Lakefront freight
The Northern Indiana port district, 4.3 miles east
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics places the Northern Indiana District port 4.3 miles east of South Haven. A tractor that has shuttled between those docks and Porter County yards is often parked close to the water when its owner decides to sell, so give us the lot address and the name of whoever holds the gate key.
Port work tends to leave a trail of gate passes and dispatch slips. Keep any of that you still have in the cab folder with the title; it shows us what the truck pulled and where, and we can read it alongside your photos.
Burns Harbor to the north, Kirk to the west
Burns Harbor, a rail yard listed by the North American Rail Network maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, lies 5.7 miles north of town. The Kirk yard, 12.9 miles to the west, appears in the North American Rail Network as well. Day cabs that dray loads between those two yards and nearby customers are a regular fit for us.
If your rig has spent its working life on short hops out of Burns Harbor, photograph the fifth wheel, the frame rails and the tires along with the interior. Pair those shots with the VIN and the current odometer reading, and we can start from facts rather than guesses.
Quarries at Portage and on the eastern side
Seven miles north, the Mine Safety and Health Administration lists the Portage Operation as a crushed-stone quarry. Eight miles east sits a sand and gravel operation the same agency records as No 1, and farther west, at 15.5 miles, MSHA has the Buffington Plant, another crushed-stone site.
Dump trucks and end-dump tractors that haul aggregate out of pits like these usually stay parked near the site or at the owner’s home between jobs. Tell us which of those two places applies to yours and whether a loaded trailer is still hooked up, so the collection is planned around it.
Quarry trucks often carry their own records from the mine operator, such as site access cards or workplace inspection forms. Bring along whatever you kept; if there is nothing, describe the hauls and we will ask the rest.
Fuel racks sixteen miles west at Griffith and East Chicago
Two petroleum product terminals recorded by the Energy Information Administration sit west of South Haven: Griffith at 16 miles and East Chicago at 16.8 miles. Tank tractors that run fuel loads from those racks are among the trucks we purchase.
For a tanker tractor, send the registration and any hazmat endorsement paperwork tied to the unit along with your photos, and say whether the tank trailer goes with it or stays behind. That one detail changes what we arrange on collection day.
Grain fields, cattle pens and local payrolls
According to USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, Porter County holds 462 farms, with corn, soybeans and cattle as its leading products. Grain trucks, livestock haulers and farm-plated straight trucks from those operations are welcome here too, even if they only see the road at harvest.
The Census Bureau’s LEHD job counts put 439 jobs inside South Haven itself in 2023. A truck owned by one of those local employers may be titled to the business rather than to a person, so check whose name is on the title before you reach out, and have the signer ready.
The questions we get asked in South Haven
- Our end-dump sits at the Portage stone pit; can you collect it on site rather than in town?The Portage Operation, which the Mine Safety and Health Administration lists 7 miles north of town, is close enough that we collect from the site itself. Tell us who controls access there so the visit is cleared with them first.
- Will you take a grain hauler that only comes out for the Porter County harvest?Porter County’s 462 farms, counted in USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, run largely on corn, soybeans and cattle, and grain and livestock trucks from them are ones we take. Keep the farm plate registration and the signed-off title together before you call.
- My drayage tractor ran boxes out of Burns Harbor yard; which details open the conversation?Burns Harbor sits 5.7 miles north according to the North American Rail Network, and for a drayage tractor from there we start with the VIN, the odometer reading and clear photos of the frame and fifth wheel.