TROY, Mich.– ArvinMeritor has seen the future of heavy-duty truck transmissions — and it is automated.

The Troy, Mich.- based supplier of original and aftermarket heavy-duty components has announced that it will stop manufacturing Meritor manual transmissions in January, 2007, “due to dynamics that have severely limited the company’s addressable markets.”

“Manuals,” explains Arvin’s Mike Pennington in an interview this morning with TodaysTrucking.com, “are a smaller and smaller portion of the market and we have to stick with the components the customers are turning to, not with the components you made years ago.”

He also said automated transmissions are more attractive to new drivers; they’re more fuel efficient, and easier to train drivers on.

ArvinMeritor says it prefers to focus its
business on automated transmissions

Arvin’s share of the transmission market hovers around the 10 percent range, but most carriers TodaysTrucking.com talked to commented that more fleets are turning to automated transmissions as the truck driving poll changes.

As one maintenance manager in a large Winnipeg-based fleet commented, “I think five years from now, most companies will be spec’ing automated.”

Carriers say that while older drivers are skeptical of auto trannies at first, many vets quickly end up enjoying the relaxed shifting in the twilight of their trucking careers.

ArvinMeritor will intensify sales and marketing of Meritor Freedomline automated transmissions built by ZF Freidrichshafen in Germany, “for truck operators seeking fuel efficiency and driver retention.”

“We are absolutely convinced that we have the most advanced and proven technology solution with the FreedomLine for our North American customers,” said Tom Gosnell, president of the company’s Commercial Vehicle Systems business unit, in a press release.

The company will honor all current manual transmission orders placed with ArvinMeritor, Inc. and all orders received prior to September 2006, provided they are to be delivered no later than January 2007.

All Meritor manual transmissions sold and in service will continue to be supported by the aftermarket parts support teams.

Introduced in 1998, the FreedomLine is being used in thousands of trucks owned by progressive-minded fleet owners across North America. It is a three-pedal system, and drivers must still manually disengage the clutch at stops, starts and for backing up.

The automated gearbox complements the Performance Plus lineup of Meritor axle-brake-suspension components, Sachs brand clutches, and Meritor WABCO vehicle control systems.

Production of the FreedomLine will remain at ArvinMeritor’s Laurinburg, N.C. facility, and the workforce connected with the manual transmissions will be absorbed into production positions on other components in the facility.

Pennington says the assembled transmissions will come from Germany but be adjusted in U.S. for the North American market.