Rainboe
All pushback tugs are automatic transmission. The violent jerks on push are always down to either a heavy foot on the accelerator, or far more often a small towing pin going into a large eye on the bar giving room for the tug of aircraft to move before everything effectively becomes one again. This can also put a lot of pressure on the shear pins.
You really seem to have a bee in your bonnet about the no blame policy being used for groundcrew. Would you rather that something happened to your aircraft and the staff involved reported the event, or have them so scared of being disciplined or sacked that you found out several hours later at 35,000ft
Unfortunately the modern aviation industry constantly wants more for less, shorter ground times, cheaper handling, the list goes on. The end result is that management at the handling agents have to put pressure on staff to do more with less (equipment, manpower and wages). The vast majority of these staff take a great deal of pride in what they do and do all they can to ensure flights depart on time, and safely. During my years in the business I've seen things go from OK wages and some nice perks with enough staff and equipment to do the job to poor wages with little or no perks and the bare minimum staff and equipment. Maybe it is time to start looking in a different direction for the blame, the moral is definitely one of getting what you pay for.
Rant over, time for hat and coat.... TAXI
