I agree with you all the way. I actually favor manual transmission over automatic.I am not sure when you were an officer in the department, but SOP/SOG's are in the process of being rewritten and clarified under the request of a few new members. And you are correct in saying that MA-10 has its assignments I should have been more careful in what I said. But, that leads to why the SOP/SOG's are being rewritten to show what rigs respond to what type of call. MA-10 is still first due to brush fires, car fires, dumpster fires, etc. However, MA-10 can only seat 2 comfortably, but I have been stuffed in there and responded with one FF on either side of me. If there are enough FF's waiting in the bays to respond, MA-10 would not respond. New drivers are now being trained on U-44 as the first truck just to get them accustomed to driving an emergency vehicle. They then move onto MA-10, R-36, E-247/248 and then L-52 and T-15.