Automatic Transmissions

I am relatively new very new to the trucking or transport industry, you could say it is a second chance at life and career, literally. I wanted to get in the industry when I was in my 20's but a better and more important situation arose, I won custody of my then 3 year old son, who by the way will be 30 this year. So he changed those ambitions of driving. Now I am 53 years old and have put myself through hell through the years, I have only a couple months of solo experience and that was done using an automatic, I find I prefer it, yeah I know, some of you say I'm not a real truck driver..that's okay that's your opinion, mine is the fact I can no longer climb trees in the heat of the summer and extreme cold of the winters trimming trees away from electric power lines. Then again I probably could, but why when I could do something less physically demanding and dangerous. But to add I have a knee that gives me issues if I over use it and it has put me out of commission for a couple weeks at a time in the past, I have sense been careful and have done okay. My question is, does anyone know of some decent companies who use automatics or mixture of both standard in the central to eastern parts of the country, preferably eastern..? Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks, Dwayne..

Hey Dwayne-

I know a fair amount of the bigger companies are in the process of going to automatic fleets. I know that Maverick is all auto but that's flatbed and if you have health concerns that might not be a great match. Other companies I've heard are West Side transport out of Cedar Rapids, IA and Hirschbach out of East Dubuque, IL. They both run primarily East of the Rockies so that's something to look into. Good Luck!

Us xpress has gone to a majority of automatics as well. Roehl has some, Celadon and several others are using them more and more.

Comcar industries is all auto as well

Swift has ordered a bunch of automatics...I don't have details.

Swift has ordered a bunch of automatics...I don't have details.

Last month a friend of mine picked up his tractor at Swift in Memphis. (I swear this is "luck of the draw"!) He picked up a 2016 Cascadia, automatic transmission.