I inherited an automobile salvage yard from my grandfather. He was just interested in selling parts to do-it-yourself mechanics who fixed their own cars. However, there are not a lot of people doing that locally now, so we started selling on the Internet to keep the business viable. Then we started small with buying and selling scrap. When we started accepting lead-acid batteries, we installed a 40×40 5000 lb floor scale just to be able to weigh the truckloads that started coming in from local repair shops. We were closer to a lot of commercial truck repair centers than some other places, and we offered to pick the batteries up, weigh them and send the shops checks for their scrap.
We added more scales to weigh aluminum, and we had small scales installed in our offices to weigh precious metals. (more…)