It could take drivers longer than usual to get their oil changed or take their cars back in for service due to roadblocks suppliers are facing.

Joseph Sabia, owner of Sabia’s Car Care on Fort Salonga Road in Northport, tells News 12 he is waiting several days to get parts that normally would be delivered in around an hour.

The mechanic has been working in the area for nearly 50 years and says he’s never seen anything like this.

“You’ve got to call nine different parts, houses to get what you need to fix one car,” Sabia says.

Sabia says the parts he needs for routine auto repairs are getting harder to find and leading to backups at his business.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to get brake rotos, rubber now is a problem, tires, fan belts, hoses,” Sabia says. “You take a job and you want to get it out in two or three hours, the car can sit here for a day or two or even more.”

AAA Northeast spokesperson Robert Sinclair Jr. says the hard-to-find parts are mostly being shipped in from Asia and many of them are still stuck at ports. He says even after they are unloaded, there can be delays delivering the parts across the country.

“The bottleneck bottom line is truck drivers, having an insufficient amount of truck drivers,” Sinclair Jr. says. “A lot of truck drivers got laid off or left the profession during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and they haven’t come back.”

Sabia says the shortage is leading to higher prices that can sometimes reach 30%.

“I’m hoping the supply chain gets easier on us and that the prices come back down,” Sabia says.

Sinclair Jr. says drivers can possibly prevent cars from breaking down by getting routine maintenance performed as soon as possible, especially as it gets closer to the winter season