Materials handling · Counterbalance · Reach · Order pickers
Forklift finance for businesses that have outgrown hiring one.
A forklift is a working asset, not a purchase. The questions that actually decide whether finance makes sense are how many hours a week it runs, how it's powered, and what condition the one you've found is really in. We'll work through those with you before anyone talks about a contract.
Start here
The first question isn't finance. It's whether you should own one at all.
Most businesses arrive at forklift finance from the same place: the hire invoices have become a permanent line in the accounts and someone has finally added them up. That's a reasonable trigger, but it isn't on its own an answer. Ownership and hire solve different problems, and the deciding factor is almost always utilisation — how many hours the machine genuinely runs, and how predictable those hours are.
The unglamorous version: if the forklift works most days, ownership usually wins over a few years. If it works hard for eight weeks and then sits, hire usually wins, and no finance structure will change that arithmetic.
| Approach | Suits | What you take on | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casual or short-term hire | Seasonal peaks, a single project, covering a breakdown, or testing whether you need a machine at all. | Very little. The hire company carries maintenance, tyres and usually the safety inspection regime. | Day rates are the most expensive way to run a machine full time. Availability in your peak is not always there when you ring. |
| Long-term or operating hire | Businesses that want a known monthly cost, no residual risk, and someone else handling servicing. | A fixed commitment for the term, usually with hour allowances built in. | Exceeding the agreed hours can attract additional charges. You own nothing at the end. |
| Buying with finance | Steady daily use, a settled site, and work you expect to still be doing in several years. | Servicing, tyres, batteries or gas, safety inspections, and the resale outcome — good or bad. | You carry the asset risk. That's the price of keeping the value it retains. |
Pull twelve months of hire invoices and count the weeks the machine was actually on site. If it's most of them, and the work isn't about to change shape, ownership is worth pricing properly. If it's a handful of busy periods, keep hiring and put the deposit somewhere it earns its keep. We'd rather tell you that now than write a contract you regret in year two.
The machine
Electric, LPG or diesel changes more than you'd think.
Power source is usually treated as an operations decision. It's also a finance decision, because it drives both what the machine costs you to run each week and what it's worth when you come to sell it — and a secured lender is looking at that second number as closely as you are.
| Type | Where it fits | Running cost character | Resale character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric | Indoor warehousing, food handling, cold storage, anywhere fumes or noise are a problem. | Lower energy and servicing cost, fewer moving parts. The battery is the real consumable, and replacing one is a significant cost that arrives without warning if nobody's tracking its condition. | Strongly influenced by battery health and charger type. A tired battery can dominate the machine's value. Lithium packs have changed this picture and the second-hand market is still settling. |
| LPG | Mixed indoor and outdoor work, loading docks, sites that need a fast turnaround between shifts. | Gas is a visible ongoing cost and bottle swaps take seconds, which is the point. Servicing sits between electric and diesel. | Broad buyer pool, since LPG counterbalance units suit a lot of businesses. Generally a straightforward machine to move on. |
| Diesel | Yards, timber, transport, construction, uneven ground and heavier capacities. | Higher fuel and maintenance, but the engines are durable and parts are everywhere. Not suitable for enclosed spaces. | Holds up well in industries where diesel is the norm. Emissions rules and site policies increasingly push indoor work away from it. |
If you're moving from LPG to electric, cost the charging infrastructure at the same time — a charger, the switchboard work and sometimes a spare battery for multi-shift operations. That's real capital, and it's better inside the conversation than discovered afterwards.
The assessment
What a lender is actually weighing up.
Equipment finance is secured lending, so the decision has two halves: you, and the machine. Both have to make sense.
- The business behind the application. How long you've been trading, your industry, whether the income is steady or lumpy, and what you already owe. Newer businesses aren't excluded, but the evidence needed is different and fewer lenders will look at it.
- The asset itself. Make, model, capacity, hours, condition and who's selling it. A common machine from a recognised brand is easier to fund than something rare, because a lender has to be able to sell it if things go wrong.
