New Driver Choices
 

I'm trying to figure out which is the greater evil, when it comes down to picking right equpiment.
Edit: I understand other factors go into finding right company but This has to do with picking a company when jobs are limited for recent grads.

Need to be more concerned with the company than what kind of trannie used in the truck, but with that said newbies are better off spending their first year in a truck with a manual.

Anyone can get the hang of an auto shift in about 30 seconds......takes longer to be able to smoothly handle a manual.

I'm a firm believer in the auto's. I'm on my, hmm, 4th or 5th autoshift truck now and love it. However, for a new driver, you definitely need to know how to shift. Not every company runs auto's, and some, like mine run both auto and stick. I can go to any truck my company has and drive it immediately. Not so if I only knew how to drive an auto. At least one year in a stick, then if ya wanna drive auto's, go for it.

I love using the manual tranny. I feel more like a trucker when using a manual.

New guys tend to like the manual, as Coltfan stated, to feel like a trucker. A lot of old timers like them also. Personally, I like the autos, but I've only driven one a couple of times. Great for city driving and the couple times a drove one I felt more rested and relaxed. It allows for greater concentration on traffic too. At the very least make sure you test on a manual when you get your CDL. You will begin to see more autos as they are generally prefered by most drivers(at least the one I know) and they have better fuel mileage and less maintenance costs.

doesnt pam and all their divisions and averitt use autoshifts? just curious i thought i heard someone say that they did

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
doesnt pam and all their divisions and averitt use autoshifts? just curious i thought i heard someone say that they did

PAM, I don't think so. Hell would freeze over before I worked for those jokers. Stay away if they are recruiting you.

Averitt is all auto. For the most part they have a good reputation and lots of local and regional runs. They run day cabs on the local runs.

I'm assuming Drivers Solutions is trying to court you by the choices you mentioned. Stay away. Their contract is very one sided and goes from $5995 if you stay a year to $10,000 if you leave for ANY reason before your year is up. I've seen the contract and it's not second hand info. There are much better contracts out there that don't penalize you if you leave early.

I'll stick with manual. I dont trust some computer aided transmission to decide when to shift.
To each their own, I guess.

.i was just asking a general question.

well actually what most pople dont talk about is the cash discount option driver solutions offers you can pay 2995 up front before you go, then if you leave before a year is up thye keep the 2995. if you stay the year you pay your portion of the tuition(1095 or 1495) and get the rest back

Originally Posted by greg3564:

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
doesnt pam and all their divisions and averitt use autoshifts? just curious i thought i heard someone say that they did

PAM, I don't think so. Hell would freeze over before I worked for those jokers. Stay away if they are recruiting you.

Averitt is all auto. For the most part they have a good reputation and lots of local and regional runs. They run day cabs on the local runs.

I'm assuming Drivers Solutions is trying to court you by the choices you mentioned. Stay away. Their contract is very one sided and goes from $5995 if you stay a year to $10,000 if you leave for ANY reason before your year is up. I've seen the contract and it's not second hand info. There are much better contracts out there that don't penalize you if you leave early.

go with a company with Eaton Auto Shifts the Meritor Ultra Shifts are the worse and have no low gear option (at least mine doesn't)

Originally Posted by nickbtubas:
go with a company with Eaton Auto Shifts the Meritor Ultra Shifts are the worse and have no low gear option (at least mine doesn't)

Every truck (auto) I've ran has been an Eaton - either the Ultra-shift (no clutch peddle) or the autoshift (with clutch). I prefer the ones with the clutch as it gives more control, especially in slick conditions.

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
.i was just asking a general question.

well actually what most pople dont talk about is the cash discount option driver solutions offers you can pay 2995 up front before you go, then if you leave before a year is up thye keep the 2995. if you stay the year you pay your portion of the tuition(1095 or 1495) and get the rest back

Originally Posted by greg3564:

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
doesnt pam and all their divisions and averitt use autoshifts? just curious i thought i heard someone say that they did

PAM, I don't think so. Hell would freeze over before I worked for those jokers. Stay away if they are recruiting you.

Averitt is all auto. For the most part they have a good reputation and lots of local and regional runs. They run day cabs on the local runs.

