CDL Restricted to Automatic Transmission

Three years ago this was big in Ohio. They said that Ohio was going to pass a law with that restriction. If they did or not I dont know.

 

I think there's too many licenses out there from too many different places and too hard to verify at this point to decertify everybody. They would have to grandfather and start a new procedure for verification.

 

Too many drivers and schools, it seems, are taking the word of others and not knowing the laws from a hole in the ground. It's very simple look up the requirement in the FMCSR book or on the computer. I'll even give the reference 383.95 (c) Manual Transmissions (1) If an applicant performs the skills test in a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission, the state must indicate on the CDL, if issued, that the person is restricted from operating a CMV equipped with a manual transmission.

Now it could not be spelled out anymore clearer than that. So any of you drivers do yourself a favor and stop going by what so and so said and READ the laws and regulations. It's your job to know these facts and not by what has happened. Just like what happened to Swift they had to re-do the entire process to get their CDL. I can see the FMCSA doing the same thing. You'll be out of work and you've got nobody to blame.

 

THIS^^^^

Can we all get a big "AMEN!"

Any newbies seeking a shortcut or swallowing the school's line of bovine fecal tissue better pay attention. IIRC there were quite a number of drivers that suddenly found out their CDL was no longer valid when Swift's Memphis school was decertified. That school used on site testing.

If you tested in an automatic with a DMV tester and they failed to note the restriction on your license don't be fooled into thinking you are free and clear. More than one state has had DMV officials get yanked for inadequate testing, with drivers left in the lurch.

As I stated in an earlier post on this thread, if you are being pushed to train and test in an automatic then ask for a deep discount for the cost of school. The discount should be for the number of jobs you don't qualify for in the industry. With over 3 million trucks on the road how many are automatic? Maybe 10-20% at most? I would want a minimum 80% discount on the cost of school. You will have to go back and train and test in a manual once the scam is discovered, so also consider the disruption of income.

 

The restriction will come when they go on to their next company, the regs dicatate all drivers must pass a driving test for a new job. If the new company has manual transmissions, those auto trained drivers will not know how to operate. They then will have to go back to school or go flip burgers.

 

... or worse, they will be stuck in low paying jobs at mega carriers that have automatics.

 

That is the true agenda, the megas are ordering up auto trannies to dumb down and drive down pay for the driver pool.

Just like having all the endorsements on your license can help you make more money, having every available skill including being able to shift a manual, will make you more money. Being limited in skillset limits income. What's funny is all these auto tranny cheerleaders setting the rope real tight around their own necks.

 

Well guess who is going to be buying all those used auto trannies the next few years as they age out of the mega fleets- that's right the smaller companies that you guys are saying you need to have manual skills for. So I'm not so sure you should be too quick to say you need to be able to shift. Right now some of these mega fleets are now 80% auto, so unless the smaller companies want to start buying brand new stick shifts...

 

The bulk of mega trucks are picked up by first time o/o's so you might see a buch of em pulling rail cans, but every smaller owner i ever knew, wouldnt touch a ex mega truck. Abused abused abused.

 

I did that...got into an old truck, with the top of the shifter broken off and reattached with duct tape. No shift pattern displayed. I wiggled the lever and it felt like a 6 or 7 speed. You had to hold the stick about half way down to shift it, for fear of breaking the duct tape off! So I take off in low gear and run up through the gears until I hit 55 mph and that was 7 th gear and it was the top gear. You could feel the neutral spring when you came out of 5th and pushed it to the right for 6th and 7th gear.