Photos: A tour through Copart in Le Roy

Friday afternoon was member appreciation day at Copart in Le Roy and The Batavian was invited out for some BBQ and a tour.

I first became aware of Copart in the early morning of March 26, when a car caught on fire behind the electrified and locked gate, which made it difficult for firefighters to gain access, so the fire spread to other vehicles, so it was interesting to learn more about the facility.

One of the managers, Scott McCumiskey led the tour.

Copart specializes working with insurance companies to acquire and sell "total loss vehicles." That's the bulk of its business, but it also sells vehicles that have been donated to charity. 

All auctions are conducted online and buyers must be members, and either a licensed dealer or affiliated with a licensed dealer. Different condition cars tend to have different kind of buyers, buyers that specialize in each kind of vehicle, such as those that can be driven off the lot, those that can be repaired and resold, those good only for parts and those that are nothing but scrap metal.

An insurance loss car might sit on the lot for 30 to 90 days until the insurance company releases it for sale. Sometimes that release for sale might take months or years, depending on the legal case a vehicle might be involved in.

Cars donated to charity are usually sold within a week of arriving on the lot.

Copart has 190 locations worldwide, including in Canada and Europe, with 125 in the United States, including three in New York. The Le Roy location's territory stretches from Syracuse to Buffalo. The company was founded in 1982 in Vallejo, Calif., by Willis J. Johnson, who remains chairman of the board. It is now based in Dallas.

Vehicles involved in serious-injury or fatal accidents might sit in the lot for months or years while civil cases remain pending. The cars are sealed in plastic and tagged as a potential biohazard. Only insurance company or attorney representatives can then enter the vehicle.

Most of the vehicles involved in the March 26 fire have been sold, probably for scrap metal, but these few remain.

Copart also takes in and resells boats, as well as other vehicles, such as semi-trucks, trailers, RVs, and buses.

This bus was destroyed in a fire more than a decade ago and it's been sitting on the Copart lot ever since. The insurance company has not yet released it for sale, presumably because there is a civil case still pending.