Local California Highway Patrol officers are stirring up the local trucking companies in Kern County. They have resurrected a long-ignored law on the books that prohibits tractor-trailers longer than 65 feet from traveling on roads not designated for oversized trucks.

The rigs are being ticketed in Kern County which sits in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley where many warehouses and large businesses are located. Many sit off the beaten path away from residential areas. "Not too many of my customers, not too many warehouses are located on the highway," Vern Hendricks, manager of Bakersfield-Los Angeles Motor Express, told reporters from The Bakersfield Californian. "Now that they are enforcing the letter of the law, it makes it impossible to get to most of our customers without breaking the law."

Most of the $75 tickets have been given out by Officer Bill Martin, a 28-year CHP veteran. Martin recently left the scalehouse on the Grapevine to go back on the road. He said the experience working constantly with trucks has made him aware of lax rules where trucking is concerned. "I'm not going to look the other way," he said. "It's a matter of safety."

OOIDA members, Mike and Phyllis Penland, who live in Kern County, say a ticket for going 65 in a 55 mph zone will cost you about $165 in Los Angeles County. In Kern, Mike Penland says it costs you about $800.

Martin says he works with truckers and businesses by giving out applications for large-truck road designations with the tickets. If a local business applies for an access route, local Bakersfield police and the CHP will allow longer trucks to keep on rolling.

Meanwhile, city officials say they are planning to designate several stretches of road for the longer trucks to access businesses.