The transmission control method of small forklift is classified into pilot control method and direct control method. In pilot control method, the hydraulic circuit which consists a lot of components is very complex so the production process is too costly and time consuming. The direct control method contains fewer components that can be configured to simple hydraulic circuit. It has more advantages because the shift sensitivity of transmission is changed easily via the input profile. In this paper, the controller design and the input profile for system are studied to apply to the direct control method. The input profile consists of Fill section, Hold section and Ramp section. The characteristic of each section is obtained through experiment. As the result, the shift sensitivity and starting performance are effected by Fill section and Hold section.