What 500+ Commercial Vehicle Customers Want from Your Shop

We asked 500+ commercial vehicle owners and operators about their payment habits, what they want from repair shops, and how it all influences where they take their business. Here’s what they said.

Key takeaways: Cash flow constraints are delaying both preventive maintenance and necessary repairs across heavy-duty shops. Demand for pay-over-time options is already high and increases among customers who delay work. Flexible payment options influence where customers choose to bring their business and how much they spend. Offering Buy Now Pay Later can help reduce delays and increase approved work.

Your customers have never been under more financial pressure. The cost of operating a commercial truck has climbed to record levels, and repair and maintenance expenses continue to rise.

What you might not know is how all of that is changing the way your customers think about paying for repairs.

We partnered with Stripe and went straight to the source: surveying commercial vehicle owners and operators to find out what they want when it comes to payment options, and how those preferences are shaping their behavior.

Let’s dive into what customers are saying, what it means for your repair shop, and how you can use these insights to create a competitive advantage.

Cash Flow Is Holding Up Critical Repairs

Here’s the number that should get your attention: 47% of all customers surveyed have delayed preventive or emergency maintenance at least occasionally.

For many of them, it’s not that they don’t want the work done — it’s that the timing doesn’t line up with their cash flow. In the survey, 31% said they delay repairs specifically because of cash flow constraints.

Think about what that means for your shop. Work gets put on hold — or never comes in at all — because a customer can’t cover the cost that day. Maintenance gets pushed. Repairs stack up. Vehicles stay on the road longer than they should, or sit in a lot longer than planned, and uptime starts to take a hit. None of that is good for their business. And it’s definitely not good for yours.

Demand For Buy Now Pay Later Is High

So what do customers want? Flexibility.

More than half (58%) of surveyed customers said they’re interested in paying over time. And

61% said they would likely use a pay-over-time option if it were offered. 

Among the 47% who have had to delay maintenance? The demand gets even louder: 77% said they’re interested in pay-over-time, and 79% said they’d likely use it. These aren’t tire-kickers. These are customers who want the work done and are telling you exactly what would help them say yes.

Most customers said they’d consider financing repairs in the $2,500 to $9,999 range — which, if you’ve been in heavy-duty repair for more than about five minutes, you know is squarely in the sweet spot for major work.

The types of repairs customers are most likely to use pay-over-time for? Major engine repairs (61%), emergency breakdowns (43%), and transmission work (40%). In other words, the big, urgent, can’t-wait jobs where cost is most likely to become a barrier.

Flexible Payments Are A Competitive Advantage For Shop Owners

Now here’s where it gets really interesting for shop owners.

65% of customers said they would choose a repair shop based on whether it offers flexible payment options.

Read that again. Nearly two-thirds of your potential customers are factoring how they can pay into where they bring their truck. 

It doesn’t stop at winning customers, either. Offering flexible payment options also increases how much customers are willing to spend: 60% said they’d spend more if those options were available, and 30% said they’d spend significantly more. 

That’s your average ticket going up — and you don’t even have to upsell harder, you just have to remove the barrier holding customers back.

For the 47% who’ve delayed maintenance in the past, the numbers are even more dramatic: 82% said flexible payments would influence which shop they choose, and 80% said they’d increase their spending.

This tracks with what we see across the industry. When customers don’t have to come up with the full cost of a brake job upfront, they’re more open to getting the brake job and everything else that needs doing. Suddenly you’re handling brakes, headlights, and some bodywork PMs, too. 

Most Shops Leave That Opportunity On The Table

Despite the enormous demand, most repair shops haven’t caught on yet.

Only 30% of customers report that their repair shop lets them use a payment plan. And just 13% say they can pay with third-party financing.

That’s a massive gap between what customers want and what shops are offering. And gaps like that? They’re opportunities for the shops that move first.

So What Does All Of This Mean For Your Shop?

Pay-over-time helps customers say yes to critical repairs and PMs without delaying the work. When customers have a way to manage larger costs, fewer jobs stall at the approval stage. Work moves forward more consistently. Fewer vehicles sit waiting on a decision.

That changes two things: where customers choose to bring their business, and how much work they approve when they get there. Both of those matter to your bottom line and to keeping your own shop’s cash flow healthy and predictable.

With Buy Now Pay Later, your customers can pay over time while you get paid upfront — without taking on any financial risk. No chasing invoices. No wondering if the check is in the mail. No awkward “just circling back on that balance” calls. 

If you want a deeper dive into how Buy Now Pay Later works in heavy-duty repair — we’ve got a full guide for that.

How Fullbay Payments Can Help

Fullbay Payments, powered by Stripe, helps your shop get paid faster and turn payments into a revenue driver — all built directly into Fullbay’s repair and invoicing workflow.

Give your customers the flexibility to pay however works best for them — credit card, eCheck, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, and Buy Now Pay Later. 

Ready to make payments work for your shop? 

Check out our free demo and see how Fullbay Payments can help your shop grow.