Watch Out For DTS (Driver training Solutions) in WA

I wrote a very long post on this but it got deleted somehow.

In short, their idea of "classroom training" is to stick ten people around a table that will barely hold them in what amounts to a single-wide trailer (psace-wise) hand you the FREE state manual, give you some test questions and wish you good luck. -I give my DOGS better training on how to play fetch.


They have exactly ONE trainer who has any notion of how to train. But his idea of training is to have you start out in second gear at a stop, shift to third through the intersection and THEN start your turn. Because hey, under pressure on the test, NO ONE would ever miss a gear in that intersection, and of course if you impede traffic in ANY way on the test, it's an auto-fail. Dumbest ###### idea EVER.

You could just start the turn in third, gather speed as you turn and then shift to fourth etc. as you complete it (perfectly OK under state-guidelines) but apparently these guys WANT to put you in a position of failing. Or the "training" curriculum was written by someone with a brain the size of a pea.

Learning how to back? (Little bit important ya think?) The "trainer" loads 5 guys into the sleeeper, demonstrates a straight back and an offset, then gets out and wishes you luck as he goes back to his truck to watch you practice it WRONG for the next three weeks with ZERO actual instruction

40-50% of the students that I personally observed FAILED the written (Gen Know, Air-Brakes and Combo) tests at LEAST once. Many two and three times. (It costs the student $10 a pop for these beyond the $4120 tuition). BECAUSE THEY WERENT TAUGHT ANYTHING that they couldn't have gotten for free on Youtube and the State supplied (free) manual.

50% of the class ahead of me and MY class failed the driving/inspection/backing tests. At least once. ($100) for every test beyond the 1st.

I failed my backing twice. the first time, the truck they sent me with wouldn't hold air pressure and the tester refused to let me test in it. They sent out the Reefer, which I'd only driven once for 30 minutes or so and had no backup experience in. I failed. just didn't know where the bumper was and I was out-of-bounds on the straight back (10 points there out of a possible 12). Nailed the offset, lost three on the 90 and that was that.

Tested a second time, nailed the straightback and offset, but couldn't do the 90 because frankly, I didn't know what the Heck I was doing. Went back to the school they said they had no time for me, no training, (which I never got anyway) and to come back in a week and they would give me a few minutes practice before I tested.

Contacted another school. I learned more in 30 minutes than I learned in 5 weeks at DTS. Because these folks actually know HOW TO TEACH. I do 90s in one, SOMETIMES 2 pullups, on rare occasions 3. EVERY TIME.

I'm totally confident. I know what I'm doing. They trained me on flatbeds and reefers, 28" 35" 43" and 48". they also taught me FOR THE FIRST TIME how to hookup my gladhands and hookup to a trailer. (DTS coudn't be arsed). All this in FOUR DAYS.

Take my test on Wed (three more working days) and I can't wait. Not dreading it, not fearing it......... (Well, maybe a little): ) but I KNOW how to do everything because the second school TAUGHT me. I paid out the wazooo to learn this stuff. Frankly it's a sick joke that the $4120 DTS got out of me didn't do this.

Run FAR, FAR away from DTS. This is a ripoff course. If it was just me, I'd chalk it up to I must just stink at driving. When it's 50% of your students? It's NOT the students.

 

Brenyoda:

Those are all fair questions. I'm old enough and wise enough not to just blame someone else for my shortcomings. If this was just me, I'd have to chalk it up to me learning poorly. I know with angled backing in particular, I'm not the brightest bulb in the basket. We had a few guys who just picked it right up no problem. The rest of us struggled to one level or another. Everyone spoke fluent English, everyone was highly motivated and no one was outright stupid. (My class anyway).

