We buy trucks in Eugene

The rail here is a single yard about 1.7 miles from the middle of town, and everything below is measured from it because that is the point the data pins exactly. What surrounds it is aggregate at a scale the rest of this state does not match close in: a Delta Sand & Gravel pit and plant about 2.4 miles north-east with 27 people, a River Bend north pit about 2.7 miles with 9, a Wildish plant about 4.6 miles with 12, and the Egge Quarry and a second River Bend operation both about 5.5 miles north-east with 20 and 11.

A Grain Millers flour mill sits about 2.3 miles south-east. Five aggregate operations inside six miles employing 79 people between them is a dense cluster.

Those numbers fall off a cliff once you leave the cluster. The Springfield yard is about 7 miles east with a Guard facility about 8 miles. Then the Conser Quarry about 14 miles north-west with 6 people, the Henton Quarry about 15 miles east with 2, another about 17 miles north-west with 3, Lost Creek about 18 miles south-east with 3 and a second Dexter operation about 19 miles with 2.

Further out again it stays small: about 25 miles south with 3, about 29 miles north with 10, about 31 miles north-east with 2, about 32 miles south with 6. So the pattern is one tight industrial cluster and then thirty miles of two- and three-person outfits, and a truck out there is often the whole business.

That matters here because of something that is true a hundred miles north and not true at all here. Oregon HB 2007 bars the DMV from issuing a certificate of title for a heavy-duty truck with a model year 2006 or older diesel engine, and for a medium-duty truck at model year 2009 or older — but only in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. Those three, and only those.

Lane County is not among them. An older diesel that could not be newly titled in Portland can be titled here, and that is a fact about your truck rather than a technicality. If somebody has told you a 2005 engine makes the truck unsellable in this state, they were describing three counties and calling it a state.

Oregon HB 2007 (2019), Diesel Retrofit Compliance Program — Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties only. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

Beyond that county question 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 Delta Pit 2.4 miles out and at the Conser Quarry 14 miles north-west.

The one clock worth knowing is on the owner rather than on an insurer. Where a vehicle meets this state’s definition of a totaled vehicle, the registered owner has a duty to notify the department of that status — 30 days is the limit, and the section it lives in is titled for the penalty. On the state files we hold that record this duty at all, it usually sits with the insurer. Here it can land on you, so it is worth knowing before it becomes a problem rather than after.

ORS 801.527 and ORS 819.012. Information, not legal advice.

The cluster and the country run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the Delta and Wildish operations and the Egge Quarry. Log trucks and timber rigs off the country east and south. Day cabs and road tractors on the yard work, grain hauls to the mill, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 6 miles of the yard, and then out to the Conser Quarry and Lost Creek 14 to 18 miles away.

• 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.
• Is my old diesel worth anything in this state?Yes, and the county matters. The title restriction on older heavy-duty diesels covers Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties only — Lane County is outside it. Tell us the model year of the engine and we will work from that.
• 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 to Lane 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 Egge Quarry end is about 5.5 miles out and Lost Creek about 18.

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

The lots around the Delta Pit and the Wildish plant, 2 to 5 miles north-east, hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position — and so do the yards out toward the Henton Quarry 15 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.