The transportation industry is the backbone of America and the world. Without truck drivers, our modern economy could not exist and provide for us in the ways that it does today. This is why it has been heartening to see that many trucking companies have embraced updated equipment and more flexible policies in order to continue the march of progress. Let’s dive into one of these innovations – the automatic semi truck.
Encouraging New Truck Drivers
Transportation companies are doing everything in their power to encourage more people to sign up to become truck drivers. Although the industry has suffered from the same employee shortages that are troubling companies across the broad spectrum of our economy, transportation has found ways to weather the storm. From offering sign-on bonuses to accepting people who have less experience and training them up, the industry has shown that it can be flexible to all economic conditions.
Teaching a Less Experienced Driver on an Automatic Semi Truck
In order to get someone who has less experience driving a truck, it might be necessary to teach them how to drive an automatic semi truck. The reason is that these trucks are easier to learn how to drive and because they are safer on the road compared to manual transmission trucks.
Rechtien.com explains why these trucks are now preferred by most of the industry:
Unlike standard automatic car transmissions, semi truck automatic transmissions are actually a manual transmission with a computer that tells it when to shift. These newer transmissions have begun to take precedence over manual transmissions due to cost, ease of use, and more.
Some trucking companies were resistant at first, but they began to see how these trucks truly operate, and they got a better sense of why people liked them so much. They started to understand that these trucks were literally built to be on the road in a safer way, and they just can’t let that slide past them without additional consideration. Put another way, the industry has started to catch up with wherever many people have been as it relates to trucks for a long time, and that is as an avid supporter of getting the safest possible vehicles out on the road for their drivers.
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Can More Experienced Drivers Transition to Automatic Semi Trucks?
There is some pushback from more experienced truck drivers about what they feel is a sudden shift to favoring automatic semi trucks. They will tell you that they have driven a manual transmission for their whole career without any problems, and they don’t see why they are being asked to change at a time like this. It is understandable that some drivers feel this way, but there has to be a common understanding between drivers and the companies they work for about how this transition is going to work and what each side can do to ease the tension that has occasionally built up between the two.
More experienced drivers will sometimes respond best when they are provided some time behind the wheel of the newer automatic trucks. When they can see and feel the difference for themselves, they may start to convert towards understanding why their company is moving in this direction. They should be shown how automatic semi trucks are:
- Easier on the drivers
- Safer on the road
- More efficient
- Less costly over time for the company
These factors all play a role in how the driver feels about the new piece of equipment, and they need to be brought into the conversation. Often, the drivers simply feel as if they are left out of some of the most important decisions made by the company, and they don’t appreciate that. Thus, if they are given the chance to truly see what goes on behind the wheel of these technological wonders, they will probably have a much better attitude about the changes happening before their eyes.
There are countless new challenges coming for the transportation industry, but this is a big one. Getting people to see how their lives could change for the better because of automatic transmission trucks being brought into the fleet is a big first step in the right direction.
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