We buy trucks in Portland

The freight here runs north-west along the river and there is a great deal of it. Eight rail yards sit between about 1.8 and 6.6 miles out — Albina at 1.8, Kenton at 3.1, Brooklyn at 3.3, Lake at 3.4, Willbridge at 4.5, East St Johns at 5.4, Barnes at 6.4 and Smith at 6.6. Three intermodal ramps sit among them at about 3.4, 3.7 and 8.6 miles.

The liquid runs alongside it. An Arrow Reload terminal is about 2.3 miles north-west, Zenith Energy about 4.6 and Bulk Transportation about 5.3. The petroleum port is about 6.1 miles north-west and the roll-on roll-off terminal about 8.6, with a Grain Craft mill at about 7.5. Stone comes in behind all of it: an Ash Grove plant about 8.8 miles north-west with 15 people, a Knife River portable about 10.5 with 5, and a CalPortland operation about 20 miles out with 40.

All of that has a twin on the other bank. The Vancouver petroleum port, a rail terminal, a liquid bulk terminal and a roll-on roll-off terminal all sit about 7.2 to 7.5 miles north, in Clark County, Washington. Several more auto and industry yards — Barnes Auto, St. Johns Auto, Smith Auto, Chimney, Kelley Point Auto, Linnton — fill the 6.7 to 8 mile band on this side.

So a truck working here crosses a state line most weeks, and it may well be titled on the other side. Which is where this county gets difficult, because the rule that follows is written by county rather than by state.

This is the single most important thing on this page, and it is already in force. Under Oregon HB 2007, phase 2 took effect on 1 January 2025: the DMV will not ISSUE a certificate of title for a medium-duty truck with a model year 2009 or older diesel engine, or a heavy-duty truck with a model year 2006 or older diesel engine. Medium-duty means 14,001 to 26,000 lb gross vehicle weight rating; heavy-duty means over 26,000 lb.

It applies in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties — those three and only those. A title is the thing that transfers on a sale, so this is not a rule about who may drive the truck. It is a rule about who may buy it and where it can go. If your heavy-duty truck has a 2006-or-older diesel engine and it is sitting in this county, that constraint is already live and it has been for over a year.

Phase 3 follows on 1 January 2029, when the Commerce and Compliance Division will stop registering or renewing a heavy-duty truck with a 2006-or-older engine held by a private owner, and a medium-duty truck at model year 2009 or older. Compliance runs through the DEQ retrofit programme or a switch to a cleaner fuel; exemptions are applied for on a published form.

Oregon HB 2007 (2019), Diesel Retrofit Compliance Program, phases 2 and 3. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

That rule is the reason a lot of trucks in Multnomah County are for sale at all, and it is worth being plain about what it does and does not do. It does not stop you selling. It narrows where the truck can be titled next, which is a question about the buyer rather than about the seller — and buying it remotely and arranging the tow out is an ordinary way that gets resolved, whether the truck is standing by the Albina yard 1.8 miles out or at the Ash Grove plant 8.8 miles north-west.

What it does mean is that anyone telling you the age of the engine makes no difference here has not read it. Tell us the model year of the engine as well as of the truck — on this page, more than on any other in this state, those two facts decide a lot.

The river, the ramps and the stone run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Day cabs and road tractors off the drayage and ramp work. Tankers out of the Zenith Energy and Bulk Transportation terminals. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the Ash Grove and CalPortland operations, car haulers off the auto yards, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 9 miles — eight yards, three ramps, four terminals and the port — and a good deal of it crosses to Clark County.

• 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.
• My engine is a 2004. Can you still buy it?Yes. The phase 2 rule stops the DMV issuing a title here for a heavy-duty truck with a 2006-or-older diesel engine in this county, which is about where it can be titled next rather than about whether it can be sold. Buying it remotely and arranging the tow out is the normal way that gets handled.
• The truck is parked in Washington. Still yours?Yes, and here it is routine — the Vancouver terminals are about 7 miles north in Clark County. Tell us where it actually stands and where the title was issued.
• 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.

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

The lots between the Albina and Willbridge yards, and out past the Ash Grove plant 9 miles north-west, 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.