U.S. Xpress has several websites on the Internet. They have videos on some of them in which they have one of the employees telling how great the company is and how nice the trucks are. The guy in the video says: "The trucks are se easy to drive and 'They are all automatic transmissions in this company.'
Not only does the guy say that on the video, but they also have it written on several of their websites. They have also told most of the truck driving schools around the US that more than 95% of all their vehicles have automatic transmissions. Now with everyone believing this, people are telling all the current and future truck drivers that if they are looking for easy trucks to drive, just go to U.S. Xpress, because almost all their trucks are automatics.
So, to make a long story short, I called the company and talked to two different people, both of them were Managers and should have known better, but they both confirmed the rumor. I told the first one that the main reason I want to work for USX is because you have automatic transmission vehicles and I have had a lot of problems in the past with stick shift vehicles. I have messed up 2 transmissions and burned up a clutch. The list goes on...
The first manager built my confidence up by saying that's true, we do run almost all automatics! This is just the right company for you! The second manager took it one step further and said, "Yes, that's true.in fact we just got a whole bunch of brand new trucks in and they are all automatics. We like to make things easier for our employees. I said OK, that's great. I'll fill out the application. The Orlando, FL trucking school I attended said that USX easiness of the few companies that they could send me to that uses almost all automatics.
So I trusted everybody and got on a bus and rode a little over 8 hours, all the way to Dalton, GA. When I got there, I realized that they had done the old bait and switch on me! One one tester took two of the other new recruits out to a truck with an auto transmission and the other trainer took me and someone else to a different truck. To my surprise and disappointment, he had us test in a stick Shift!
I said, "Wait a minute! They told me before I came here that almost all the trucks here were Automatics!" The guy giving the test finally admitted, "Well, we used to have all autos, but we are in the process of switching them all over to manual transmissions. Right now more than half of them have been switched over. They started switching them out last year and by next year they will all be changed over to manual transmissions and we won't even buy any more automatics."
You can probably imagine how disappointed and really p*ed off I was at this point! I have always had nothing but problems with stick shifts and they are not safe for me to drive. Needless to say, I failed their driving test! My biggest problem on the test was that I just plain can not drive a stick shift very well and I have no desire to put mine and everyone's safety in jeopardy along with a rather new, $140,000 semi! I told them I need to just keep things simple, ion other words: You just hit the gas and you go! No wasting your time shifting! But they don't listen.
I have attempted several times to learn to drive stick shifts, but I just never could get the hang of it.instead I just messed up the vehicles. So I would consider that a "disability". According to the Americans with Disabilities Act: An employeer is required to make "Reasonable accommodations for an employee with a disability, in this case, just give me an automatic transmission so I don't burn up a clutch or transmission which they would have to pay for and fix! But they can't discriminate! But, I guess they just think they have enough money that they don't need to obey that FEDERAL LAW!
Now the company is just sending me back to Orlando. Well at least the company paid for my bus tickets and motel room. However, they will not pay me for the two days of my life that I wasted at their damn orientation! My point with this article is to expose the real truth about U.S. Xpress. That are liars, pulling the bait and switch scam on people who want or need to drive an automatic transmission!
USX used to have over 95% automatics, but this is no longer the case. They will soon be 100% manual transmissions! But they are so dishonest about this, that they are also too lazy to update their websites and chafe them to say, "we apologize for the inconvenience, but we are converting 100% of our transmissions to stick shift!
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