The specs
RTS FinancialApex Capital
Product typeMulti-productMulti-product
Amount range$500 – $5M+ in invoices factored (no hard cap)$500 – $5M+ in invoices factored (no hard cap; volume-based pricing)
Cost (factor / APR)Factor rate 1.5 – 4% of invoice value (volume-tiered)Factor rate 1.5 – 5% of invoice value (non-recourse default; volume-tiered)
Speed to fundSame-day funding on verified invoicesSame-day funding on verified invoices; in-cab minute-level pay via Blynk app
Min time in business0 months0 months
Min monthly revenueVolume-based; accepts new-authority MC carriersVolume-based (typically $5K+/mo factored); welcomes new-authority MC carriers
Min credit scoreNo FICO floor — underwrites against broker / shipper creditNo FICO floor — underwrites against broker / shipper credit
Products
- Freight factoring (recourse + non-recourse)
- RTS Fuel card
- ProTransport TMS software
- Equipment financing referrals
- Non-recourse freight factoring (standard)
- Apex Fuel card with TA/Petro discounts
- Blynk app for instant in-cab pay
- Equipment financing referrals
Verdicts by use case
- Mid-size fleet (10 – 50 trucks) wanting integrated TMS — Winner: RTS Financial. RTS Financial bundles factoring + RTS Fuel + ProTransport TMS — a meaningful operations stack for fleets at 10+ trucks managing dispatch, settlement, and IFTA. Apex doesn't bundle a TMS at the same depth. For multi-truck operations the ProTransport integration alone saves 4 – 10 hours/week of admin.
- Owner-operator (1 – 3 trucks) with broker default risk — Winner: Apex Capital. Apex's standard non-recourse factoring protects the carrier from broker default — a critical product feature for owner-operators hauling for new or unverified brokers. RTS offers non-recourse but at meaningfully higher pricing than recourse; Apex's non-recourse pricing is closer to RTS's recourse rate, so the protection comes cheaper at Apex on small books.
- Lowest factor rate on $100K+/mo factored volume — Winner: RTS Financial. At $100K+/mo, RTS's volume-tier pricing compresses to 1.5 – 2% (recourse), which is among the lowest in the industry. Apex non-recourse at the same volume typically lands 2 – 2.5%. For high-volume fleets with controlled broker concentration, RTS is materially cheaper at scale.
- Most owner-operator-friendly onboarding and service — Winner: Apex Capital. Apex is widely cited as the most owner-operator-friendly trucking factor — dedicated account manager from day one, transparent fee schedule, fast invoice verification. RTS service quality is solid but tilts toward mid-size fleet relationships; smallest single-truck accounts can feel deprioritized.
- Mobile workflow for in-cab cash availability — Winner: Apex Capital. Apex's Blynk app pushes funds to a carrier debit card within minutes of invoice verification, allowing in-cab fuel and repair purchases the same hour. RTS uses standard same-day ACH which posts in 4 – 8 hours typically. Blynk is the better workflow for solo drivers without a back-office.
The honest takeaway
RTS Financial and Apex Capital solve overlapping but distinct problems. The right choice depends on three things you already know about your business: how fast you need the money, how long you've been operating, and whether the capital need is one-time or recurring.
Frequently asked questions
- Should a 5-truck fleet pick RTS or Apex?
- If broker concentration is high (1 – 2 brokers cover 70%+ of revenue), RTS recourse at the lower factor rate is cheaper. If broker concentration is spread (5+ brokers, frequent new-broker loads), Apex non-recourse pays for itself in default protection. At 5 trucks you're at the inflection point — get both quotes and compare effective monthly cost including ancillary fees and the value of either ProTransport TMS (RTS) or Blynk instant pay (Apex).
- Is ProTransport TMS worth the RTS bundle premium for a 3-truck fleet?
- Usually no. ProTransport's value compounds with truck count — dispatch, settlement, IFTA reporting savings scale linearly with fleet size. At 3 trucks the manual workload is small enough that a $50/mo standalone TMS (or even spreadsheets) is fine. ProTransport starts paying for itself at 8 – 12 trucks. For sub-5-truck fleets pick on factoring service quality and rate, not TMS bundle.
- Can I run RTS factoring with a non-RTS fuel card?
- Yes — both RTS and Apex allow third-party fuel cards (EFS, Comdata, etc.) instead of their proprietary cards. You may lose the bundled discount but you can pick the fuel card with the best discount on your typical truck stop network. Always model fuel card discounts as $/gallon at your top 5 fuel stops rather than headline percentage discount.