Missouri based carrier, Con-way Truckload, recently announced that they bought 550 new tractors for their fleet.
540 of them are equipped with automatic trannys and 6×4 axles. This marks a 20% increase in their fleet size.
They said their decision to go with automatic transmissions was due to driver requests. Especially fueled by newer, younger drivers, who were intimated from learning how to operate a 10 to 13 speed manual transmission.
Conway Driver, Stephanie Kind, had this to say about the purchase:
“with the auto shifts in the trucks today, new drivers can feel more comfortable, focus attention on their surroundings and maneuver their truck safety through traffic and congestion. While driving a truck still involves a lot of skill, the automatics make life on the road a little easier,”
Conway also said that in addition to making younger drivers feel more comfortable, the automatic transmission helps significantly with fuel economy, which plays a large part in their bottom line.