I'd imagine pretty much every boy - and many girls too! -  has dreamt about driving a fire engine at some point or other. So when Allison invited me to try one equipped with one of their 3000 Series Transmissions at Millbrook I didn't need asking twice.

Not having an HGV licence - one of the other TNN writers does all of the HGV tests - this was the first time that I'd driven anything quite so big. As I climbed into the driving seat of the 9-litre, 260-bhp, 12-tonne beast I was a little nervous and certainly keen to not make a fool of myself.

But I needn't have worried. Thanks to the 6-speed fully automatic gearbox it was just like driving a car - albeit a very large one.

To be honest, I don't think driving comes much easier than this. Move the gear selector to 'D', release the handbrake, press on the accelerator and you're off. Allison claims that one of the benefits of fitting their automatic transmission is 'simplicity and ease of use' and they're certainly not wrong there.

Having done the easy bit of moving off in a straight line, I thought it would be a good idea to try the stopping thing; fitted with Allison's own clever integral retarder that could be switched between working only when the brakes were applied or, when you lifted your foot off the accelerator, the fire engine slowed comfortably and came to a gentle halt.

Having got a bit of confidence in my abilities and, with nothing to hit in the immediate vicinity, I explored further and spent the next 10 or so minutes performing a combination of circles and figures of eight. I even had a go at reversing and was pleasantly surprised at how easy that was, although I suspect the road cone that I was reversing round was probably more relieved than I was!

Then, far too quickly, my drive was up and it was time to see just what could be done. Wanting to get some pictures of the unit in motion, I left it in the skilled and controlled hands of Ray Willett from the Bedfordshire and Luton Fire & Rescue Service. Watching Ray push the vehicle round, tyres just starting to protest was both great and very impressive, especially as I knew he'd shortly be taking us round Millbrook's Alpine Test Route.

On our way over to the Alpine circuit, we stopped off at the measured mile straight to see how well a fire engine could accelerate. For the emergency services Allison's gearboxes feature 'a gear change logic tailored to the unique demands of an emergency truck'. In layman's terms this means that the ratios are optimised for acceleration and speed as opposed to fuel economy. Now in a straight sprint there's obviously no way the fire engine would beat, say, a Porsche 911 or even a hot-hatch, but for 9-tonnes of metal it was certainly no slouch and tore smoothly down the strip.

The Alpine Test Loops at Millbrook comprise of a series of bends and calibrated hills designed to simulate the ups, downs and corners of, unsurprisingly enough, the Alps. Naturally none of this fazed Ray at all and he confidently guided the truck around the circuit without batting an eyelid. Perhaps even more impressive than Ray's driving was the performance of the gearbox; with no hint of a gear change, the transmission just selected the gear it needed and smoothly got on with the job in hand. There wasn't even an audible change in the engine note to give you a clue as to when a new gear had been selected.

Back at Allison's offices their UK Area Manager, Riccardo Sardelli, asked me what I'd thought. The first word that came to mind was 'easy'; for someone with my non-existent HGV driving experience to just hop in and go was testament to the simplicity and ease of use that Allison rightly claim. But it was the smoothness that had impressed me the most. Even when being put through its paces there had been no jerky changes, no lurching about at slow speeds, just smooth continuous power.

Now you may be thinking that this is all well, good and didn't you have fun, but wondering why it's relevant to you. Well, Allison Transmissions aren't just for emergency vehicles, you can have one in your truck and it doesn't even have to be a new vehicle as Allison can retrofit. Thanks to a clever modular design, one of Allison's units can be made to fit into pretty much any commercial vehicle and are specified by more than 200 vehicle manufacturers worldwide.

The obvious audiences for Allison's gearboxes are vehicles that are used for a lot of stop / start work such as refuse collection vehicles, but the company claim that that their units are 'automatically better' than their manual counterparts. The precise electronic control of the gearshifts helps the engine operate efficiently all of the time. This reduces engine speeds giving better fuel consumption, lower emissions, less noise and reduced wear - all of these creating big savings for operators.

It's not just the vehicles and operators that are better off with Allison equipment the drivers should be too. According to the company, medical tests have proved that drivers of Allison-equipped vehicles enjoy both a lower heart rate and lower blood pressure than those driving vehicles with manual transmission. This is not only good for the driver, it's also good for their employer as better health means fewer days off work and could also mean reduced staff turnover and improved concentration, leading to better productivity and safety.

Allison have been building automatic transmissions for commercial vehicles for more than 40 years and are part of the massive GM Group so they should know what they're talking about. So if you haven't thought about an automatic before, why not give Allison a call and try one. Ok, it may not be a fire engine but we're sure you'll still be impressed.

Finally, TNN would like to say a very big thank you to Ray Willett and the Bedfordshire and Luton Fire & Rescue Service for letting us loose in their fire engine.