During a trip to Winnipeg in May, one of my steer tires blew out and then a pea-soup fog enveloped my truck like a wet blanket. Ultimately, I found myself stranded on the median with cars piling up around me.

A bad trip? Nope, all in a day’s work at Bison Transport’s state-of-the-art training centre, opened last month. The Winnipeg-based truckload carrier has equipped the facility with a full-motion simulator that engulfs you in the experience of driving a heavy truck and takes you to its limits.

The Mark II simulator from GE Capital Driver Development in Salt Lake City (www.i-sim.com) is a fully functional Freightliner FL-series cab mounted on a base that simulates a wide range of motion.

The brake, clutch, and throttle control are linked to the Mark II’s computer, which calculates your actions and produces a logical reaction without missing a beat. When my Bison trainer triggered a left steer-tire blow out, complete with a bang and a six-inch drop to the right front, the cab started to shake and pitch from side to side as I pulled off the pavement on to the shoulder, and then onto the grass. Three video projection screens mounted at the front and sides of the simulator and two simulated side mirrors provide a full view of the action.

The Mark II can conjure up different weather and road conditions, loads, and traffic environments ranging from a cramped city street to an open freeway. It can also mimic more than 140 different transmissions and shift patterns, coupled to 240 different engine configurations. With that kind of variety at hand, says Bison vice-president of operations Rob Penner, the Mark II can throw a challenge at even the most road-hardened veteran.

The device is no cheap thrill — a Mark II retails for $430,000 US-but Penner thinks the payoff is worth it.

“The up-front costs are quantifiable, as are the operating costs,” says Penner, who oversees more than 925 drivers and 150 owner-operators. “The intangibles are the costs we would have experienced in the future. We’re doing more here than training drivers. We’re saying to our drivers, ‘You’re good enough to work here now, we hired you, and we’re committed to you.'”