- How you're buying. Dealer, auction, private sale or a machine already on your site under hire. Each has a different paper trail, and not every lender funds every route.
- Your deposit or trade-in. Contributing something reduces the lender's exposure and widens the field. A machine you're replacing can often form part of it.
- Directors' personal position. Commercial equipment finance usually involves a director's guarantee, so personal credit conduct is part of the picture.
New or used
Hours on the clock matter more than the year on the plate.
People instinctively apply car logic to forklifts and ask how old it is. A lender looking at security asks a different question: how much life is left in it. A ten-year-old machine that has done light indoor work for one shift a day can be in far better shape than a five-year-old unit that has run three shifts in a foundry.
That's why the hour meter is the number that drives the conversation. It's the closest thing the industry has to an honest odometer, and it's also why a service history matters so much — hours without records tell you how hard the machine has worked but nothing about how well it's been looked after.
- New machines come with warranty, a known service history from day one and, in most cases, the widest range of funding options. They also take the steepest early depreciation, which you wear if you sell in the first couple of years.
- Late-model used machines are where a lot of sensible buying happens. Someone else has absorbed the initial drop, the machine is still current enough for parts and support, and the hours are usually documented.
- Older or high-hour machines can be genuinely good value if you know what you're buying, but they narrow which lenders will fund them and often shorten the term available. Expect more questions, not fewer.
- Auction and private purchases can be cheaper and are often financeable, but there's no warranty, limited recourse, and the inspection burden falls entirely on you. Budget for an independent check before you bid, not after.
Mast wear, chain stretch, hydraulic leaks, transmission condition and — on electrics — the state of the battery and cells. None of that shows in a photograph, and all of it shows up in your maintenance costs within months. An inspection is cheap relative to the machine and it strengthens your position with a lender rather than slowing it down.
Structures
Chattel mortgage, finance lease or rental.
Three common ways to fund the same forklift, with genuinely different consequences. Which one suits you is partly a finance question and substantially an accounting one — so the short version below is about how each structure behaves, not about how it should be treated in your books.
| Structure | Who owns the machine | How it behaves | End of term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chattel mortgage | You do, from the outset. The lender takes security over the machine and registers its interest on the PPSR. | The most common structure for commercial equipment. Fixed repayments over an agreed term, with the option of a balloon or residual to lower them. | You pay out the balance, including any residual, and the security is released. The machine was always yours. |
| Finance lease | The financier owns it and leases it to you for the term. | You have full use of the machine and carry the running costs, but title sits with the financier until the end. | Typically settled by paying a residual to take ownership, refinancing it, or returning the machine, depending on the contract. |
| Rental or operating hire | The hire company. It never becomes yours. | A service arrangement more than a finance one. Maintenance is often bundled, and hour allowances usually apply. | Hand it back, extend, or upgrade. No residual risk and no resale upside. |
GST treatment, depreciation, deductibility and how each structure appears on your balance sheet vary by structure and by business, and they change with your circumstances and with the rules in force at the time. We're brokers, not tax advisers — we'll explain how each option works commercially and what it costs you month to month, then your accountant tells you which one is right for your entity. That conversation is worth having before you sign, not after.
The full package
Attachments, and what owning one commits you to.
A forklift is rarely just a forklift. Rotators, side shifts, fork positioners, jibs, drum clamps, carpet poles, safety cages, chargers, spare batteries and even the racking that goes in at the same time can usually be included in the one facility rather than funded separately out of working capital. Bundling them is generally simpler and cheaper than three arrangements running side by side — tell us the whole shopping list at the start rather than adding to it later.
Ownership also brings obligations that hire quietly absorbed for you. These are general workplace matters rather than anything a lender sets, and your state regulator and the relevant Australian Standards are the authority on them — but they belong in your budget from day one.
How it works
Three steps.
Tell us the machine and the hours
What you're moving, how often, indoors or out, and whether you've found a specific unit. A few minutes online or a phone call is enough for us to know where you stand.
