SANTA MARIA - The American Trucking Association says there's a growing shortage of long haul truck drivers in the country.
The ATA says its pushing up the cost of shipping goods to market and delaying deliveries.
Strict new regulations on air emissions are also expected to make things more expensive for the consumer.
Long haul truck driver Mark Brown knows there's job security in his line of work.
"I can get a job any day of the week, with my record", Brown says.
Fewer young people 21 or older are interested in long-haul trucking careers that often require drivers to be away from their families for weeks at a time.
"It takes a certain person to do this kind of job", Brown says about long haul trucking which he does once a week from his home in Oklahoma City to California and back.
"Its not just a shortage of long-haul truck drivers that concerns trucking company owners, its also strict new vehicle emission standards coming from the state of California.
"The regulations are strangling us, and they're strangling the economy", says Kim Kirchhof who owns Speed's Transportation Services in Santa Maria.
California AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, puts tighter restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from all vehicles.
Trucking companies must make expensive retrofits to meet the new standards which mean fewer trucks and fewer truck drivers on the road for many companies.
"We're in the survival mode right now and a lot of companies are", Kirchhof says, "if I had the resources and the customers to move out of state I would, but I can't, and right now I'm just trying to stay afloat."
New regulations and fewer truck drivers equal higher prices for consumers.
"Not only AB 32 but the new Cap and Trade program that California has initiated", Kirchhof says, "that's gonna not only hurt me its going to hurt the consumer, its going to hurt other businesses too."
"Gonna have less stuff in stores, everything is going to be more expensive", adds Mark Brown, "the less drivers you have the higher prices you're going to pay at the stores."
The truck driver shortage is helping push up average long haul driver pay to between $45,000 and $50,000 a year.
