We buy trucks in Lincoln

Close in there are five things and no quarries at all. A yard about 2 miles west, an ADM Milling plant about 2.2 miles south-west, a second yard about 3.7 miles west, and a Guard aviation support facility and airfield about 4.5 miles north-west. Grain in, grain out, and no stone whatsoever inside 20 miles.

The first of those yards is a small warning about reading records. Its name carries a parenthetical naming one railroad while its carrier field reads another — a known shape where one rail location is recorded once per using carrier. Here only one of the pair exists, so the parenthetical stands against the field with nothing to pair it to. The commodities handled at either yard could not be determined from any source read for the research.

Those five places account for almost none of the industrial workforce around here, which sits in a cluster to the east and north-east. The Kerford Limestone Company at Weeping Water is about 26 miles east with 72 people. The Weeping Water Mine is about 29 miles east with 95. The Louisville cement plant, quarry and mill about 31 miles north-east has 111. Three sites, 278 people between them, all in one corner.

Around that corner the smaller operations fill in: a Wann plant about 23 miles west with 4, a Sand Creek pit about 27 miles north-east with 8, Gretna Bottoms about 28 miles with 10, Louisville West about 30 miles with 5, and West Center Sand about 35 miles north-east with 14. A Grain Craft mill sits about 19 miles south-west at Crete, and Camp Ashland and the Mead sites are 26 to 29 miles north-east.

Running grain into that pattern meets a rule that bounds the harvest allowance by DISTANCE. A vehicle carrying grain or other seasonally harvested products may exceed the ordinary limits by 15 per cent on any tandem axle, on any group of axles and on gross weight — but only on defined journeys, and only up to 70 miles. From the field where the crop is harvested to storage, market or a stockpile in the field; or from a stockpile or farm storage to market or factory.

That bounds the allowance by the journey rather than by a date. Inside 70 miles and on one of those journeys it needs no permit at all; beyond that a permit runs at $25 for each 30-day period, renewable up to four times. Underneath it the gross-weight table reaches 95,000 lb at a group of seven consecutive axles spanning 60 feet, and caps any group of two or more axles at 80,000 lb on the interstate unless the Director-State Engineer authorises more. That is not an inversion: the federal record puts Nebraska at 95,000 lb on the Interstate System as well, for a truck tractor and two trailing units, with a state weight permit required above 80,000 lb.

Harvest allowance at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,301(5); gross-weight table at § 60-6,294(3), with the Interstate System figure at 23 CFR 658 appendix C. Information, not legal advice.

Beyond that rule the paperwork is 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 neither changes with the drive — the file is the same at the ADM Milling plant 2 miles out, at the Kerford Limestone Company 26 miles east, and at the Louisville cement works 31 miles north-east.

The state rule worth knowing is the age window, because it decides whether a brand can apply at all. A salvage vehicle here is a late model vehicle whose estimated repair cost exceeds 75 per cent of the retail value at the time of the damage, and late model means the model year is the year it was wrecked or any of the six preceding years. A truck older than that window falls outside the definition. Retail value may also be set by a market survey of comparable vehicles rather than only from a pricing guide, so the base is not tied to a single book.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-146 (inspection) and the salvage and late-model provisions, via the node fact bundle. Information, not legal advice.

The middle and the eastern corner run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Grain hauls and farm trucks off the country and the mill gates. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers on the runs east to the Kerford Limestone and Louisville operations. Day cabs and road tractors on the yard work, mixers off the cement plant, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works either inside about 5 miles or out at 25 to 35 — the Kerford Limestone Company at 26 miles, the Weeping Water Mine at 29, the Louisville plant at 31 — and there is very little in between.

• 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 to Lancaster County?Yes. We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, we buy it remotely and arrange the tow, or you drive it to us. The close work is inside about 5 miles and the Weeping Water and Louisville end of it is 26 to 31.
• 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.
• My truck is a 2005. Can it even be branded salvage here?Not under the ordinary test. The definition applies to a late model vehicle, meaning the model year is the year it was damaged or one of the six preceding years, so an older truck falls outside it. Tell us what the title actually says and we will read it with you.

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

The lots around the two yards west of town, and the farmyards out toward Crete 19 miles south-west and the Kerford Limestone Company 26 miles east, hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position.

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.