We buy trucks in Taylor

Two industrial-sand registrations sit under this village. Taylor Frac reports 15 employees to MSHA under Taylor Frac LLC. Taylor Plant reports 48 under Badger Mining Corporation. Sixty-three people between them, in a place with nothing much around it.

One small thing here is the opposite of the usual problem. Across this trade the company names point at towns the rows do not assign them to — Oakfield Stone Company is at Theresa, Fond du Lac Stone Inc is at Brownsville. Taylor Frac is at Taylor. A company name, a city string and a coordinate are three different facts, and it is a coincidence rather than a rule when they line up, but it is a pleasant one and it is checkable.

Both commodity strings say sand, industrial, not elsewhere classified, and both understate what it is. This is Northern White, and the operator names are what identify it where the commodity field does not. At the mine end it is a rail commodity in a way the Permian version is not, because a 1,100 mile movement is not a truck movement.

So the truck work is mine-to-rail transload and local distribution — short, repeated, loaded one way — rather than last-mile wellsite running. That is inference from the distance and it is stated as inference, since no source we read gives these operations’ modal split. The wear is not an inference: Northern White is prized for crush resistance, and the property that makes it good proppant is the property that destroys equipment.

And this is a region rather than a district. The fifteen industrial-mineral rows in this state span 253 miles across ten counties, so nothing here is a cluster.

The one season this state hands weight back rather than taking it away does not hand any of it to sand. Under a frozen road declaration a legally licensed vehicle may run to 98,000 lb without a permit, up from the ordinary 80,000 lb, normally from late December to late February or early March.

Eligibility is written by cargo and it is short: the § 348.175 list is abrasives or salt for highway winter maintenance, and peeled or unpeeled forest products cut crosswise, which does not include wood chips. Stone and sand are not on it. Travel is not allowed on state highways carrying posted weight restrictions, and no local road is authorised unless the local highway authority declares its own — so the allowance you read about in December may not reach the road outside your gate.

Wis. Stat. §§ 348.175 and 348.15(3). 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. Tankers off the dried Northern White out of Badger Mining Corporation and the plant beside it. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the damp sand into a transload. Road tractors and day cabs on the longer legs. Flatbeds, work trucks and pickups off crews. Whatever you drive, the offer does not change. We buy all of them.

This is a village with two sand operations beside it and no metro within reach, so start from the option that needs nobody to drive out: we buy it remotely and arrange the tow. We also come to you and drive it away, or come to you and tow it, and bringing it to us is an option if you are heading that way anyway.

• 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.
• Can I run heavier once the ground freezes?Not on sand. The declaration takes a legally licensed vehicle to 98,000 lb without a permit and the list of who may is abrasives, salt and forest products cut crosswise. Sand is not on it.
• The tank hauled silica out of Badger Mining Corporation for years.Then say so. Northern White abrasion history follows the commodity rather than the odometer, and it is the single most useful thing you can tell us about that tank.
• Will anyone actually drive out here?Often, yes. But nobody has to — we buy remotely and arrange the tow, which from a village this size is usually quicker.
• 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 pneumatic tanker that carried Northern White standing on a yard beside Badger Mining Corporation with no run booked, insured every month and not turning a wheel.

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.