A new MC number is the only moment in trucking when having no history is normal. Banks will not touch you, fuel card companies want deposits you do not have, and brokers pay in 40 days while your insurance bill lands in 10. Factoring is the one financial product built for exactly this moment, because factors underwrite your broker's credit, not yours. This guide ranks the 2026 companies that treat a day-one authority as a customer instead of a risk, and compares the startup programs that go beyond money.
Factoring approval runs on your broker's credit, not your credit history, which is why a two-week-old MC can be approved when the same carrier cannot open a fuel account. You deliver, the factor buys the invoice, and your operating cash arrives the same day instead of day 40.
The first-90-days math is unforgiving: authority filings, insurance down payments, and a truck payment all land before your first broker check clears. The new-authority factoring guide walks the mechanics; this page picks the companies. One rule before the list: new authorities are exactly who long contracts are aimed at, and exactly who should refuse them. You do not yet know what your business will look like in month eight. Do not sign anything that claims to.
Factoring approval and broker credit checks both run on the broker, which means your factor is also your first credit department. Use the free checks on every new broker, every time.
1. OTR Solutions (9.9/10). Day-one approval, and the two features a fragile first year needs most: True Non-Recourse, because a new authority cannot survive a $5,000 broker failure, and the self-backed Fuel Credit line, which extends fuel credit against your factored receivables with no deposit and no credit history. The deposit wall is the thing that keeps new carriers off fuel cards entirely; OTR simply removes it. Full review.
2. Apex Capital (8.7/10). The only factor that will help build the company itself: the startup program files your LLC, MC, DOT, BOC-3, and UCR for roughly $840 to $1,600 all-in, sends compliance renewal reminders, and pre-approves you for factoring before your authority is even active. Day-one factoring plus a decades-deep service culture.
3. Bobtail (9.5/10). The simplicity pick: approval in about 5 minutes, a published flat fee you can verify before calling, 100 percent advance with no reserve, and a 90-day risk-free cancel that is effectively a free trial of factoring itself. Support in English, Spanish, and Punjabi.
All three are month-to-month with no minimums. The rankings compare the full field.
New authorities see extra invoice verification in the first weeks at most factors while broker relationships build history. Clean rate confirmations and signed BOLs keep instant funding actually instant.
Here is the wall nobody warns you about: fuel card programs typically want a deposit or a credit history, and a new authority has neither. So the new carrier pays cash prices at the pump, the most expensive fuel in America, during the exact months margins are thinnest.
Two real solutions in 2026. OTR's Fuel Credit backs a fuel line with your own factored invoices: no deposit, no history, discounts averaging $0.51 a gallon from day one, plus fuel advances up to 50 percent of linehaul mid-load. Apex's TCS card comes bundled with the startup program at about $0.47 a gallon. On 1,200 gallons a month, either card returns roughly $600, which for a new authority is the difference between building a cushion and never getting one.
Set up factoring before your first load, not after: approval takes minutes, and the first invoice you submit is the one that usually needs the money most.
Apex builds the company: entity formation, authority filings, compliance reminders, insurance shopping help, factoring pre-approval. If you have not filed yet, this is the most complete on-ramp in the industry, priced around what a filing service alone would charge.
OTR arms the company: protection (True Non-Recourse), fuel (Fuel Credit, no deposit), speed (BOLT, 24/7), and free broker credit checks so your first bad broker never happens. If your authority is already filed, this is the stronger package for surviving year one.
Bobtail simplifies the company: one published fee, one payment, nothing held back, leave anytime. For the carrier who wants the least financial complexity while learning everything else, simplicity is a feature with real value. Choose by where you are: pre-filing, pick Apex; filed and fragile, pick OTR; allergic to fine print, pick Bobtail.
Save every clean document from your first 90 days: rate cons, signed BOLs, zero-dispute settlements. That stack becomes your negotiation file at the six-month mark, when your rate stops needing to be a new-authority rate.
Every new authority running on broker payment terms is a factoring fit; the segment winners are the three companies that approve on day one without asking day one to look like year five. OTR protects the fragile year, Apex builds the company around it, Bobtail keeps it simple, and none of them locks you in while you figure out who you are. Start at the rankings, and read our cost-to-start breakdown before the first filing fee.
Yes, on day one: factors underwrite your brokers' credit, not your history. OTR, Apex, and Bobtail all approve new authorities with no operating history required.
OTR Solutions leads our 2026 rankings for new authorities: True Non-Recourse protection, no-deposit Fuel Credit, 24/7 funding, and month-to-month terms with no minimums.
OTR's Fuel Credit backs a fuel line with your factored receivables, no deposit or credit history required, at an average $0.51 a gallon off. Apex bundles its TCS card with the startup program.
No. Month-to-month options exist at the top of the market, and a business too young to predict month eight should not sign promises about it. See our contract red-flags guide.
Per Apex's published pricing, roughly $1,000 to $1,600 for full setup including LLC and filings, or from about $840 without the LLC, with factoring pre-approval included.
Every company on this page approves new authorities, so approval is not the differentiator: the fuel program, the startup help, and the exit terms are. Choose for week two, not day one.
A new authority does not need a factor that trusts its history. It needs one that makes history unnecessary.
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