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

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

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)