Using a state transportation grant of more than a half million dollars, the Texas Motor Transportation Association has taken delivery of an unusual educational and training tool – a mobile classroom and truck driver simulator. Developed by GE Capital I-SIM, Salt Lake City, the full-motion truck driver simulator is built into a 53-foot trailer and features computer-based driver training.
“We’ve known what we wanted to do for several years,” says TMTA President Bill Webb. “But since this had never been done before and is very expensive, quite frankly it took us some time to pull it off. We could have never made this happen without our partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), our Foundation and our vendor partners.”
TMTA supplier members contributed equipment, systems and supplies. They include a Volvo 770 tractor from Volvo Trucks North America and Lone Star Truck Center; a generator from Cummins Southern Plains; insurance coverage from Mondics-Greenhaw Insurance; tires from Michelin, trailer tracking from XTRA Lease; a collision-avoidance system from Transportation Safety Technologies; air-ride seats from MHC Kenworth and Seats, Inc.; and fuel from TA Travel Centers. Also, TMTA has partnered with Industrial Learning Technologies to provide ILT’s Tread-1 computer-based driver training in the classroom.
The mobile classroom is designed for two different audiences. In a classroom configuration, the system will be used for driver training. In the exhibit setup, it will be a walk-through, highly-interactive exhibit that will allow the public to climb into the simulator and see what it is like to share the road with a truck.
For more information on the project, visit www.tmta.com.
