Any companies still run manual transmissions?

To expound off of what Striker posted, yes many ‘advances’ over the decades as for ‘driver comfort’, ‘ease of operation’, etc., but at what cost to the profession?
Nowadays, as a company driver would I work for a company that had a Diamond Reo cabover, spring ride, 230 Detroit w/13sp, no ac, am radio, at today’s wages & benefits? My answer=no way! But, if that same company had the same exact equipment, but paid me wages & benefits that were adjusted for inflation to 1970, the year my father had the same exact scenario, I’d give it serious consideration, probably would say=sign me up!
Decades ago, an OTR company driver make serious bucks.
If you were one, you more than likely were the highest wage earner in your neighborhood, with the exception of a lawyer, doctor, professor, etc. All these creature comforts that have become standard equipment in the transportation industry have slowly over time, diminished the standard of living, and considerably slowed the upward climb out of the middle class, for professional drivers & their families.

 

The small oversize overweight company my neighbor drives for has all W-900-L 600HP 18 speed
And the driver gets go to the KW dealer and pick out the color.

Doubt they will ever have an automatic trans.
They get 3.5 mpg loaded and 7 coming back home empty .

 

I had to wait 4 months for my truck to be built and arrive.

 

Yeah
They ordered the W9 in November and it arrived in April . And it was all banged up from the clueless decking transport driver who drove a train of new KWs from the factory.
it needed new side steps, new mud flaps and new stacks and new paint on half of the sleeper. And the KW dealer repainted it the wrong color , twice . It took them several attempts to match their own color on a brand new truck .
They normally sell the oldest truck in the fleet but they are keeping it for a spare now that you can have a $200k truck sitting at a dealership for weeks , losing $10k a week in gross revenue , because a $300 water pump isn’t available , because every single factory has been moved to China or South America .

 

The pandemic has put a damper on a lot of inventory.

 

The damper is there because of a flawed, short-term thinking, #### everybody but the shareholders and in the long term #### them too, implementation of the just-in-time logistics model

Toyota invented it, and everyone copied them, except in the sloppier less responsible way. And now Toyota is one of the only ones not hit so hard

This was always going to happen, BECAUSE of the logistics model everyone uses globally now. The pandemic or any of an infinite number of things would have been the stick in the spoke of the wheel, when they could have just used a sturdier wheel and avoided all of this

Thorough explanation:

 

Kind of hard to have supplies if no one can work to build and ship those supplies.

 

Autos in tankers should be against the law.
Trying to shift with the surge and as you said trying to back up with a load surging will beat you to death.
As far as some complaining about a a clutch, the only time I use a clutch is for starting off, rest of the time you float the gears.

 

Sounds like they have a fleet of steering wheel holders?
I have seen trucks with a million miles plus that have the original clutch.