Afraid to drive again.

Really don't think UPS is that desperate. No offense.

 

Question. And I ask this as someone who will get trained in amanual but will enjoy an auto shift.

If both the manual and auto are under warranty for xxx miles. How is one xheaper than the other to repair? As both cost the owner $0.00.

 

Car drivers trying to be a trucker.

Oh come on. People were shifting before power steering. Next thing we will be told that shifting is "distracted driving"! In fact my son knows a guy that went to werner training. He talked that his trainer, or training class alluded to that..shifting is distracting. Become a new age driver. Tools: a gps (no map or atlas)..cell phone..play station.

 

Your premise has a fundamental flaw. Even a truck being repaired under warranty has costs involved. Most warranties won't pay for shipping replacement parts. Next, could be as much as a $500 tow bill. The driver if not at home has a hotel bill to consider. Or the company will have to pay to get the driver to another truck if an available truck is not available at the breakdown location. The driver at a minimum is out 2 to 3 days of driving. I always figured my downtime at $150 a day. Even with the repair being covered by a warranty you can see there are costs involved. It is a fact most large fleets report to have seen costs go down when switching to the auto-shifts. I also understand there is a small bump in the MPG of the fleets too. Improperly trained drivers play heck with clutches. When I was a young kid I hardly ever smelled a hot clutch when I was around trucks. My last few years driving. I could smell hot clutches most everyplace I went. That smell is a clear and distinct smell you can never forget. ((I won't even get into how they bust universals and power dividers)). It's a sad fact but I think it's for the best to employ auto-shifts with the average driver today.

I suspect this auto-shift V manual debate will continue for at least another 25 or so years. One thing though that is helping is the improvements in technology. It's vastly different today than it was 40 years ago.

 

This topic never fails to inflame emotions on both sides. I have driven manuals and auto-shifts for years. I personally don’t like the auto’s, but that’s just me. My reason is not what you would think tho. First, I have been a company driver for the last 20 plus years.
My father was a Teamster(white paper contract) for over 40 years.
I watched over all these years, the gradual decline in the standard of living for the average ‘truck driver’.
When we were kids, and your dad drove truck full time, your family was more than likely the the most ‘well off’ in the neighborhood, except for maybe a doctor or lawyer.
Over the years, with all the changes in the trucking industry, the average truck driver has lost that above average standard of living for the household.
There is a plethora of ‘advances’ over the decades that we were told were for ‘comfort’, ‘safety’, ‘lower operating cost’s’, etc., etc. Yes, some of those were for that reason, but many if not most had/have the goal of ‘expanding the driver pool’.
When you have more of anything, each individual unit of whatever it is you have becomes ‘worth less’.
This what the industry big wigs have always wanted, a whole lot of ‘worth less’ drivers, not ‘worthless’, worthless employees are no good to anybody.

That’s my biggest gripe regarding auto-shift trucks, it has enabled a vast pool of individuals into the industry dragging down the standard of living for those in the industry.
And, this not the only ‘advancement’ that has done this, but that’s another topic for another day.

Remember, if something is easy, everybody will want to do it.

 

Manual transmissions… still shifting? - FreightWaves

 

I agree that trucking has changed, but I disagree somewhat about the cause. It boils down to deregulation and the cutthroat way carriers have operated basically since the late 80s. The regulations and how they are enforced that truckers operate under has also changed. I remember when congress passed the new CDL law and about 10 or so years later the FMCSA was formed. I could see the handwriting on the wall way back then. Also, let's not forget about the feds changing the use of "diet pills" to only being for another reason. If you are not at least 45 to 50 years old you don't have any memories of this time frame. You are right about the standards of living. Some drivers are still doing it. I remember driving my father to Greenville SC in 1992 to clean his truck out after he retired. My father is also a good example of the types of drivers in his generation. They simply got sick and tired of all the BS and the overregulation. When I get on this subject I think about that old George Jones song : "who's gonna fill their shoes" in this case they that did almost destroyed the industry. If I did not stop myself I could go on and write 3 or 4 thousand more words on this subject. NO, the problem is not the auto-shifts. It is MUCH deeper, to be honest it is systemic of the entire industry. This business model is going to cave in at some point. Just not sure how extensive it will be.

 

Try learning why a manual is superior in many situations. Don't assume an auto is better. I'm a new driver and would rather drive a manual especially in the mountains. I think they're dangerous.
YMMV.

 

Not sure but I'd venture to guess that most new drivers never had learned to drive a manual transmission in an automobile and the whole concept is foreign to them.
Now throw them in a big truck w a 13 and well you know...
I believe if someone was able to drive a clutch as a youth they'd have a better understanding of the workings in a non synchro transmission.

 

Does this give you nightmares?