Amarillo is the Panhandle's cattle and feed town, and its trucks say so: of 1,519 carriers based in the city, a quarter declare grain, feed or hay, and meat and refrigerated food are the next cargoes on the list after general freight. Randall County's farms lead with cattle, corn and sorghum. Most of the driving is long, nearly two in three of the drivers reported here working beyond a hundred miles, and four in ten of the trucks the roadside inspectors stop are ten years old or more.
So an Amarillo yard holds a grain hopper, a cattle pot, a reefer on the beef runs, a dump truck off the Box Canyon sand and gravel pit on the edge of town, and the semi truck with a sleeper on the interstate. The South Amarillo rail yard sits just south of downtown, construction and wholesale are the biggest trucking employers in the city, and the biggest fleet based here runs about 450 power units.
The Potter County Tax Office at 900 South Polk Street, Suite 106, records the title transfer and starts a certified copy of a lost title for the Department of Motor Vehicles, which comes from the owner of record. Liens, the bonded route and the fact that no diesel truck is asked for an emissions test are covered on the Texas page.
A grain truck is read through its box and its hoist, a reefer sleeper through its drivetrain and its service file, a cattle pot through the trailer if it goes with the tractor. Photograph those first, then the cab, the engine and the odometer, and tell us the elevator, the feedlot or the lane it worked.
Three posted bridges on the plains
Amarillo runs the Texas statute, the federal 80,000 pounds on the interstates and the state axle figures the Texas page sets out, over 125 bridges in the area, three posted for load and none under fourteen feet, so a tandem grain truck here answers to the scale and nothing on a sign.
Tell us where the truck is in Amarillo, by the yards, out by the racks or on a Randall County farm, and send photos and the title.