Quote:
Originally Posted by slowmover
There are now single fleets with thousands of big trucks and nary a manual to be found. Men with 8-9 years driving experience and can't drive a manual. Wow!
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It actually doesn't surprise me, but anyway, in my country the manuals still outnumber the automatics and AMTs on trucks. Difference is that American big rigs usually relied on non-synchronized transmissions, while the European-designed counterparts turned to fully-synchronized transmissions which are easier for an average Joe to learn how to shift. On the other hand, it became more common to see buses and coaches with automatic transmission here, which was quite unpopular due to the higher price but now are favored by some operators due to their longer lasting under heavy loads and better performance on hilly terrain.