We buy trucks in West Little River

The row filed here is the CSX Transportation side of a pair of yards that share a name, and it is the one that also carries the South Florida Rail Corridor — Tri-Rail. That makes it the second passenger operator to turn up anywhere in the freight-yard rows of this state, after SunRail up in the middle of the peninsula.

It is attached to West Little River at 1.37 miles from the centre of the place, and it is one of three rail rows our file holds in this county. A yard that carries commuter traffic as well as freight is a different working environment from one that does not, and it is worth knowing which one a truck has been running into.

So here is the other half of it. The second row carrying this yard name belongs to a different carrier, the Florida East Coast, and is filed over at Virginia Gardens. Two carriers, two facilities, one place name — and neither of them filed under the town they are named for, which holds a page of its own.

We say that on both pages rather than on neither, because a seller who finds one of them and assumes it is the other has the wrong yard, the wrong carrier and the wrong side of the county.

Which leaves the rule that applies to the truck whichever yard it ran into, and unlike the yards it is unambiguous.

Florida allows 80,000 lb gross including all enforcement tolerances and 20,000 lb on a single axle, and holds a single-unit vehicle used as a dump truck, a concrete mixer, a waste collection vehicle or a fuel tanker to 70,000 lb instead. FDOT may permit ten per cent over legal gross off the interstate highway system only, and that permit does not reach the single-unit class.

Fla. Stat. § 316.535, subsections (1), (5) and (6), with § 316.550(4). Information, not legal advice.

Those stop mattering the day the truck changes hands. We need a title unless the truck is old enough that it never had one; a lost one has a counter replacement; where neither exists there is a bonded route.

The plate does not travel with the vehicle. Florida issues the registration, the plate and the certificate of registration to the owner and requires them to stay in the owner’s name, and transferring a plate to another person is not permitted. It comes off and goes onto another vehicle of the same class, or back to the county tax collector.

Fla. Stat. § 320.0609(1)(a). Information, not legal advice.

All of it is iron we buy across Miami-Dade County and out toward Kendall West. Day cabs and road tractors off the yard end of the work. Box trucks and straight trucks off route work. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers held to 70,000 lb where a combination gets 80,000 lb, flatbeds, tankers, rollbacks, service bodies and the pickups that go with a small crew.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.

• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Rust is not a disqualifier.
• The engine is out of it. Is that different?Yes, and that is the line. A tired engine is fine; an engine that has been pulled out and sold means we can’t buy the truck.
• The truck ran into the yard every day. Does that count against it?No. Yard work is hours rather than miles and it shows up as wear the odometer does not explain. Tell us and it makes the picture clearer, not worse.
• Is this the same yard as the other one with this name?No. This is the CSX Transportation side, which also carries Tri-Rail. The other is a Florida East Coast yard filed under Virginia Gardens, under a different carrier.
• What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there’s a bonded route.
• How do you pay?Cash or electronic payment, whichever suits you.

Beyond a truck that has simply done its turns, the reasons are personal ones. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. Work off the yard end in Miami-Dade County that stopped and left one day cab standing 1.37 miles from the middle of the place, with nothing booked for it.

Most of those aren’t happy reasons, and we don’t treat them like they are. Somebody wants a straight answer and the truck gone by the end of the week. That’s what we’re here for.