As of last week, a local woman who has driven a truck for less than a year held the bragging rights as the only person to be assessed with zero errors.

Cowell woman Kylie Elleway started work for HWE as a dump truck driver 11 months ago, and she is now setting the benchmark for her fellow drivers as they undergo their individual evaluations.

Kylie said she had tried extremely hard to do well in her test, which she found more realistic in some ways than others.

“It is set in real time but when something happens (in the simulator) it happens a lot quicker,” she said.

Training coordinator Darren McNamara said putting drivers through their paces in the Immersive Technology Simulator was improving safety and saving money.

“We used to average 25 to 30 transmission abuses a week – now we are averaging about seven a week,” Darren said.

With vehicle costs standing at more than $60,000 per gearbox, improved training is important.

“The whole idea of this is we want them to make their mistakes in here,” he said. “This way we will pick up any bad habits…and everything they learn in here they can transport out there (on the mine).”

The experience of the driver in the simulator is remarkably realistic, with mine scenes appearing to be passed by the driver’s truck, the driver’s seat bumping over roads and giving the feel of the weight of rock being loaded onto the truck.

When rain falls on the driver’s windscreen, the road becomes slippery and the truck more difficult to control.

A realistic view is given as drivers reverse into position at loading and unloading areas.

Once all of HWE’s truck drivers have been put through their paces in the simulator the console area of it will be altered to put through drivers of other vehicles on site, including bulldozers, loaders and light vehicles.

HWE has recently employed an extra 150 people at its Southern Middleback Ranges site making it the company’s third biggest mine in Australia.