The operation
A refinery running well below its own rated capacity
PBF Energy operates a refinery on the Carquinez Strait here, in Contra Costa County, rated at 157,000 barrels per day. It was damaged by fire on 1 February 2025 and has since run at reduced rates averaging 85,000 to 105,000 barrels per day; the company stated that rebuild activities were expected to extend into February with a return to planned operating rates by the beginning of March.
A plant running at roughly two thirds of its rate is not a plant with two thirds of the traffic. Turnaround and rebuild work brings in contractors, cranes, tankers and flatbeds that a steady-state refinery does not need, and it brings them in on a schedule that ends. Equipment bought for that kind of work tends to come up for sale when it finishes.
That name on the record is at least a decade out of date
That refinery is also a good illustration of why we check the operator rather than trust it. The row we hold names Shell Oil. The Shell refinery at Martinez was sold to Tesoro in 2016 and became Marathon Martinez, which ended petroleum refining in 2020 and has been converting to renewable fuels; PBF separately operates the Martinez refinery. Which of those assets this particular coordinate corresponds to we did not determine; it resolves into Contra Costa County and no further.
So we are telling you what the record says and what is wrong with it, rather than printing a company name that has not been right since 2016. It matters here more than it looks: a truck sold off refinery work is often sold because a contract with a named operator ended, and getting that name wrong is the quickest way to sound like we have never been near the place.
What runs here
Shore work and shift traffic, and towns with their own pages
So whatever you drive, the offer does not change — we buy all of them. Along this stretch of Contra Costa County that means tankers and day cabs on refinery and terminal work first, then flatbeds carrying pipe and plant, work trucks and service bodies on contract maintenance, box trucks on distribution, and pickups everywhere.
Pacheco and Vine Hill are next door, with Pleasant Hill and Concord south, Crockett and Rodeo west along the shore and Benicia across the strait; all of them carry pages of their own. It is the same form whichever one you start on.
California paperwork
No percentage, because the law does not have one
That same code book handles what damage does to a title, and California is unusual in how it does it. CVC § 544 defines a total loss salvage vehicle as one that the owner, a leasing company, a financial institution or an insurer considers uneconomical to repair, and which is consequently not repaired. There is no number in the law.
Most California insurers work to internal thresholds of somewhere around 70 to 75 percent of actual cash value. Those are company policies, not statute, and they must not be read as a legal threshold — the same damaged truck can brand in Kentucky, run a formula in Georgia, and be a judgement call here.
Advanced Clean Fleets is the other rule people ask about, and it is moving the other way. CARB voted on 25 September 2025 to repeal its drayage and high-priority fleet requirements, final action is due by 31 August 2026, and repeal is expected to take effect on 1 January 2027. CARB has agreed to take no enforcement action for conduct from 1 November 2023 until that final action, and the suspension is the operative fact today.
Questions we actually get
The four that come up every time
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. Along the shore we can come to you and drive it away, come to you and tow it, buy it remotely and arrange the tow, or you can drive it to us. Payment is cash or electronic payment.
Sell your truck in Martinez
Martinez, Pacheco, Vine Hill, Concord, Crockett and Rodeo — the towns along the strait. Tell us what you have and we will take it from there.
Sell My Truck