My class is not unusual. I'm told by little birdies in a position to know that 50% failure rate is pretty normal for this campus. 10% is normal for most of the other schools in the area. The school I'm in now has several mono-lingual Spanish speakers. They graduate 90% 1st-time pass rate. Usually the failure is just a random critical mistake, (hitting a curb etc.) not lack of knowledge. At DTS, a couple of guys never even got past the inspection. The rest failed on backing. Considering virtually zero actual instruction on backing and not a lot of practice time, not really surprising. We were SHOWN a pre-trip exactly once. They did test some of us once at some point before we tested. But mostly they handed us a sheet with the procedure and we had to get it ourselves. I'm pretty good at this sort of thing natuarally so for me, it was no big deal, just annoying that we got so little instruction. I was never shown how to actually adjust the slack adjuster, how to check the differential or how to check the hubs. I was never shown how to hookup.

I eventually got practice backing, but I was practicing it WRONG. I learned how to do it WRONG, very well That's not gonna help much on the test. When I showed up at H&R Elite, they gave me a skills test. Basically they said I was solid except for that 90-degree backing. On that, they said, I simply didn't know what the Heck I was doing. They explained it several times in several ways and in 30 minutes I was vastly improved. DTS DID do some small instruction, but I didn't understand whatever it was they were trying to say. Which left me in the position of having a vague idea and no clue at all what to do if it didn't go well right off the bat. It's not supposed to be a crap-shoot. It's supposed to be a known quantity, no big deal. It wasn't before, now it is. (no big deal). All it took was being taught well, in a way that I understood, and some practice.

As to the shifting from taking off, I agree that's a good skill to have and not hard to learn. Insisting that you do it every time, including on the test with an empty trailer is a bad idea IMO. BTW, my OTR driving is fine. I picked that up very quickly. (Based on what every instructor in both schools has told me, not just my opinion).

I've taught other things for many years, including difficult physical tasks. One thing I know from experience is that while you may teach people a variety of good skills, you want to remove failure points wherever possible, not add them in. the KISS principle. Another thing I know is from my military experience. Crawl-Walk-Run is the way you learn well and consistently and each level (Crawl etc.) must be mastered before you move onto the next level. Different students struggle with different things and learn in different ways. Part of being a professional trainer is being able to teach a skill in more than one way and being able to assess where a student is having trouble and quickly addressing that area.

One of the BIG no-noes in training physical skills is letting a student do it wrong, over and over again. Because now that student has not only to learn to do it right, they have to UN-learn the bad habits. What I saw at DTS was just that. Having the student do the task over and over again WRONG and basically hope they eventually figured it out. Frankly I could have rented an old truck and trailer, taken it to a field and taught myself as well as DTS did the job.

EVERYONE in my class complained about the lack of instruction and lack of drive time. Out of the guys who passed the first time (5) 3 had driven semis before on the farm or backing them up to a dock at a warehouse. The other 2 were just better than me at this and picked it up better. I'm happy for all of them. My fellow students, for the most part, were terrific guys and a pleasure to be around.

And the instructors were nice guys too. I should point that out. And I think they WANTED everyone to pass. I just don't think they possessed the skills/motivation/time/equipment to make it happen the way they probably wanted it to. High points for being nice guys. A dead-failure on results.

I wrote this not to just trash the school, but to tell others to find someplace where $4100 won't be wasted. The school that's fixing my shortcomings is head and shoulders above DTS and has the test-results to prove it. They also have better facilities, better curriculum and while the equipment is older, it's in much better shape. It costs significantly less as well.

Hope that's a less bitter version and honest enough that it doesn't come off as whining because I stink. While backing has been my bane, I'm quite solid on it now. We'll see the proof in the pudding on Wednesday when I test. At this point, if I were to fail, I could only chalk it up to nerves and choking. Because I certainly DO now know what I'm doing and how to fix a problem if I make a mistake.

 

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!!

Many Thanks to H&R Elite Trucking Academy in Prosser, WA. THESE are the guys I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a school in Central WA. Reasonable prices, EXCELLENT instruction, very good facilities and equipment. 6-Days and they not only addressed my deficiencies, but also taught me a lot of stuff the other school missed completely. Missed one point on the backing (an extra pullup (3) on the 90, passed the driving test with what I'm assured is a significantly better-than-average score.

Thanks Juan and Adrian! You guys rock!