We buy trucks in Calexico

Union Pacific’s yard here sits on the Mexican border opposite Mexicali, and the Ferromex Calexico Subdivision runs south from it. That is an unusual thing for a small city to hold: an interchange point between two national rail systems.

Rail volumes at the yard were not determined, so this page puts no figure on what crosses Imperial County into Mexico. What is not in doubt is that a border crossing concentrates road traffic around it in a way an inland town of the same size never sees.

Those two sides do different work. The Imperial Valley is a principal winter-vegetable region irrigated from the Colorado River, so the northern side of that line runs on produce moving out on a clock.

Mexicali on the southern side is a maquiladora city, which is a manufacturing economy rather than an agricultural one. A truck working here may have spent its life on either pattern, and they are not the same pattern at all.

So whatever you drive, the offer does not change — we buy all of them. Winter vegetables put farm trucks and refrigerated trailers on these roads on a tight schedule; the crossing puts day cabs and road tractors in queues; distribution adds box trucks and straight trucks.

Dump trucks work the Colorado River canal system and the construction side, and pickups are everywhere. El Centro, Brawley and Holtville carry pages of their own, and heat is the thing the Imperial Valley does to a truck that most places do not.

That is state law rather than anything local, and it is the rule truck sellers misquote most often. CVC sections 35550 to 35558 set a statutory range of 34,000 to 80,000 lb by axle count and spacing, and § 35551(a) is a table rather than the federal Bridge Formula — no formula is declared in the statute at all.

The California table does not exactly match the Federal Bridge Table, including at three and four axles. So a configuration that is legal under one can be over under the other, and “it makes bridge formula” is a claim about which table you mean. If someone has told you your truck makes it, that is worth knowing before you repeat it.

Does it have to run? No. But we buy complete trucks — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. A missing bumper is nothing.

Do I need the title? We need a title, unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. If it is lost, that is a replacement through the DMV and we will walk you through it. If there is a lien on it, say so on the form — that is why the question asks whether the title is in hand rather than whether you own the truck, because those are different situations and they go different ways.

What if it has been in a wreck? Tell us what happened and we will look at it as it is. California sets no percentage: CVC § 544 makes it a judgement about whether repair is economical, so nothing is decided by a formula before we have seen the truck.

How does it get collected, and how am I paid? There is no clock on any of this. We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, we buy it remotely and arrange the tow, or you drive it to us. Payment is cash or electronic payment.