We buy trucks in Pocatello

Two yards run this place and they do different jobs. Both are Union Pacific and they sit 2.98 miles apart: the main yard about 1.25 miles south-east of the middle of town does classification, and the storage yard about 1.75 miles north-west holds cars. They are recorded as two facilities on the strength of those functions rather than on the gap between them, which is the honest reason — three miles is not far enough to settle it on its own.

What the commodities moving through either yard actually are could not be established from any source read for the research batch, so nothing is claimed about them. What is on the ground around them is gravel: the Idaho Materials and Construction screening plant about 3.5 miles north-west, a Suncore Construction and Materials crusher and wash plant about 5 miles out, and a Mickelsen Construction pit about 6 miles. Two, two and five people respectively. Small outfits, close in.

Those pits are the near work. Past them the map empties out fast. The nearest flour mill is the Grain Craft plant about 23 miles north at Groveland; a TMC Contractors pit sits about 27 miles north-east at Firth; and the Bayer Quartzite Quarry at Soda Springs is about 44 miles east. Four fixed operations, and the furthest is most of an hour away.

So a truck here is doing real distance between stops rather than shuttling inside a city. That changes what wears out and it changes what a seller should expect from us: on a run like this, buying it remotely and arranging the tow is often the straightforward answer rather than the fallback.

Those distances make the road choice a real decision, and here the arithmetic is not marginal. Idaho Code § 49-1001 sets a maximum gross vehicle or combination weight of 105,500 lb — and limits US interstate and defense highways to 80,000 lb. That is a 25,500 lb gap for getting on the faster road. Section 49-1004 then runs the other way, with an annual special route permit for at least 105,501 lb and up to 129,000 lb on designated routes.

And the routes are not all decided in one place. Under § 49-1004 routes on nonstate and noninterstate highways are determined by the local authority for the roads under its jurisdiction, so whether a given lane carries a heavy permit load is partly a county-level question and cannot be answered from a state figure alone. Get on the interstate is the wrong instinct for a heavy load here.

Idaho Code §§ 49-1001 and 49-1004, via docs/state-rules/idaho.md. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

Beyond the weight rules that is the whole of it in one sentence, and everything after it is a fix rather than a category. A counter replacement if the title is lost. A bonded route if the truck is old enough that it never had one. Neither stops a sale, and none of it changes with where the truck is standing — the paperwork is identical for one parked at a Mickelsen Construction pit 6 miles out and one sitting at the Bayer Quartzite Quarry 44 miles east at Soda Springs.

On salvage and rebuilt titling this state is a blank in our files, and it is written as a blank on purpose. The research for it returned only national explainers of what a salvage title is in general, and a national explainer is not this state’s law however right it looks. So no threshold, no branding rule and no inspection requirement is stated here. If that is your situation, ask us and we will find the answer for your truck rather than guess at it on a page.

Idaho salvage rules recorded as not determined in docs/state-rules/idaho.md. Information, not legal advice.

Those two worlds run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the pits north-west of town. Day cabs and road tractors on the yard work and the long legs out to Soda Springs. Grain hauls and farm trucks up the valley toward Groveland, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works out of a short list of places — the two Union Pacific yards, the three gravel pits inside 6 miles, and the road north.

• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete, though — 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 fine. A missing driveline is not.
• Do you actually come out this far?Often we don’t need to. We buy it remotely and arrange the tow, and on a road like this — 23 miles to the nearest mill at Groveland, 44 miles east to Soda Springs — that is frequently the straightforward answer rather than the last resort. We also come to you and drive it away, come to you and tow it, or you drive it to us. All four are real, and the distance decides which is sensible, not whether we are interested.
• What if I can’t find the title?We need a title — unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. If it’s lost, there’s a counter replacement. If there was never one to lose, there’s a bonded route. Neither stops a sale.
• There’s still money owed on it. Now what?That’s a payoff and a lien release, and it’s the slow part rather than the hard part. Tell us up front and we’ll work it into the paperwork.
• How do you pay?Cash or electronic payment, whichever you would rather have.
• Mine has a salvage or rebuilt title. Is that a problem?Tell us and we’ll check it properly. We hold no verified rule for this state on salvage branding, so we are not going to quote you one off a page — we’d rather look it up against your actual title than repeat something generic.
• How far out do you come?All of Bannock County and a long way past it — north up the valley to Groveland and Firth, and east to the Bayer Quartzite Quarry at Soda Springs. Distance has not stopped us yet.

Beyond the trucks themselves, the reasons repeat. A DOT physical didn’t go the way it used to. A gravel contract that filled the season for nine years went to somebody else. The truck is just sitting beside a shop, and every month it sits is another month of insurance on something that isn’t turning a wheel.

The yards along the Union Pacific line and the lots behind the pits toward the Bannock County line hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position — 3 to 6 miles out, and nobody driving past them.

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.