At NTDC 2015, Automatic Transmissions Unpopular With Drivers
You would be wrong.
A healthy majority of the 431 contestants in the skills contest at the championships are driving trucks with automatic transmissions, but many of them don’t like it.
The six-problem course is tight, and unlike traveling the interstates, drivers are required to go very slow, stop and drift on a dime. Many drivers have been complaining that it’s difficult to control a slow roll with an automatic transmission.
That’s not been the case with the manual transmissions.
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A course official confirmed that the automatic transmissions have drawn complaints from some drivers.
Automatics are the trucks of the future and manuals are getting more difficult to get on loan for the competition, which completed its second day on Aug. 14.
Finalists will be named and compete Aug. 15, and the grand champion and class winners will be announced at an evening awards banquet.
This year, six of the nine competition classes are driving trucks with automatic transmissions. Drivers competing in the tank truck, flatbed, 5-axle, 3-axle, straight truck and step van classes are driving trucks with automatic transmissions. The three other classes — twins, sleeper berths and 4-axle — are driving manuals.
“It’s a difficult skill set,” said Boeing Company driver Michael Mygatt, Washington state flatbed champ who drove a truck with an automatic transmission. “You have to go slow, and some automatics jerk when you take your foot off the brake. It feels like it wants to go 10 miles per hour.”
ABF Freight System driver Ernest Wood, Vermont 4-axle class champion, said he drove an automatic at the competition last year. He agrees they can be tricky for drivers who aren’t used to them.
“With certain manufacturers, the way the transmission engages are different,” Wood said. "We’re just starting to incorporate automatic transmissions into our fleet. We’re not accustomed to them. They handle a little bit different than something with a clutch that you can control more.”
Mark Courter, equipment chairman of the competition, said, “If I have control with a clutch, a brake and a throttle, I feel like I’m in control. But if I have just a brake and a throttle, that’s when we get into some differences as to how they can act.”
But third-generation automatics are more predictable than earlier models, Courter said.
He estimated that 65% of fleets are buying trucks with automated or automatic transmissions.
“We’re not getting mechanically-inclined people into the industry, and we’re not getting farm boys anymore,” Courter said. “I’d rather they be paying attention to what’s out there than messing around trying to figure what gear they’re in. What we’re finding is once they drive these, you can’t take them away.
“You just have to get used to them, or buy your own and continue to jam those gears."
