If your truck has spent its working life on California roads, have the California registration card and title together before you call, since those two papers answer most of what we ask first.
Among those carriers, the same FMCSA census shows 22 hauling general freight, 6 moving motor vehicles, 5 carrying garbage and refuse, and 5 handling household goods. A box truck from a moving outfit, a car hauler or a roll-off truck all fit what we buy; tell us which of those jobs yours did and send photos of the body as well as the cab.
Fourteen of the Pacifica carriers in FMCSA’s records are private fleets, hauling their own goods rather than freight for hire. If the truck belongs to a business rather than to you personally, have the name on the title match the person signing, or bring a letter from the company authorising the sale.
Small fleets, a handful of trucks each
The biggest fleets on file with FMCSA here run 4 power units with 4 drivers, 3 units with 2 drivers, and 2 units with 3 drivers. With fleets that size, the owner is usually the person who knows where every title is kept, so one call can cover a single truck or the whole set.
New registrations in Pacifica stood at 8 carriers in 2025 and 5 in 2024, according to FMCSA’s carrier census. If you started an operation recently and are now selling the truck, keep the purchase paperwork and the current registration with the title so the chain of ownership is easy to follow.
Of the 9 carriers that reported mileage to FMCSA, the median truck ran 15,000 miles a year. Write down the odometer reading when you send photos, and include the VIN plate, so we can match the truck to its records.
Whatever the model year, an inspection report from one of those roadside stops is useful to have on hand. Send it along with any service records you kept, and we can read the truck’s history alongside your photos.
Rail, fuel and aggregate on the bay side
North-east of town, the North American Rail Network places the South San Francisco Yard 5.4 miles away, and the Energy Information Administration lists a petroleum product terminal at Brisbane 7.3 miles out. A tractor or tanker that worked between those sites can stay parked where it is; give us the address and whoever holds the gate key.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration lists Pier 92 Marine Aggregate, a sand and gravel operation, 11 miles to the north-east. For a dump truck or mixer that hauled from that pier, photos of the bed or drum and the chassis plate help us see what it is before we arrange collection.
South along the coast, Pillar Point Space Force Station sits 7.5 miles from Pacifica on Bureau of Transportation Statistics maps. If the truck is parked near Half Moon Bay rather than in town, tell us the exact location and we plan the pickup there.
Piers and container ramps across the bay
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics puts Pier 80, the Port of San Francisco’s roll-on/roll-off terminal, 11.2 miles north-east, with San Francisco Port itself 12 miles north. A truck that ran out of those piers does not need to come back over the hill to Pacifica for us to collect it.
Further out, the Port of Oakland lies 14.9 miles away and the Ben E. Nutter Terminal rail intermodal ramp 15.7 miles away, each according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Drivers who pulled containers off those ramps should note the yard where the tractor is kept now and whether a trailer is still hooked to it.
Construction, flowers and short coastal roads
Construction accounts for 585 of the 5,444 jobs located in Pacifica in 2023, or 10.7 percent, under the Census Bureau’s LEHD job counts, and County Business Patterns lists 113 construction establishments. Contractors selling a flatbed, stake bed or dump truck should gather the title and any equipment manuals that came with the body.
Across San Mateo County, USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture counts 250 farms, led by potted flowering plants, mushrooms and foliage plants; a refrigerated or box truck from that nursery trade is one we would look at too.