Does anyone have any knowledge of these companies

[bamalu]

I have been talking to a couple of companies. They are Willis Shaw Express, and Independent Dist. They seem like pretty good companies, but the one draw back might be that the majority of their trucks are auto-shift. I don't know if that is the best way to get back into trucking after 23 years or not. I never thought I would see the day of an auto-shift freightliner. The only experirnce I have was as a diesel mechanic around 20 some years ago, and the fleet of trucks I worked on at the time had the tiny290 cummins with an eaton 10 speed trans.

[Skywalker]

Willis Shaw I believe is a ComCar company....

Bennett is an all owner operator company.... I think.

[Copperhead]

I believe Skywalker is right.

Autoshift trannies are the future. I am not sold on them completely after two decades of driving, but am keeping my options open regarding my next truck. They have worked a lot of the bugs out of the software in the systems and they do take away much of the stress of shifting, especially in big city traffic after a VERY long hard day. They do show evidence of providing improved fuel mileage compared to all but the very best drivers abilities with manual shift trannies and the decreased wear and tear on the components make them very cost effective.

Many "autoshifts" also have the ability to be manually controlled by the driver. You can "hold" them in a gear and tell it when to shift up or down. Or you can just let it do its thing and just worry about holding the wheel. Isn't it great to have choices!

Don't shy away from an autoshift, you may find you like it darn well. Try one out if you can find someone who has one. Basically, an autoshift is just a manual transmission that is being "floated" by the computers. No muss, no fuss.