Gilroy - Farmer George Chiala is fed up. To get his garlic to soup-sellers and sauce-makers nationwide, he needs trucks - and he needs them quick. But it's illegal for most modern trucks to drive to his Morgan Hill farm: A quirk in the state Vehicle Code bans 65-foot truck-trailers from rolling down local roads. Until last year, it didn't seem to matter. But farmers such as Chiala say the local California Highway Patrol has cracked down on longer trucks, repelling truckers from carrying South County crops. Truckers who haul Chiala's pungent garlic and potent jalapenos have been slapped with tickets that dent their pocketbooks - and worse, their driving records - and some are refusing to haul local goods.
That leaves South County farmers scrambling to find trucks in a tight market, before bell peppers, berries and cabbages spoil, and before their customers lose patience with tardy shipments.
"There's no way to get to us on the truck route," said Chiala, "and these 65-foot trucks are the new standard. The 48-foot trailers" - the only trucks short enough to travel local roads - "are a thing of the past. The law hasn't caught up."
"We're not trying to do anything illegal," adds Karen Ash, operations manager at Nature Quality, also owned by Chiala. Touring his facility, Chiala gestures to barrels of minced jalapenos, tubs of roasted garlic and Anaheim peppers. "But we need to get our product in and out of here."
Since March, the county Farm Bureau has relayed farmers' complaints to CHP's local weigh station. Officers from the station patrol local roads, scrutinizing passing trucks. The law is the law, they insist: the state Vehicle Code prohibits truck-trailers longer than 65 feet from driving on California roads, other than federal highways. Officers say the code keeps lengthy trucks from attempting hairpin turns on narrow roads.
That means that when most trucks turn off U.S. 101 to reach local farms, they can be ticketed - and they have been. Citations for too-long trucks have nearly tripled in the past year, when CHP put two commercial officers back on the road. Trucks had roamed local roads freely for the past four years, when CHP pulled truck officers into the weigh station to keep it staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"During that time, we got an awful lot of complaints from residents on rural roads, saying there was an inordinate amount of truck traffic out there," explained CHP Lt. Mike Delaney, commander of CHP's local inspection facility. "So when we put people back on the road, they went out there to check on it."
Since then, citations for too-long trucks have nearly tripled, with 96 tickets issued in the past year. No surprise: Truckers noticed. Kamble Trucking has refused to haul from Uesugi Farms; Countryside Mushrooms lost $2,400 of mushrooms when another trucker quit. Drivers have a lot to lose if tickets taint their records, said Jenny Derry, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, and farmers have even more to lose if they can't get their products to market. Other counties haven't faced these problems, she said.
"It's just a nightmare," said Linda Moore, sales correspondent at George Chiala Farms. "We've even paid fines out of pocket, because it's the only way to keep trucks coming."
It's already tough to book trailer-trucks, and nearly impossible to specify rarer short trucks. Sixty-five-foot trucks are the norm: They're cheaper and more efficient, swilling less fuel per pound shipped.
"It's a fiasco," said Pete Aiello, co-owner and sales manager of Uesugi Farms. "These laws are totally archaic. When trucks are turned away, it takes us a day or two to get another ... Meanwhile, when our shipments don't get to our customers as promised, they call us up and ask us in not-so-pleasant ways why their truck isn't there.
"CHP hasn't been willing to bend the rules," he complained. "Until recently, the response has been, 'Tough s---.' "
But it is the law, said CHP's Delaney, outmoded or not, and his officers can't just turn a blind eye to truck violations. Change the law, he suggests, or get local roads relabeled as truck routes.
"Each county can designate local roads [as truck routes]," said Delaney. "Some counties have been very aggressive about identifying the routes, and others," like Santa Clara, "were hands-off." Very few local roads, he said, have been cleared for trucks.
That could change - and soon. Last week, county officials invited farmers to apply as terminal points, rendering the roads that lead to them "terminal access routes." OK for longer trucks. The roads department will review farmers' applications, checking for turns that bigger trucks can't make safely, then make a recommendation to the county board of supervisors. At least three local farms have already applied. County supervisor Don Gage said he expects the applications to be decided within weeks.
Farmers say it's looking up. If county officials clear the way for today's cheaper, longer trucks, they'll keep piping South County specialties - mushrooms, peppers, and, of course, garlic - to dinner tables via the highways. If not, they're gearing up to change the law - or change their location, quitting South County for fields farther north. George Chiala has processed garlic here for 35 years, but if the CHP keeps intercepting trucks, he's ready to move.
"If we can't resolve this," he said, "I guess we'll pull out."
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