Repair, replace or add?
Every owner of a working machine eventually faces this choice. Repairing keeps cash in the account today. Replacing buys reliability. Adding a second unit buys capacity. The cheapest answer depends on how many hours the machine runs and what an hour of downtime costs you, which is easy to estimate once you write it down: the revenue that stops, plus the labor you still pay while it is idle.
San Bernardino has plenty of owners making this decision. The city is near the junctions of I-10, I-215 and SR-210, hosts a BNSF intermodal freight yard and a trucking cross-docking center, and has large warehouses for retailers and manufacturers developed near the airport. Alongside them sit repair garages, parts suppliers, food vendors, and the businesses serving students in the University District around California State University, San Bernardino.
A downtime calculation, for illustration
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Revenue lost per day the machine is down | $1,200 |
| Days to repair or wait for a part | 6 |
| Lost revenue | $7,200 |
| Repair estimate | $4,500 |
| Total cost of repairing | $11,700 |
If a replacement unit costs $55,000 and would be down far less, the real comparison is not $4,500 against $55,000. It is the full cost of repeated breakdowns against the monthly payment. These are invented figures to show the method, not our terms.
Equipment by trade
- Garages and body shops: lifts, alignment racks, diagnostic scanners.
- Yards and light warehouse operators: forklifts, pallet jacks, racking, loading-dock equipment.
- Kitchens and cafes: ovens, refrigeration, hood systems.
- Service and trades: work trucks, trailers, power tools.
For heavy long-haul vehicles, the cash-flow picture is different and we do not promise funding for that trade; this page is for the shops, yards and kitchens around the logistics economy.
What to ask before you finance a machine
- What will the equipment earn or save in a normal month, and who is paying for that work?
- What does maintenance cost once any warranty ends?
- Can your operator or crew run it all day, or does it sit between jobs?
- What is the total you will repay, and can you repay early?
A forklift that runs eight hours a day in a dock is a different animal from one that moves stock twice a week. Pay for the first kind and rent or borrow the second.
Applying from San Bernardino
We fund $25,000 to $5,000,000, with funding in as little as 24 hours once approved. We consider FICO scores of 500 and up, ask for about three months of business bank statements and do not require tax returns. The application takes about five minutes and uses a soft credit pull. Sole proprietors can apply. If a repair is a one-off and you simply need cash, consider working capital. If equipment is part of a larger expansion, compare term loans. Owners in Fontana, Ontario, Chino and Upland can apply the same way.