We match business and asset to lender
Equipment lenders differ in what they'll fund and how they treat used machines. We check appetite before lodging, so your credit file isn't the testing ground.
Settlement, and the keys
We handle the paperwork with the seller, confirm there's nothing owing on the machine, and see it through to settlement. One broker, start to finish.
Common questions
Forklift finance, answered.
Should I buy a forklift or keep hiring one?
It comes down to utilisation. If the machine runs most days and your work is settled, ownership generally works out better across a few years and you keep whatever the machine is worth at the end. If your need is seasonal, project-based or genuinely unpredictable, hire is usually the cheaper and less risky answer, and no finance structure fixes low usage. Add up twelve months of hire invoices and count the weeks the machine was actually on site — that number tells you more than any calculator.
Does electric, LPG or diesel affect the finance?
Indirectly, yes. Power source affects what the machine is worth second-hand, and on secured lending the asset's resale profile is part of the picture. Electrics are influenced heavily by battery condition, LPG counterbalance units tend to have a wide buyer pool, and diesel holds up well in the industries that use it. More importantly it affects your running costs — energy, gas, servicing and battery replacement — which is what determines whether the repayment is comfortable.
Can I finance a used forklift?
Commonly, yes — a lot of forklift lending is on used machines. What changes with age and hours is how many lenders will look at it and what terms are available, rather than whether it can be funded at all. A documented service history and an independent inspection make a real difference. We'd rather assess the specific machine than give you a general rule, because the general rules in this space are mostly wrong.
Why do lenders care about hours more than the machine's age?
Because hours measure work done and age doesn't. A forklift that has run one light shift a day for a decade can be in better condition than a much newer machine that's been worked around the clock. A secured lender is trying to understand how much serviceable life is left and what the unit would fetch if it had to be sold, and the hour meter answers that far better than the build year. It's the same reason a service history carries so much weight.
What's the difference between a chattel mortgage, a finance lease and rental?
Ownership, mainly. Under a chattel mortgage the machine is yours from the start and the lender registers security over it. Under a finance lease the financier holds title for the term and you have full use of the machine. Rental or operating hire isn't ownership at all — it's a service arrangement you hand back at the end. Each behaves differently commercially, and the accounting and tax consequences differ too, which is a conversation for your accountant rather than for us.
Can attachments and a charger go on the same contract?
Usually. Rotators, clamps, jibs, safety cages, spare batteries, chargers and associated installation can generally be financed as part of the package rather than paid for out of working capital. It's simpler and normally cheaper than running separate arrangements. Give us the full list at the start — adding items after the facility is written is more work than including them at the outset.
We're a newer business. Does that rule us out?
Not automatically. Time in business is one of the things lenders weigh, alongside your industry, the directors' history and the asset itself, and lenders differ considerably in how they treat a shorter trading record. A deposit, a strong asset and clean personal credit conduct all help. The honest position is that fewer options are available early on, not that there are none — we'll tell you which of those it is once we've seen your situation.
Who's responsible for servicing, inspections and operator licensing?
You are, once you own the machine. Servicing to the manufacturer's intervals, routine safety inspection of the mast, chains and forks, and making sure operators hold the appropriate high risk work licence are all workplace obligations under your state's regulator and the relevant Australian Standards — not something a lender sets or supervises. Hire agreements often absorb some of this, which is one of the genuine costs to factor in when you move from hiring to owning.
Let's talk
Tell us the machine. We'll tell you whether it stacks up.
No cost, no obligation, and no credit enquiry while we work it out. If buying is the right call, we'll take it to the lenders whose appetite actually fits the asset. If you'd be better off hiring for another season, we'll say that instead.
Ready when you are
Start a full application online, or use the call back form at the top of this page and a broker will ring you.
Apply now Call 1300 84 33 83The Finance Team is a trading name of Online Showroom Pty Ltd, a credit broker rather than a lender, holding Australian Credit Licence 551493. Anything we show you by way of figures is an estimate for illustration only, not a quote and not an offer of credit. All applications are subject to assessment by the lender against its own criteria, and terms and conditions apply.