Iowa DOT gives notice on illegal vehicle salvage
The spiraling price of scrap metal, now hovering at about $200 a ton, is inspiring the improper junking of vehicles without required documents, the Iowa Department of Transportation says.
With complaints coming in from across the state, the agency has launched a campaign to educate those who sell vehicles for scrap before embarking on an effort to enforce Iowa laws that require legal reassignment of a title to a buyer or a junking certificate, said Maj. Kerry Kirkpatrick of the DOT’s motor vehicle enforcement division.
“We’ve received complaints from licensed recyclers, so we went to Web sites like Craigslist and some of the newspaper classified sites and saw ads for people who say they can junk a car without a title,” Kirkpatrick said. “That’s not legal.”
A sampling of area vehicle recyclers say they regularly turn away those who show up with a vehicle they want to sell for scrap but who are unable to produce a title or show that they own it. Legitimate recyclers get periodic scrutiny from local and state police agencies to see that they have appropriate paperwork for vehicles on their lots.
“Once every three months, the Davenport Police come by and randomly write down VIN numbers (vehicle identification numbers), and we have to pull all the paperwork to show them everything was done properly,” said John Waddell, owner of B&C Auto Inc. and Hickory Grove Auto in Davenport.
Denise Anderson, title clerk at Hickory Grove, said police randomly pick VIN numbers from 20 vehicles and she must then produce either legitimately reassigned titles or junking certificates for those transactions.
“We all complain,” Waddell said of illegal salvagers who cut into legitimate businesses. “We are the ones who pay for insurance and who pay our taxes and who pay our employees and who follow all the rules. Everything these other people make is profit.”
John Clark, owner of Midwest Auto Salvage in Davenport, said he keeps junking certificates for 10 years in case there is ever a question about a transaction at his South Concord Street yard.
“If you don’t have a title, we don’t buy,” he said. “That’s our hard and fast rule.”
There are only three legitimate ways a junked vehicle can find its way into the stream of scrap metal that winds up at mills where it is turned into construction rebar, sheet steel or other products, said Rhonda Skahill, motor vehicle supervisor at the Scott County Treasurer’s Office, which handles vehicle titles and junking certificates.
One is a direct transaction between an owner and a buyer in which the owner reassigns the title, Skahill said. The buyer must then seek a junking certificate if he intends to turn it into scrap. Another is if the owner applies for a junking certificate directly from the treasurer’s office.
The third way, if a vehicle has been abandoned, is for local police to declare it abandoned and, after making efforts to contact potential owners, to sell it at an abandoned vehicle auction, Skahill said.
Scrap metal prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Five years ago, it was $20 a ton. A year ago, it was $140 a ton. Lately, it has been hovering at about $200 a ton.
Licensed recyclers are required to drain fluids that pose potential harm to the environment and remove other substances and components that can cause environmental contamination, Kirkpatrick said. Illegal salvagers are less likely to do that.
“It’s the difference between someone who runs a legal business and has a stake in seeing that everything is done right and someone who operates outside the law and may not care,” Kirkpatrick said.
Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.