Rail and tanks
Six facilities inside four miles, and half of them hold liquid
The middle of this place is unusually dense and unusually wet. Three rail yards sit about 1.3, 1.7 and 2.4 miles out, and three liquid bulk terminals sit among them at about 2.1, 3.4 and 3.9 miles — a Citgo terminal, an unnamed one and a Watco terminal. Six facilities inside four miles, and half of them are moving liquid rather than freight.
The only stone close in is the Bally Mountain Quarry about 3.5 miles north with 13 people. Everything else heavy is further out: a General Materials sand plant about 9 miles north-east with 6, a Schwarz sand operation about 11 miles north-east with 6, and the Macarthur sand plant about 12 miles south-west with 35 — the biggest aggregate workforce in the city.
And then two airbases and a very wide ring
Those terminals share the map with a large military presence. A fourth yard is about 6.7 miles south, the world airport about 6.9 miles south-west, and the air force base and its aerospace addition about 7.8 and 8 miles south-east. That is aviation freight and support work — box trucks, straight trucks and service bodies rather than tandem dumps.
Past all that the ring is wide and thin. A sand plant about 15 miles east with 7 people, a yard about 26 miles west, three industrial sand operations 29 to 32 miles north with 5, 10 and 7, a Guard site about 34 miles south-east, a flour mill about 35 miles east, and a sand and gravel operation about 41 miles north-east with 3. Forty miles of working radius, and most of the headcount inside twelve.
Oklahoma paperwork
Only some of the damage counts
A truck that has worked that ring for years usually has scars, and this is the state where it matters exactly which ones. Under 47 O.S. § 1105 a salvage vehicle is one within the last ten model years whose repair cost exceeds 60 per cent of fair market value immediately prior to the damage — but the section then narrows what "repair cost" means, and the narrowing is the useful half.
Actual repair costs include labour and parts for actual damage to the suspension, motor, transmission, frame or unibody and designated structural components, and nothing else. Body panels, glass, paint and interior are outside it. So a truck that looks badly knocked about can sit well under the threshold if the driveline and the frame are sound — and the reverse is true too.
The percentage on its own is therefore not the rule; the percentage plus that cost definition is. North Dakota counts everything EXCEPT glass and hail; Virginia counts everything except the engine, transmission and drive axle. Three states, three answers to the same question, and 60 per cent here is not comparable to 75 somewhere else because it is a percentage of a different thing measured over a different set of parts.
47 O.S. § 1105 and § 1111. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.
What we buy here
The terminals, the bases and the sand run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Tankers off the three bulk terminals. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers out of the Bally Mountain Quarry and the Macarthur sand plant. Day cabs and road tractors on the yard work, box trucks, straight trucks and service bodies off the base and airport runs, flatbeds and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.
Most of it works inside about 12 miles — four yards, three terminals, the Bally Mountain Quarry 3.5 miles north and the Macarthur sand plant 12 miles south-west.
We buy complete trucks. If the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Small things — a missing bumper — are fine.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Oklahoma City
- 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 body is beaten up but it runs fine. Where does that leave me?Better off than you might think here. The salvage test in this state only counts damage to the suspension, motor, transmission, frame or unibody and designated structural components — body panels and glass are outside it. Send photos all the way round and we will tell you what we see.
- 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.
- Do you actually come out to the edge of the 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 Macarthur plant end of it is about 12 miles south-west and the Guthrie sand operations about 30 miles north.
Why people call
Beyond the trucks themselves, the reasons repeat. A DOT physical didn’t go the way it used to. A tanker 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 around the three bulk terminals inside 4 miles, and out toward the Macarthur sand plant 12 miles south-west and the Bally Mountain Quarry 3.5 miles north, 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.