SmartPay was designed to address a structural cash-flow problem in UK road freight, a market estimated at £39.3 billion annually. Standard payment terms in the sector run from 30 to 90 days, while average profitability margins for hauliers sit at around 2%. For the SMEs and sole traders that make up the bulk of the carrier base, that gap between delivery and payment is not merely an inconvenience: it determines whether they can fund fuel, pay drivers, or accept the next load.

Rather than routing carriers through a conventional credit application, SmartPay finances against the completed booking. Once an invoice is approved, funds clear in under four minutes on average, with remittance and reconciliation handled automatically. Carriers request early payment from the same dashboard they use to accept loads, so onboarding, identity verification and payment form a single workflow rather than separate processes.

TEG’s chief revenue officer Sam Wilkinson noted that speed alone is not the constraint: “You cannot safely pay a carrier faster unless you know who they are. The pain point is usually the admin around it, from onboarding a new carrier to verifying who they are and checking their bank details. Every SmartPay transaction runs through verification with TEG’s partner Trustd, so onboarding, verification and payment are part of the same workflow, and speed never comes at the expense of assurance.”

Payments are made on a non-recourse basis, meaning carriers are protected against late or unpaid invoices provided they complete the load and supply proof of delivery.

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