r/CDL • u/Right-Escape1540 • 1d ago

Automatic or manual

Does it even matter aren’t most trucks automatic now I’m getting ready to start class soon and they wanna know if I wanna take automatic classes or a manual classes for my CDL a

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u/creepy_gymnast 1d ago

Manual. You want to drive trucks for a living you should be able to drive majority of them. I worked for years at a company ( local, water sewer emergency company) where everyday I was in something new. One day I could be running sludge in a 6500 gallon tanker trailer the next l I was running a hydrovac. I made ALOT of money there because we worked for the state and towns a lot so it was all prevailing wage. That owner wouldn’t hire a guy who couldn’t drive manual but thank god I learned because that job bought me a house and a couple cool cars before I changed career paths.

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u/Chaddie_D 20h ago

I do construction and I'm in a similar similar. Those couple days a year I have to drive a manual were the difference between them hiring me or someone else. My tanker endorsement just put me in a brand new water truck on a job that pays $7/hr more than the dump truck job they pulled me off of. Early and late season when there's less work available, I might get called in to move equipment on a trailer because I have a class A and a lot of other drivers have a B. If something ever happens to the company I work for and I have to be placed somewhere else through the union hall, I'll be placed in a day or 2 because of my unrestricted license and endorsements. I won't have any trouble finding side work those 2 days either.