The Oregon Department of Transportation is closing its trucking registration office at the Klamath Falls Port of Entry on the northbound side of U.S. 97.

The office closure is the third truck registration office to shut down at a Port of Entry in the state. The other two were at Cascade Locks on eastbound Interstate 94 and Woodburn on southbound I-5.

The office will close Aug. 31. After that, truckers in need of a permit to haul goods on the state’s highways will be required to contact the highway department’s Salem office or travel to Ashland on I-5.

“We carefully analyzed the registration workload,” Ed Scrivner, field services manager for ODOT’s Motor Carrier Transportation Division, wrote in a release. “There is not enough local walk-in business … It is just not the best use of our resources to keep the Klamath Falls registration office open.”

Scrivner said closing the office had been necessitated from changes in how truck drivers get permits.

“The vast majority of trucks in Oregon do so via telephone, fax or e-mail,” he told the Klamath Falls Herald and News. Twenty-five percent of truck permits are done on the Internet.

By closing the office, Scrivner said, truckers and others trying to get permits in Klamath Falls will need to call, fax, mail or e-mail their requests.