Salvage yard software for Texas recyclers. Every pulled part tied to the car it came off.
A Texas recycler sells under a TDLR license, holds bought parts for three days, and keeps records a peace officer can audit against the lot. YardTerminal files nothing with the state. It lists your parts on eBay Motors and Shopify from one record, and keeps each part you pull tied to its donor VIN and its shelf.
Texas · the license
Used Automotive Parts Recycler
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
- Law
- Occupations Code ch. 2309
- Rules
- 16 TAC ch. 87
- One license covers
- One facility
- Hold on bought parts
- 3 days, Sundays excluded
- Converter sale record
- Kept 2 years
- Licensed facilities
- About 660 (FY 2025)
Researched · sources below
The rules that touch your inventory. Six of them, paraphrased, each linked to its source.
Paraphrased for reading, linked to the source for relying on. This is context for choosing software, not legal advice.
A license for each facility
You may not operate a used automotive parts recycling business, or sell used automotive parts, without a TDLR license, and a license covers only the one facility listed on it.
A record of every part you buy
The date, the seller’s driver’s license number and a legible photocopy of it, and a description of the part with its make and model where that applies.
Three days on the premises
A bought component part stays on your premises in its original condition for at least three calendar days, not counting Sundays. Some non-working engines, transmissions and rear axles are exempt.
Records an officer can audit against the lot
A peace officer may inspect your records at any reasonable time, and the inventory on the premises to verify, check or audit them.
Two years on every catalytic converter you sell
Since SB 224 (2023), selling a converter removed from a vehicle means a record of its description, the buyer and the date, kept two years, which DPS or a peace officer may inspect. TDLR’s 2025 rule adds the quantity and lets TDLR inspect it too.
Ownership papers filed within 31 days
A vehicle bought to dismantle, scrap or destroy has its ownership document submitted before the 31st day after you acquire it. TDLR lists missing this among its most common violations.
Where it helps. And where the paperwork stays yours.
Where it helps
- Every part you pull from a donor keeps that vehicle’s VIN, so a part on the shelf traces back to the car it came off
- Each part has a location down to the bin, so checking the lot against your records is a search, not a walk
- A converter sold through it is a sale like any other: the channel and the time, on the part’s record
- One count across its counter, eBay and your storefront, so a part is never sold twice
What it does not do
- It files nothing with TDLR, TxDMV or NMVTIS
- It is not your purchase log. The seller ID records §2309.354 asks for stay where you keep them today
- It does not track the three-day hold. Clear it the way you do today, then list the part
- A part bought in or aftermarket has no donor VIN to trace, and a donor link lasts only as long as the vehicle record is kept
- A sold part’s history is kept 90 days after the sale, long enough for eBay returns. That is not your state’s retention period. Export what the law asks you to keep longer
It is the same product in every state, and the limits are the same everywhere. Read everything it does not do
What a Texas yard asks.
Sources
Researched from the Occupations Code as published to May 2025 and 16 TAC as amended in 2025, re-checked against every 2025 bill on 25 September 2026. Laws change, and the linked text is the authority, not this page.
- Texas Occupations Code ch. 2309(opens the source in a new tab)
- Texas Occupations Code ch. 2305 (catalytic converters)(opens the source in a new tab)
- 16 TAC §87.81, TDLR converter sale records(opens the source in a new tab)
- TDLR, Used Automotive Parts Recyclers at a glance (FY 2022)(opens the source in a new tab)