Driving OTR with US Xpress

I've had 2 Auto shift trucks. 2010 780 Volvo, and a 2010 Freightliner which I drove for nearly a year.

I'll give on the ease of driving in traffic, but that's it. Docking, trailer drop and hook, bad weather.......I'll take a manual trans every time.


I love 18 speeds, BTW. Talk about range flexibility.

 

OK.....OK.


It's a nice truck. It's a new truck. Has all the parts attached.


Picked her up with 13 miles.


I'm with Vince. I'm getting use to it..........That's all. The only ones happy about the Auto-shift trans in this truck are the trainees.............that is except for my current trainee who is on a 50 hour fast track because he has previous experience.



I'm at a crossroad..............Lease?.......Purchase?.


I'm not crazy about doing a lease to own a USX truck. Running down to Lone Mountain in Tifton, GA may be a possibility.


I was really trying to stick this one out till retirement.






Should I even care?

 

Nope.

Just finished up a 50 hour trainee who needed to knock out the Pro Treads and they don't work in my truck either.

That, BTW, was a pleasure. Having a trainee with 300k miles of previous experience. Spent most of our time running like a team when needed. Most of his experience was with flatbed, so backing was the only thing he was rusty on. That fixed itself once I told him to take as much space as he could when setting up for a back.


I dropped him off in Tunnel Hill before finishing my 2500 mile run which originated in Lowell, MA and dropped in Laredo, TX.

 

I'm leaning towards that, or doing nothing about it at all.

I have a good pair of FMs and I would really hate to lose them. Becoming an O/O, which is what I see as the natural progression in this business, would certainly have its advantages and drawbacks.

I'm thinking this one over carefully.

 

I agree completely.

It's become complex only in as much as what I make of it. I enjoy working for USX. I don't care for their decision to re-introduce the Auto-shift but I can understand why they did it.

Leaving to go to another company simply to get away from auto's would be vanity on my part.

I'll most likely buy my own truck and lease on to USX.