Driver Training Center in Mexicali Offers Greater U.S.-Mexican Highway Safety

A new heavy truck training center in Baja California features Advanced Training Systems’ Quadrant methodology for driver training

Officials from the municipality of Mexicali, CANACAR (Camara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, Mexico’s counterpart to the American Trucking Association), Cecati 84 (workforce/training agency for the State of Baja California), Kenworth Mexicana, and U.S.A. de C.V. a subsidiary of truck manufacturer Kenworth Trucks, gathered in Mexicali, Baja California for the inauguration of a new heavy truck driver training center.

John Kearney, CEO of Advanced Training Systems LLC (ATS), which supplied CECATI 84 with 2 Fleetmaster – KW 680 motion-based simulation technology and ATS’s Quadrant Driver Training Methodology for the new center, and Enrique Mar, COO, ATS,  issued a joint statement that “This center provides dynamic world class simulator-based effective training for new drivers. It will mean better prepared drivers resulting in safer deliveries and highways on both sides of the border.”

Funding and support for the new training center was made possible by the leadership, oversight and management by the business trust of CANACAR presided by Enrique Armando Gonzalez  and represented locally by Luciano Jimenez Laveaga. It includes funding from the educational institution CECATI 84, Kenworth Mexicana, S.A. de C.V., and the business trust of CANACAR. The center is a model for future centers throughout Mexico, intended to standardize and raise the level of training received by heavy truck drivers. Luciano Jiménez Laveaga of CANACAR noted that the students at the facility will receive a total of 97 hours before graduation, whereas before they received less than 19 hours.¹

The director for the new Mexicali center CECATI 84, Jesus Omar Bon Campos, notes that its training will be provided through the ATS Quadrant methodology of integrating “adaptive training” into a time-tested three-element approach: instructor-led training, computer-based training, and simulator-based training. He pointed out that aspiring drivers can learn the basics of driving, as well as develop the skills necessary to deal with adverse weather and road conditions— before boarding a real truck. They have five simulators, two trailers, and a maneuvering track of 20 hectares (about 50 acres).¹

“What is being offered at the new center in Mexicali,” says ATS’s Kearney, “is a terrific example of the kind of training that should be the rule on both sides of the border.

ATS’s COO Enrique Mar Jr. and CANACAR’s president Enrique Armando Gonzalez have agreed to highlight the attributes integrated in the CECATI 84 Heavy Truck Training Center in forthcoming driver training forums within the Republic of Mexico in an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of a well-integrated “dynamic” driving simulation laboratory.

John Kearney explained, “Learning to drive a big modern truck is a lot like learning to fly a plane: there’s a lot of technology involved, the job requires both judgment and experience, and public safety is an important consideration. With a simulator and virtual reality, you can teach the skills to deal with, say, a patch of black ice or a drive wheel blowout. You can’t do that with conventional behind-the-wheel training, any more than you could teach pilots to deal with an engine failure by letting them crash real planes. Simulation is mandatory for training pilots, and it should be for training truck drivers as well.”

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