Chilled cargo
Cold loads leaving the Apalachicola waterfront
Of the 25 active carriers FMCSA’s carrier census lists in Apalachicola, five declare refrigerated food and five declare meat, beside seven hauling general freight. If yours is a tractor that has pulled a reefer, send a photo of the trailer’s unit plate with the cab shots and tell us whether the trailer is part of the sale.
Two of those Apalachicola carriers list machinery and large objects as cargo, according to the same FMCSA census. A lowboy tractor or a truck fitted with a winch should come with a note of what equipment is mounted on it, so the listing we work from matches what sits in your yard.
Twenty-one Apalachicola carriers never cross the state line
Twenty-one of the town’s carriers run intrastate only and four cross state lines, while fifteen operate as private fleets hauling their own goods, per FMCSA’s carrier census. A private-fleet truck is usually parked at the business it served; give us that street address and the name of whoever holds the keys.
Driver records filed with FMCSA put 31 drivers here on routes that stay inside a hundred-mile circle and 41 on longer runs. If the truck is out on a long route when you decide to sell, tell us where it will finish its last trip and we can meet it there instead of in town.
From one-truck owners to a twenty-unit operation
The three biggest Apalachicola registrations in FMCSA’s census run 20 power units with 16 drivers, 17 units with 21 drivers, and 7 units with 6 drivers. Selling several units at once is straightforward: list each VIN, where it is parked, and which ones share a title holder.
New entrants keep appearing in town as well, with FMCSA recording three new Apalachicola carriers in 2024 and two in 2025. A newer operation selling its first truck needs the same things as an older one: the title in the company’s name, current registration and a contact we can reach during the day.
Fifty trucks stopped at roadside, model year by model year
Between September 2024 and August 2026, inspectors checked 50 Apalachicola-registered trucks, and FMCSA roadside inspection records give them a median model year of 2016.5. Put the model year and the VIN in your first message; with those two lines we know which spec sheet to pull.
Nearly half of those Apalachicola trucks, 48 percent on the FMCSA roadside records, carried a model year a decade or more back. Whatever year yours is, send service invoices and any inspection reports you have kept along with the photos; they show the work the truck has done in Franklin County.
A rail yard west of town at Port St Joe
Nineteen point four miles west of town, the North American Rail Network maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics places a rail yard at Port St Joe. A truck that shuttles loads to that yard may be parked there or near it; we collect wherever it stands, so give us the lot and gate details.
Sellers who live in Apalachicola but keep a truck on the Gulf County side do not need to move it east first. Send the location, a photo showing how the truck can be reached, and whether a trailer is hitched to it.
Plants, builders, cattle
Builders, plants and cattle around the bay
Manufacturing held 90 of Apalachicola’s 1,421 jobs in 2023, a 6.3 percent slice by the Census Bureau’s LEHD job counts. Dump trucks and flatbeds that served plant work around town are trucks we purchase; note any body or bed fitted after the truck left the factory.
Sixteen construction firms operate around the bay on the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns; a contractor’s dump truck or flatbed can be collected straight from the job yard. Across Franklin County, USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture records 32 farms, with cattle the leading line, so livestock haulers and farm trucks parked out on a property are collected where they stand.
The questions we get asked in Apalachicola
- My title went missing; which Market Street office handles a duplicate?The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles issues titles through county tax collector service centers and license plate agents, and the Franklin County motor vehicle service center - Apalachicola sits at 33 Market St., Suite #202, about 0.7 miles from the town centre. Ask there for a duplicate before the sale, and bring your ID and the VIN.
- My reefer tractor sits by the rail yard at Port St Joe; must I drive it back over to Apalachicola first?Port St Joe’s rail yard is 19.4 miles west of town on the North American Rail Network, and we pick the truck up there. Name the person who runs that lot and we set the pickup with them directly.
- My Apalachicola business hauls its own goods; may I part with one tractor and keep the others?Fifteen of Apalachicola’s carriers on FMCSA’s census are private fleets, and selling a single unit out of one works the same as selling a whole truck: send that unit’s VIN, title and registration.