We buy trucks in Neenah

One rail-yard row is attached to this city. It runs under Canadian National and its coordinate lies 0.98 miles from the centroid, inside the place — which, unlike the row filed at Menasha up the road, means the coordinate genuinely landed within this boundary rather than being assigned to the nearest town.

What moves through it could not be established from anything we read, so we are not going to characterise it. The coordinate is the mean of a track polyline’s vertices rather than a surveyed facility point, which is how every rail-yard row in that file is derived. One row, one carrier, one distance, correctly filed — that is the whole of it.

What is written down properly is the calendar, and it changes three times a year under programmes that are easy to confuse. A frozen road declaration is normally in force from the middle of December to late February or early March, and it raises what may be carried. The Class II programme runs from about the first of March to roughly the middle of May. Posted roads is a third programme under a different guideline, covering roads that carry less than the legal limit either periodically through the year or only while the ground is thawing.

The middle one is the one people get wrong. Class II is not a reduction in legal axle or gross weight at all. Under maintenance manual guideline 37.10 the department may restrict the travel of vehicles running on overweight permits, because the subgrade is unstable while frost is leaving the ground. It caps what a single-trip movement may weigh over those roads, makes annual non-divisible permit holders avoid them, and suspends every divisible load permit type on all state highways for the duration of the thaw. A truck at ordinary legal weight is not touched by it. A truck on a permit is.

And the list is not fixed anywhere. District Chief System Operations Managers decide which sections qualify each year, and around the middle of December the bureau of highway operations asks for those lists, combines them and publishes a statewide list and map. Last year’s answer does not carry over.

WisDOT maintenance manual 37.10, with Wis. Stat. §§ 348.26(2) and 348.27(2) behind it. Information, not legal advice.

None of that reaches the paperwork, which is the short part. That is the rule, and everything after it is a fix rather than a category. A lost title has a counter replacement. Where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither one stops a sale.

One thing this state does not have is a step you might be bracing for. It runs a vehicle emission inspection and maintenance programme in seven south-eastern counties, and that programme cannot reach a truck of this kind at either end. A diesel vehicle of model year 2006 or earlier is exempt by its year. A vehicle of model year 2007 or later with a gross vehicle weight rating above 14,000 lb is exempt by its weight. There is no gap between the two limbs, so there is no emissions step standing between a working truck and a sale anywhere in this state.

Wisconsin Legislative Council issue brief on vehicle emission testing, with the title rules from the Wisconsin DMV. Information, not legal advice.

None of that changes what we are interested in. Day cabs and road tractors off the Canadian National yard 0.98 miles out and the freight moving through the valley. Box trucks and straight trucks off the distribution work. Flatbeds, dump trucks and tankers out of the trades. Work trucks and pickups off crews. Whatever you drive, the offer does not change. We buy all of them.

We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, or we buy it remotely and arrange the tow with nobody visiting at all. All of those are ordinary in a place this size, and bringing it to us is an option too if that suits your week.

• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Rust is not a disqualifier.
• How am I paid?Cash or electronic payment. That is the whole list.
• Is there an emissions test to pass first?No. The programme covers seven south-eastern counties and cannot reach a truck like this in any of them — exempt by year if it is 2006 or older diesel, exempt by weight above 14,000 lb GVWR if it is newer.
• Do you come out past the city?Yes, well past it — out beyond the Canadian National yard 0.98 miles from the middle of town and a long way further. Distance has never stopped a sale.
• Do I have to bring it to you?No. We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, or we buy it remotely and arrange the tow with nobody visiting at all.
• What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there is a bonded route.

None of those is really the reason for the call. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A contract that ended and never got replaced. A day cab standing on a lot within sight of the Canadian National yard 0.98 miles from the middle of town, insured every month and not turning a wheel since the last run.

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.