We buy trucks in Omaha

The freight here is not spread around the city, it is stacked along one line. The south yard is about 5.6 miles south-east of the middle of town, an Ardent Mills flour plant about 5.9, the old stock yard about 6.5, the industrial yard about 6.7 miles east and the intermodal ramp about 7.2 miles south-east. Five facilities between about 5.6 and 7.2 miles out on the same side, and nothing recorded on the other side of town at all.

One of them is odd enough to name. The stock yard row carries a carrier value that appears on no other record in the survey, and what the facility is now was not established — so nothing is claimed about what moves there today. The commodities handled at any of the three yards could not be determined either, and are not guessed at.

Beyond that wedge the map crosses a state line almost immediately. The Bellevue yards are about 7 miles east, and then Council Bluffs, in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, holds nine separate rail and terminal facilities between about 9 and 12 miles east — more rail interface than this side of the river carries. Offutt Air Force Base is about 12.5 miles south-east.

So a working day here crosses into another state as a matter of routine, and the truck in your yard may well be titled on the far side of it. That is worth saying out loud because the two states do not write the same rules, and the difference is not small.

That difference starts with the headline figure, and the figure is easier to misread than it looks. Nebraska states no flat gross maximum at all. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,294(3) reaches 95,000 lb only through a table keyed to the distance in feet between the extreme axles, and only for a group of seven consecutive axles spanning 60 feet. On the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways the same subsection caps any group of two or more axles at 80,000 lb unless the Director-State Engineer authorises more.

The tempting conclusion is that the state road carries 95,000 lb and the freeway beside it takes 15,000 lb back. That reading is wrong. The federal record at 23 CFR 658 appendix C puts Nebraska at 95,000 lb on the Interstate System too, for a truck tractor and two trailing units with gross set by bridge formula B, and a state weight permit is what unlocks anything above 80,000 lb there. The same top figure is reachable on both networks; what changes is the paperwork and the configuration. One condition travels with it — a two-trailing-unit combination whose cargo-carrying units exceed 65 feet must run empty, so the length that reaches 95 feet and the weight that reaches 95,000 lb are not available to the same trip.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,294(3), with the Interstate System figure and the empty-running condition at 23 CFR 658 appendix C. Information, not legal advice.

Those same trucks raise a title question this state answers unusually. A salvage vehicle here is a late model vehicle whose estimated total repair cost exceeds 75 per cent of the retail value of the vehicle at the time it was damaged — and late model means the model year is the year it was wrecked or any of the six preceding years. An older truck falls outside that window entirely.

Two further points are genuinely unusual. Retail value may be established by a market survey of comparable vehicles as well as from a recognised pricing guide, so the base is not tied to a single book. And an owner may voluntarily designate a vehicle as salvage and obtain a branded title without regard to the damage, the age or the value — so a salvage brand here does not by itself prove the truck was badly hurt. Before a salvage-titled vehicle goes back on the road it passes an inspection and is issued a title branded previously salvaged.

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

That wedge and the river run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Day cabs and road tractors off the intermodal ramp and the yard work. Grain hauls and farm trucks off the mill runs. Livestock trailers, dump trucks and aggregate haulers, box trucks and straight trucks on the terminal work east, flatbeds, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 12 miles — the five facilities south-east and east, the Bellevue yards 7 miles east, the Council Bluffs terminals over the water, and Offutt Air Force Base at 12.5.

• 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.
• The truck is parked over in Iowa. Still yours?Yes, and here it is the ordinary case. Council Bluffs is about 9 miles east and holds more rail and terminal facilities than this side does. Tell us where the truck actually stands and where the title was issued, and we will work from those two facts.
• 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 brand but it was never really wrecked. Is that possible?Yes, and it is worth flagging. This state lets an owner voluntarily take a salvage branded title without regard to damage, age or value. So a brand here does not by itself say the truck was hurt badly — tell us the history and we will look at the truck.

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

The lots along the wedge south-east, around the Ardent Mills plant and the old stock yard, hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position — and so do the ones over toward Pottawattamie County, 9 miles east.

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.