Method and arrangement for providing an electronic gear shift selector associated with an automatic mechanical transmission for a heavy vehicle. The gear shift selector includes a toggle switch for asserting at least one gear shift request, a counter receiving the at least one gear shift request, and a time delay for preventing communication of the at least one gear shift request from the counter until a predefined time period has passed. A method for communicating a collective gear shift request to a gear box includes asserting one or more gear shift requests with a gear shift selector, communicating the gear shift requests to a counter, determining the collective gear shift requests occurring within a predefined time period, communicating the gear shift requests occurring within the predefined time period to a gearbox.