I'm assuming Drivers Solutions is trying to court you by the choices you mentioned. Stay away. Their contract is very one sided and goes from $5995 if you stay a year to $10,000 if you leave for ANY reason before your year is up. I've seen the contract and it's not second hand info. There are much better contracts out there that don't penalize you if you leave early.

Well, if you MUST use Driver Solutions, I suggest you go with Averitt. PAM and USA Truck are flea bag outfits. They run garbage equipment and their reputations are less then desirable. The recruiters at DS will push PAM and USA hard and tell you things like "Averitt is not hiring in your area right now." Pure BS.

actually i just applied at stevens yesterday, got a call while i was at work today and couldnt answer but they emailed me everything I need to know as far as pay, school etc. so I have everything in writing unlike some outfits which send you nothing or a cheesy brochure then you finally see everything when u get there.

Gonna read the info they sent me i'll let you guys know of anything that sounds fishy.

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
actually i just applied at stevens yesterday, got a call while i was at work today and couldnt answer but they emailed me everything I need to know as far as pay, school etc. so I have everything in writing unlike some outfits which send you nothing or a cheesy brochure then you finally see everything when u get there.

Gonna read the info they sent me i'll let you guys know of anything that sounds fishy.

I've never known the recruiters at Stevens to sugar coat anything. If anything they are brutally honest in telling you they keep drivers out awhile, which is good to be up front. Plus they'll give you money for food while in school. The only real downfall to their training is after you're done with your trainer for 5 weeks, they put you with another student for three weeks at training pay, not mileage pay. They do have long lenghts of haul and really nice equipment. Good luck!

after reading the info they seem pretty straightforward im gonna call the recruiter on tuesday see when i can start.

Why would anyone want to inject a 3rd party into any hiring/schooling situation in this industry? Absurd!!

If a person is worth a "nit", has a good MVR, a brain, breaths, walks, speaks halfway intelligently.....and has a heartbeat, and can pass a DOT physical, then they should have virtually no problem getting trained or hired.... unless they have skeletons in the closet.

Hell's Fire people....there are more than enough companies out there that will buy your soul with free training....why in samhill would you want to wear concrete overshoes??

Remember this: Instant gratification normally backfires and sucks.

Taking your time, doing "due diligence" will pay off in the long run, which is normally a shorter term than the fleecing, wailing and thumping that goes with the hosing that follows "instant gratification".

"Indentured Servitude" is merely a fancy name for low paid slavery.

Oh, and to the original question: If you are partial to autoshifts, but cannot drive a manual...you will more than likely severely limit your future potential.

just got an approval email for stevens transport. all i need to do is schedule my orientation and school start date. Talked with roxy today and she will be calling me tommorrow to go over final details

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
just got an approval email for stevens transport. all i need to do is schedule my orientation and school start date. Talked with roxy today and she will be calling me tommorrow to go over final details

Good luck and do keep us posted on how it goes for you.

i think out of the choices i have(pam, usa stevens prime swift crt or ffe) stevens is the best. nothing was sugar coated by the recruiters, meals at training are covered no "150 seating fee" they drive kenworth t2000s. home time sucks but not a biggie want to get my year in and go to a better paying company.

The only drawback to swift who be better for me as far as hometime is the fat i would have to go to the millington academy, andi would go for 20 straight days tehn come home for 6 days then backto millington for 4 days of orientation and testing because of the tenesssee 30 day residency requirement

where do you guys think i would be better off at, stevens or swift?

I hear less bad things about stevens than swift so i figure the less bad stuff you hear the better.

Are you going to thier school in Dallas?

yeah their school is in dallas good or bad?

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272:
yeah their school is in dallas good or bad?

I honestly don't know. That is the only company run school. The others are through community colleges. Is their training still 17 days?

yeah thats their only school, like what i hear would like to wait til after my friend gets married in december, but i think i may have to miss his wedding so i dont start truckin in the dead of winter.

When I was OTR. I couldnt imagine having an auto tranny. Now that I am a local driver, I was in an 2007 International 8600. Fully auto, no clutch. Wow did I fall in love with this truck. I wish my co would go to these for the city drivers.

If I was to go back OTR I would definitely want a stick shift though.