Normal Clutch life?

Automatics are a bigtime retention tool by the megas. Train new drivers on them then they cannot leave after a year or less because their only skill is automatic. Mega company pours barrels of koolaid down the truck driver's throats and they come up with, ' i can concentrate on the driving and looking at my mirrors more rather than looking at the stick to figure out which gear I am in'

Experienced drivers the mega hires, will also go into an automatic. What happens is after a year or so the driver gets real rusty on the manual skills.

Saw this myself a few weeks ago, me and another guy jumped in the truck for a roadtest with the tester. I drove first, about 6 miles down to a drop yard, exhibit a 90 degree back, drop and rehook the trailer.

Other driver has to drop and rehook, then drive us back to the terminal. He dropped and hooked OK but the tester dude heard an air leak. Asked the guy to push in the red button because he thought it was the rubber seal deal. Driver steps up and pushed in the the red but the yellow was also pushed in because he never pulled it before stepping out. The tester knew this is why he told him that. Whole truck started rolling and tester jumped up and popped the brakes. Driver was allowed to drive us back to the yard but it was grindy and jumpy as hell. He failed the roadtest but they gave hime a second chance the next day.

 

I think most clutches lead a pretty normal life. They work a lot, but most are family oriented, and spend time at home with wife and kids when they can.
Most enjoy the outdoors, especially fishing, and many are patriotic having served in the armed forces.
Some clutches go bad, and have done some time though, usually just county for something petty when they were young and didn't use the best judgment.

 

I do see a lot of clutches that used to do a lot of hardcore dope, have felonies and misdemeanors looking for that second chance to get back to work in the world. They don't care which truck they have to start in, but do have dreams of being set up in a long hood stretched out chromed beast.

 

I find that old line hilarious.