Remember LoadPay? It was initially pitched to owner-operators way back in 2016 by Truckstop.com (as the company was then known -- it's since dropped the .com from the central company name). It's mobile/digital banking, essentially, and offered at initial launch opportunity for quicker payment for owner-operators from brokers set up within it without involvement of a factoring company.
A few years after LoadPay rebranded as Truckstop Pay, though, and a few more years on, a company perhaps best known for its factoring business, Triumph Financial, bought it from the load board stalwart.
Current LoadPay President David Vielehr noted the company announced the acquisition in 2023 -- Truckstop Pay, Vielehr said, "nominally competed with our payments solution," TriumphPay, as more and more brokers embraced mobile payments to their carrier service providers. The acquisition delivered Truckstop Pay's customers to Triumph -- it also delivered the rights to the old name, LoadPay.
"As we have developed our wallet," the digital banking solution, Vielehr said, "we made the intentional decision to brand it independently from Triumph for various reasons, and the LoadPay name proved a natural fit."
This latest incarnation of LoadPay was "built specifically for owner-operators and carriers," Vielehr said. With the application architecture it runs on, built-in connections to TriumphPay mean "as soon as an owner-operator or small carrier opens a LoadPay bank account, they will get paid faster by the more than 400 brokers and 60 factoring companies that use TriumphPay."
[Related: Brokers embracing mobile-payment platforms]
Generally speaking, LoadPay itself free to use for owner-operators -- money transfers to bank accounts via ACH are free, for instance, likewise use of the LoadPay-branded MasterCard business debit card, Vielehr said.
The LoadPay card is a direct-debit card for use of funds from owner-operator's LoadPay account. Find the service website via this link.Triumph
Instant transfers to a bank account, if that's a need for any carrier using the system, come with a "nominal fee for significantly less than a bank wire," and other digital wallets, he added.
Know that you'll stilll pay any broker's quick-pay fee and/or factoring fees if that's how you're utilizing the wallet -- those fees will vary company to company and sometimes by how quickly you want the payment. Or the cash advance, as the case may now be.
C.H. Robinson Wednesday announced a new option for owner-operators set up with them for advances through LoadPay: the ability to access "up to 60% of their load payments instantly at pickup," the company said in a press release, the advance money deposited "directly into their all-digital LoadPay bank accounts."
It's certainly not recommended for trucking business owners to get into the habit of operating on advance cash, a practice some new to business bring over from settlement advances they relied on as a company driver. (From the Starting Line section of Overdrive's Partners in Business start-to-finish resource for owner-operator careers: Irrespective of the fees that come with advances, "frequent, unwise use of cash advances can make it difficult to get a true picture of where your money is going. ... Work toward using your business operating account, not cash advances, to manage your cash flow.") Yet the option is there for those who might find themselves in a cash-flow bind, also not uncommon for myriad small business owners.
As with factoring and/or quick-pay fees, though, advances will cost you. In C.H. Robinson's case, fees are 3% of the amount of the advance or a minimum of $15, according to a spokesperson, whether exercised through LoadPay or more traditional means.
[Related: Managing the trucking money: Best practices for healthy cash flow]
Robinson said it was the first broker to launch Triumph's new LoadPay system within its network, this past January. As for the new 60% advance at pickup option, in addition to basic convenience, the advantage is in earlier availability of funds "right at pickup" at the shipper, said a C.H. Robinson spokesperson. "These funds can be used immediately to cover operational expenses such as fuel, maintenance, food and lodging." Monies disbursed through a quick pay and/or factoring, the spokesperson added, "are available only after the load has been delivered."
How's in work? For those of you hauling in C.H. Robinson's network and set up with a LoadPay account, you'll need to use the broker's Navisphere Carrier app and/or web portal, book a load, then once you've picked up the load request a cash advance and select LoadPay there in the app/portal.
Triumph Financial rebrand
In related news, on June 3, Triumph Financial rebranded under the shortened Triumph name, to essentially bow to the shorthand their myriad customers already used for them. The move brought together all of Triumph's transportation-focused brands -- TriumphPay, Triumph Factoring, ISO and Triumph Financial -- under a single brand name.
“While we’ve operated under multiple brand names, the industry has long referred to us simply as Triumph,” said Aaron P. Graft, Triumph CEO. The rebrand, he noted, also "reflects our corporate strategy to simplify the way we serve our customers.”
With the rebranding, the company launched a new website at Triumph.io. Customers of various services can use the main hub there simply by visiting the site and logging in. A new central support line comes with the site, too, at 833-224-2114.
The company envisioned a "more connected experience across Triumph’s products and platforms" for the coming months for the shippers, brokers, factoring companies and carriers it serves. A recent acquisition -- of the Greenscreens.ai freight-pricing tool -- will fold into the Triumph Intelligence product later this year, the company said.
[Related: Pricing transparency, contract terms and much more to consider in factoring arrangements]
