Removing Automatic Restriction on CDL

Exactly, he can hold a steering wheel. You should be proud.

 

Excuse me super trucker, shifting gears doesn't make you a truck driver. Driving safely does. Put away your cowboy boots, cowboy hat and jacket with the tassles.

 

You couldn't get the truck I learned to drive in out of the parking lot.

Autos take an already marginally skilled position and make it even less skilled. Don't tell me what makes a trucker, you don't know.

 

I bet I can. I was taught how to shift by a driver that has been driving trucks longer than I have been alive. He used to drive before the air splitters. Marginally skilled. Nice things to say about an industry that is the life blood of our economy. This conversation is over.

 

I skipped so forgive me if this is a repeat.

I have three trucks. Two are auto and 1 is a 13 speed. I will be adding 3 more autos in August. My son is taking his test in an auto and will be the first to have a restricted licence. To up grade him to a non restricted licence, I will hire one of those little truck and flatbed things for him to retake the driving part of the test. Should cost around $300. Or I will train him myself in the 2005 Pete 379.

As to what makes a truck driver, it is an attitude. If you carry yourself as a professional you are a professional. Idiots, no matter how experienced they are, are still idiots.

 

my community college has a two part "degree" in truck driving.. the first part is the paper test, the 2nd half is the driving stuff. Maybe see if you could do just the 2nd half at your community college?

 

You wouldn't even know how to get it started.

Go back to that guy and find out for yourself how the industry has changed. So much is better now. Can you imagine not having a private shower? So much change for the better. One thing that isn't better, the drivers.

 

That's funny you say that because according to the FMCSA, truckers are getting safer and safer, as a whole.

FMCSA: Study shows lower crash rates with e-logs, but ‘skewed’ to bigger carriers

https://www.trucks.com/2016/12/19/truck-driver-deadliest-job/

So truckers are not as good as you "old schoolers" yet these "newbies" are crashing 74% less than you "old schoolers"?

I'll take that number any day. Looks to me like the quicker we can get you old killers out of the cab and retired the safer we'll all be.

 

Every day I see less reason to worry about having an auto-only license or getting the restriction removed. Chances are most or all newbies will go their whole stay in trucking and only hear about moving the stick in stories.

Throwing the stick like a pro is necessary only a few places at a few times. Being in bumper-to bumper traffic is a daily event and you are guaranteed to see it. I'm glad I have lots of manual experience, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it NOW. If I had the restricted license I'd only remove it for a specific job.

The autos I have used are good in traffic and not so good pulliing hills. The ones that are good on hills allow you to use a manual mode. The bad ones constantly upshift/downshift that you lose your momentum and go MUCH slower than had you been able to pick a gear. My current truck is this way. It has a switch to force it into manual mode, but the feature is turned off. I have to use a trick to stay away from the gear hunting it would do on steep climbs. That trick is to hold down the gear paddle to get the gear I want and not let up on the paddle. The RPMs will climb and only when they get to the very top of the RPM range will it shift gears anyway. Sometimes I have to upshift and then quickly press and hold the paddle down to get the downshift I really wanted.

 

How did I miss this?

Did you actually read the study?

The data collected from participating carriers were used
to answer specific research questions:
1. Do individual CMVs equipped with EHSRs have a significantly lower total crash rate
than CMVs without EHSRs?
2. Do individual CMVs equipped with EHSRs have a significantly lower U.S.
Department of Transportation (USDOT)-recordable crash rate than CMVs without
EHSRs?
3. Do individual CMVs equipped with EHSRs have a significantly lower “preventable”
crash rate than CMVs without EHSRs?
4. Do individual CMVs equipped with EHSRs have a significantly lower rate of fatigue-
related crashes than CMVs without EHSRs?
5. Is there a significant difference in the HOS violation rates between CMVs with
EHSRs and CMVs without EHSRs?

It doesn't address the issue of no shifting steering wheel holders. I may be old, but I would in fact take to time to read something before I linked to it claiming it supported my position.