Horizon Transport, WaveExpress Invest in Driver Simulators

RV Business

The 3,000-plus contractor driver/operators for OEM RV hauler Horizon Transport and its affiliate dealer RV delivery business WaveExpress stand to benefit from the firm’s investment in two state-of-the art driver simulators to improve safety and enhance the readiness for dangerous road conditions.

Training and assimilation to the two new systems are now underway and with implementation for training drivers to take place this month, according to Rob Jackson, director of strategic planning for the two trucking firms.

“Horizon Transport and WaveExpress is excited to introduce our contractors to a ‘real world’ driving experience simulator training tool,” Jackson told RVBusiness. “It’s designed and produced by L3Harris, a world renowned company, whose goal is anticipating and rapidly responding to challenges with agile technology to create a safer world.”

He added that the two L3Harris driver simulators cost in excess of $100,000 each, and the firm is known worldwide for its simulation of structures for many service businesses and military operations.

“These are pretty sophisticated pieces of equipment as they are specialized to our driver conditions and expectations,” said Jackson. “When you think of a driving simulator, you may think of a sophisticated home application like today’s games. But this is probably about 10 times up from that and they’re 3D. Obviously, the genesis is to enhance and evolve our safety operations, being a transportation company.”

The simulators allow the company to develop training modules in different formats to do an actual training safety class, he said, adding that the classes are designed to incorporate the simulator-based teachings based on specific actions like backing, turning and speed control.

“The simulators are sophisticated enough to assimilate any road condition,” he reported, “So, any road condition – from ice, black ice, wind, terrain, angle – can be assimilated into any programmed environment. The simulator comes with a computer attachment so you can program-in any scenario, such as a kid running out in the street after a ball to heading down a major grade with a big fifth-wheel on black ice.”

He stated that the $20,000 driver’s seat actually moves and twists to create the actual inertia of the truck under dangerous conditions.

“It can assimilate the feeling of sliding on black ice as the base that the driver is sitting on moves with every twist and turn,” explained Jackson. “So, when you’re hitting a 50-mph wind shear coming across from the right, you’ll feel it in the seat, so your body reacts to it. So, yeah, it’s pretty slick.”

From showing drivers how distracted driving from looking down at mobile devices affects their performance, to the basics of down shifting and operations, the new simulators help to set new standards for both firms. All of its 3,000-plus drivers will eventually participate.

“Our intention is to train the whole fleet,” said Jackson. “We’re going to have two-hour platforms for remedial training and then also new driver training. It’s a bit unprecedented in the industry. It’s an awesome tool to really focus our efforts on safety. That’s one thing that we really take pride in here at Horizon and Wave is our safety culture from the ownership down.”

“I think, ultimately, the benefit of the simulator is to allow professional trucking companies like us to assess driver behavior in a simulated environment,” he added. “We wanted to create an environment where we know what drivers experience out there, whether it’s fatigue, whether it’s distracted driving or black ice, we can put the driver in a simulation environment and practice behavioral responses here first, rather than in the real world.”

Jackson said the service and installation support from L3Harris is top-notch.

“They provided professional simulator trainers on site,” he stated. “They flew them in for weeks of training. This isn’t something you just buy and it drops on your doorstep. They take the time and attention to come in and really walk you through sophisticated training. And then, they’re available 24/7 for whatever our needs are.