A former student of a Virginia truck driving school is accusing the institution of fraudulently violating a number of Department of Motor Vehicles rules. State DMV officials are looking into the matter and will release their report when the investigation is complete.
Locally-based James Corbett had been referred to 4CDL.com through the Workforce Alliance Program and Thomas Nelson and John Tyler Community colleges. 4CDL.com is the official website of the U.S. Truck Drivers Training Program Inc.
Corbett claimed he paid $4,000 for a full-time four-week training course with 4CDL.com that was designed to train him in commercial truck driving. All student drivers must pass a written and road skills test with the DMV in order to receive their commercial driver’s license.
The former student stated the organization gave him the answers to written tests beforehand.
“Here’s the test, now you can look at test and you have 10 minutes to ask me any of the questions that are on the test and I’ll give you the correct answer and if anybody starts writing on the test, that part is over and you’re on your own,” said Corbett, NBC12 reports. “So with that, within 10 minutes we were able to ask the instructor 30 questions and get the answers and through proper memorization, if you will, everybody was able to ace the test.”
4CDL.com also took six weeks of the four-week course to train Corbett how to park a commercial vehicle, the only commercial driving maneuver he was taught.
“At the end of six weeks, I had yet to be on the road,” said Corbett. “I had yet to be off their lot, behind the wheel, on public roads, practicing.”
The school’s owner rejected Corbett’s claims, and pointed out that he was in possession of school records that showed Corbett had failed to attend class several times and “did” have opportunities to drive on the road. The records were never shown to NBC12.
Without giving a reason, representatives of John Tyler and Thomas Nelson community colleges announced they terminated their affiliation with the school.
Other DMV code violations filed by Corbett included having too many students in a cab while training and an instructor smoking in the cab with students.