Mexico's freight and passenger trucking sector faces a historic challenge: soaring demand for qualified drivers alongside the urgent need to guarantee road safety. Aware of this reality, the State of Hidalgo's Job Training Institute is taking an unprecedented technological step with the integration of a truck driving simulator at ICATHI Atitalaquia.
Through its Driver Training and Development Center, the campus is establishing itself as an educational benchmark. This acquisition not only modernizes the institution's infrastructure — it redefines the standards of technical and workforce education across the entire Hidalgo region.
What the technology is for at ICATHI Atitalaquia
The truck driving simulator is part of a comprehensive plan to close the gap between classroom theory and the real demands of the global market. The main objectives are:
- Raise competitiveness: supply the industrial zone with highly skilled, professional operators.
- Prevent accidents: cut highway accident rates through training focused on defensive driving and decision-making under pressure.
- Official certification: give drivers officially recognized training that backs their skills and improves their job prospects.
For APEX, partnering with the State of Hidalgo's Job Training Institute is a strategic alliance for the country's logistics development. Bringing this fully immersive technology to the ICATHI Atitalaquia campus reflects the vision of an institution committed to the highest standards of road safety and operational efficiency. This project gives the region an invaluable scientific tool designed to mitigate highway risks, cut operating costs through advanced telemetry and, above all, certify operators who can compete with anyone in the global market. We celebrate the trust placed in our technology to drive the professionalization of trucking in Hidalgo.
Jose Miguel MontoyaChief Commercial Officer, APEX Simulation & Technology
Key features of the new truck driving simulator
Why does this equipment change the game at ICATHI Atitalaquia? Unlike traditional teaching methods, the system offers unique training capabilities:
- Hyper-realistic immersion: faithfully recreates the cab of a heavy-duty truck, the vehicle's physics, the weight of the load, and adverse weather conditions (fog, rain, or mechanical failures).
- Strategic location: the Atitalaquia campus sits in the heart of one of Hidalgo's most important logistics and industrial corridors.
- Scientific evaluation: the software records real-time telemetry data (brake use, fuel consumption, and reaction times), enabling 100% objective feedback.
Jessica Alfaro, who represented the National Freight Trucking Chamber (Canacar) at the event, spoke to the benefits of the simulator training program.
It has helped us enormously given the nationwide driver shortage we are facing right now. Drivers no longer learn on their own the way they used to — we invite them to train safely to guarantee their professionalization.
Jessica AlfaroRepresentative, National Freight Trucking Chamber (Canacar)She emphasized that the simulator eases the learning curve for trainees who have never driven a fifth-wheel rig, keeping the jump from a passenger car from being too abrupt.
Benefits for students and companies across the region
The arrival of this truck driving simulator at ICATHI Atitalaquia creates immediate competitive advantages for every player in the sector.
For drivers in training
- Safe training: students practice high-risk maneuvers in a controlled virtual environment, protecting their physical safety.
- Skill development: trainees build muscle memory and confidence before operating a real tractor-trailer.
For logistics companies
- Lower operating costs: reduces diesel spend and tire wear during fleet training.
- Eco-driving: the system teaches techniques that save fuel and shrink the carbon footprint.
On the simulator's functionality, José Ramón Nájera, head of IT at ICATHI, highlighted that its main purpose is to help operators lose their fear of driving large vehicles.
With this simulator you already handle the dimensions, you lose the fear — you have the theory, the practice, and the knowledge; the only thing left is to apply it in real life.
José Ramón NájeraHead of IT, ICATHI
The fifth-wheel driver training program is projected to reach nearly 200 graduates per year within two to three years across the Atitalaquia and Mineral de la Reforma campuses.
In his remarks, Héctor Martínez Castuera, coordinator of the State Job Training Institutes network (ICAT), stressed that Mexico's highways cannot be imagined without federal freight and passenger trucking, and that training must remain a priority. He added that programs like this one help ease the country's ongoing driver shortage.
The sector has a need. The director general of Federal Trucking, engineer Luis Ruiz, told us they need to serve close to 90,000 professional drivers across the country. In our network, the CECATIs and ICATHIs, we have 673 units nationwide with the capacity to deliver that training — and with this support from business leaders and the trucking chambers, we can work to meet that demand.
Héctor Martínez CastueraCoordinator, State Job Training Institutes network (ICAT)
