The numbers
As stated by the listing on September 6, 2026.
- Asking price
- $695,000
- SDE
- $441,771
- Gross revenue
- $975,000
- Multiple
- 1.57x
- Established
- 2018
- Employees
- 1
Why we like it
Diesel equipment on a construction site, a marina, or a bank of standby generators cannot leave to find a gas station, and a delivery fleet that sends its trucks off route to refuel loses paid driving hours doing it. That gap is what this business fills: a tanker drives to wherever the equipment sits and fuels it in place, usually overnight or before a shift starts, so the customer's own trucks and machines are never idle waiting on fuel. Operating out of Pittsburgh with a single employee, this company is either running on the owner's own driving or covering its routes with unusually tight scheduling for one person, and either way the day to day work is a driver behind the wheel of a fuel truck, not an office running a team. Because the company is reselling a commodity, the question to settle before anything else is how it prices customers: a fixed markup per gallon protects the margin when wholesale diesel spikes, a fixed retail price does not, and that distinction decides whether the cash flow shown today survives the next run-up in fuel costs. The way a business like this actually grows is not by adding customers one at a time but by adding trucks, since a second tanker on a second night route can add a full route's worth of gallons without doubling the work behind the desk.
You probably need a licence to run this
Driving the delivery tanker legally requires a commercial driver's license with hazardous materials and tanker endorsements, which means a TSA background check, and the company itself needs DOT/FMCSA hazmat registration and a Pennsylvania fuel distributor or supplier permit. None of that transfers to a new owner personally. With only one employee on the books, it is worth finding out plainly whether the seller is the one holding that CDL and driving today, because if so the buyer either needs the endorsement themselves or needs to hire a qualified driver before closing, not after.
What worries us
- Owner or single-employee dependence on drivingWith only one employee, the day to day delivery work likely rests on the owner personally driving the truck, so the sale may effectively be selling a driving job as much as a company, and the buyer needs to know who drives tomorrow if the seller leaves.
- Fuel price and margin exposureAs a reseller of diesel, the business's margin depends on how its contracts are priced against wholesale fuel costs, and a run-up in fuel prices can compress the SDE the seller is showing even if delivered gallons stay flat.
- Customer concentration in a project-driven customer baseConstruction and fleet accounts can end when a job finishes or a contract is rebid, and the listing does not show how much of the $975,000 in revenue sits with a small number of customers.
The callGood fit for a hands-on buyer willing to hold or hire a hazmat-endorsed CDL driver; wrong fit for someone who wants a passive, desk-only ownership role.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $657,581 |
| Seller standby note | $36,533 |
| Buyer cash at close | $36,532 |
| Total sources | $730,646 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $695,000 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $20,850 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $14,796 |
| Total project | $730,646 |
- Monthly payment
- $8,419
- Annual debt service
- $101,030
- DSCR
- 3.04xSTRONG
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($73,065 against $73,065 required)
- Closing costs estimated at 3% of asking price
- Owner salary of $120,000, loaded
- Rate of Prime + 2.25% = 9.25%
- 10-year term, fully amortizing
- Injection split half cash, half seller standby note
How we would go about buying it
The order matters. Every step below is free until the last one, and each is a chance to walk away before it costs you anything.
- 1
Call the broker, not the bank
The listing is brokered, so the broker is the gate. Ask for the CIM and the last three years of tax returns, and expect to sign an NDA first. Do this before you talk to a lender: no lender will size a loan without the numbers, and the broker will not release them to a lender you have not engaged.
Open the listing - 2
Ask these before you spend anything
Specific to this business, from our read of the listing. The answers decide whether the numbers above survive contact.
- Who currently holds the CDL with hazardous materials and tanker endorsements and physically drives the delivery truck: the seller, or a separate employee who would stay on?
- What is the customer mix by segment (construction equipment, fleet refueling, marine, standby generators) and what share of revenue comes from the largest three accounts?
- How is fuel priced to customers: a fixed markup per gallon over wholesale cost, or a fixed retail price, and how often is that pricing revisited?
- How many trucks does the business operate, what is each one's age and DOT inspection history, and is there spare route capacity or is the fleet already running full nights?
- What permits and registrations does the business hold (PA motor fuel distributor or supplier license, DOT/FMCSA hazmat registration, environmental/spill insurance) and which of them transfer to a new owner versus need to be reapplied for?
- 3
Take it to lenders who do this size
Talk to more than one. Rate is the least of it: the lender who has done fifty of these in Pennsylvania will close, and the one who has done two will waste your quarter. Below are the lenders whose typical deal size actually fits this one.
- 4
Structure the offer around the coverage
Our structure clears the floor at 3.04x, and a lender will run its own version with its own add-backs. If the earnings come back lower than stated, the price has to come down or the seller note has to grow. Model both before you make an offer.
Model it yourself
Who we would call
Active Pennsylvania acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Live Oak Banking Company
44 loans in PAmedian $712,500median rate 9.00%~20 days to first disbursement
- Beacon Bank and Trust
28 loans in PAmedian $1,267,500median rate 9.50%~25 days to first disbursement
- Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB
27 loans in PAmedian $700,000median rate 9.25%~51 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in Pennsylvania, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3. Funding speed is the lender’s national median from approval to first disbursement. Names link to our data profile for each lender.
The fine print
The statements this write-up makes about the trade and its rules, as opposed to the figures, were checked against public sources on September 3, 2026. 8 claims were checked.
Run your own numbers
The deal analyzer models price, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SBA terms, with every assumption adjustable.
Open the deal analyzerListing facts as stated by the listing on September 6, 2026, not independently verified. Structure, payment, DSCR, and injection figures are our own computation under the assumptions above, using the Prime rate as of September 28, 2026. Lender shortlist from the SBA 7(a) FOIA file, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3, as of June 30, 2026. Methodology. See an error? Email us and we will correct it.