Profile For Ken H.

What is the company? Are they in need of manual qualified drivers? If the manual route doesn’t work out, can he switch to automated?

If I understand your question, he's not with a company. He's paying his way and decided to test on a manual. Yes, he could switch to automatic during training or after 1 test attempt.

The driving school has a 2 test limit even though the state of IL allows more.

Should he fail twice he would have to find someone to pay I assume to use a truck to test with.

He's enrolled and is going with a manual. I may start another thread should it happen but he gets 2 chances to pass his driving test from the school. After that it is thanks for the money and you are on your own. Likely there is someone that he could pay to let him test but I would think the school would have that option. Not sure why they don't.

My question is, does your son already have experience driving manual transmissions? If he already knows how to drive a car with a manual transmission the risk of failing his CDL exam because of a manual transmission is close to zero. If he has to start from scratch AND learn how to drive a truck there's more risk.

Most trucking companies replace their trucks after ~500k miles and most trucks will turn that in less than 4 years. The major carriers moved to all automatic transmissions about 7 years ago and most of the drivers they trained in the last 7 years have a manual restriction on their CDL. It's a case of the chicken or the egg. Since the largest companies use automatics most trucking schools don't offer manuals so most new drivers have a manual restriction so companies have to move to manuals or pick from a shrinking pool of potential drivers as the older drivers retire and the new ones have the manual restriction.

You have hit on another point I made to him. He has at best a few hours on a manual. I told him to get on a regular car/truck and master that prior to taking the class. He does ride a motorcycle so the concept of clutch and gears is there but the and foot are reversed on two wheels.

Hi. My son is about take his CDL class. (self paid) He is laboring of the decision to choose to take the class/test in a manual or automatic. How restrictive is the job market if you have the manual restriction? How much more difficult is the manual to pass? Myself I'm advising him to get the automatic and if the restriction is an issue pursue it later. I hate to risk passing.

Thanks for any thoughts. He's really excited about the new career but would like some input from those who know.