U.S. Xpress going to manual transmissions in all trucks?

I haven't heard anybody mention that insurance costs for the companies are lowered driving automatics which makes sense since a newbie such as myself can worry about learning how to turn the truck correctly and concentrate on other aspects of driving rather than worrying about grinding gears. By the way, my car is a five speed manual and I enjoy shifting that car. I can't get the same kind of enjoyment from mashing a clutch in a big rig especially when on the I 95 corridor north of Richmond VA. I am 52 years old and I wanna do the trucking thing for the rest of my life so I'll do what I gotta do and learn what I gotta learn. And I trained on a 10 speed at trucking school last summer, but I love the automatics. One less thing to think about while trying not to hit that curb on the right hand turn coming up. God bless you all.

 

It has been argued up, down, all around that every class 8 truck driver should be competent in using a manual trans. I still do not understand why anyone even wastes time worrying about it. I don't even waste one waking moment worrying about if a new driver learns to shift a manual trans. That is because I figure they will learn if the need to, or they will not if they don't. Like anything else, it is totally up to them. I am not worried even a little that they might limit their options if they do not know how to competently use a manual trans as it is not my concern that they know how to change a fuel filter. If they want to and need to learn, they will. Seems more folks are getting their panties in a wad over something that really doesn't concern them, and only come at this whole thing from some "you aint' a real truck driver" mindset.

Sure, now, most trucks at manual. But track the ordering stats on new production class 8 trucks. That is changing a lot. And since it is the fleets who do the ordering and not the drivers for those fleets, it really doesn't matter much what anyone, including me, thinks about it. Not going to change what they do, so why waste any time on it.

 

USPS ( now #2 best paying/benefits company driver job ) is a Auto fleet, But i won't get into the politics how that came to be lol



Well said cowpie

 

I drive an auto trans and don't know how some of you guys jerk and crash into the docks when backing. You gotta feather the throttle, be gentle with her and it slowly catches and just a slight bump against the dock. I do it every time and only been driving 6 months. As for other jerking, I only experience that when starting forward from a dead stop. 2nd gear in them autos sucks. And as for climbing hills in an auto, I average 50mph on even the steepest hills, even when hauling 44,000lbs of pork. Otherwise, what's the big hurry anyway? It's trucking; hurry up and wait!

 

The latest versions have a creep mode .

 

That probably explains it. I drive a 2015 KW T680 that was made in January 2014... My only issue is that it keeps having computer software recalls on the fuel injection system.

 

Why not? You don't like to finally make it to 55 just to slow down 20mph in 20ft for the swerve for the curve you didn't see coming and repeat that 25 times? LOL (I'm a local driver I'm Richmond)

 

So you wrote all that to say what? Why did you worry about saying what you did? Was it to perhaps sway anyone's opinion on the matter or was it because you feel everyone should hold the same opinion as yourself? I'm just curious why you went to the extreme that you did to basically say what you could have said in one short sentence or better yet, nothing at all since as you say, you're not at all worried about it.

 

What companies are running auto fleets other than US Express?

 

The automatic vs manual debate is a waste of time.

For starters, if your truck has a clutch, then it isn't a true automatic. It's a manual transmission with a sync gear, otherwise known as an autoshift. There's no difference between the two, and the types can easily be converted.

Next, it isn't the transmission setup that saves fuel or maintenance. It's the driver. A good driver can save fuel costs.