My PTL Experience Log

Let me be the bearer of bad news. Of course that depends on how you look at it too. Those new Freightliner Cascadias you saw, & they are nice by the way, are the sign of things to come. It seems the decision has been made to switch to an all automatic fleet @ PTL.

I myself have just been assigned a newish Prostar+ (after considerable problems & breakdowns with my previous truck leaving me stranded in Atlanta... but that's another post entirely) & you guessed it, full auto tranny. I've never liked an auto shift. But since I only drove one once years ago I had no real frame of reference either. Well after a little over a week I've adjusted to this truck. I'm actually starting to begrudgingly respect an automatic too. The major issue I had from the start wasn't the downhill gear searching, frankly that's not been an issue. The truck holds the appropriate gear almost without complaint. No it's backing maneuvers that gave me fits. I'm used to engine torque idling me along in reverse. Not so with an automatic! You have to give some throttle & learn to massage it along to get the truck & trailer in place. I sorta got the hang of it now so I'm less bothered than before.

As for the other issues associated with an automatic I've not experienced any. Heavy traffic in both New Orleans & Orlando showed me the true blessing of not having to creep along & rev into a float or clutch to a dead stop then off again. The auto tran really shines here.

 

Oh & the West Memphis terminal is about to undergo a major renovation soon. A full drivers lounge with laundry & showers & a new operations office will be constructed. So it'll be much nicer going there too.

 

Now here's the rub on that score. As anybody with a decent grasp of gear jamming can tell you, it's all in the RPMs & hitting the sweet spot. The auto in my new truck does all of that work for me. It starts off much slower than I could float up through to the high side of the trans. But once it reaches 7th gear it tends to stretch out the RPMs longer than I would & pull upwards of 1600-1700 where as I was floating up around 1500 if not sooner. The trade off it seems to me has been the truck gets up to speed faster. The pulling force seems about equal but it's definately a smoother more gradual climb up the curve. I've also noticed when rolling from stop light to stop light the auto holds some torque in reserve so it maintains speed a little more evenly.

Of of course most of this could be just my mind playing tricks on me. And everybody's evidence to the contrary is anecdotal to their truck or situation so I'll just believe it's better all around thus far. If nothing else this much is certain. I'm no where near as fatigued after 9-10 hrs behind the wheel driving this automatic as I was in previous trucks. My feet aren't sore at the end of the trip & my back doesn't feel stiff either.

 

That's an area I can offer almost no information on at all. We only have around 200 owner operator & lease purchase drivers company wide I think. And they are dispatched & all other affairs for them are handled out of a satellite office in Tennessee. That is about all the info I can give on lease purchase.

 

Best advice I can offer is before you even consider a lease purchase at ANY company would be to sign on as a company driver first & get a feel for how that business operates. From Safety to Dispatch, Fuel, & all things in between. In my opinion knowing the way a company operates in those areas will let you know what to expect, or at the very least, give you a better picture of said company. Promises from all companies should be taken with a grain of salt when it comes to lease purchase programs. I've yet to see one that isn't riddled with loopholes & pitfalls that lead to nowhere for the driver.