dealer relationships. He attributed the volume gain to replacement demand rather than EPA 2027 pre-buying, with fleets buying almost entirely new at about 80% new and late-model used taking the rest, and said cost per mile is the decisive underwriting metric.
Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc.Stayed in truck financing through the freight recession and its over-the-road volume has since improved roughly 30% on replacement demand.
Daimler Truck Holding AG