When I lived in PA I was grandfathered in. I took a job in CT and they wanted this certification and that certification. IMHO certification proves nothing. A lot of paper pushers are making a living out of it though.
I spotted a job for a certified forklift driver recently. I've been driving forklifts all my life and nobody ever asked about certification.
Life is just getting too complicated.
Swift Academy Licenses Suspended
Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by tony282003, Jan 9, 2009.
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Thank you for starting this thread and giving out so much information. My husband received a letter one week before Christmas that he had until 12/27 to retake all tests including road test or his NY CDLA would be suspended. ONE WEEK! Although disgusted he went to our local DMV, was handed 6 booklets of tests, the fees were over $200, and he gave them back the tests and walked out. He has since switched careers, but we would be interested in any class action suit against Swift - he went there in good faith, excelled, we paid back the tuition because he did not stay with Swift and to have his cdl license suspended for this reason is unacceptable. Swift should refund all students for the tuition, or at least for the part of the tuition attributed to issuing the license. If there is someone we should contact please let me know, and thank you.
tony282003 Thanks this. -
WOW guys I'm sorry I took so much time off! I had become tired of defending my comments on other threads, and I needed a break.
"ex cdla wife", I'm sorry your husband had a poor experience at the DMV. What happened is that the staff at your local county bureau was unfamiliar with retesting procedures for Millington grads. The initital written and road tests are free of charge in New York State. Instruction was sent to county offices on December 18, 2008 instructing them to contact IOCU (no, I do not know what that is - but DMV staff should). They can check their mailbag on that date for more info and a phone number that they (DMV staff) are to call.
If your husband is still interested in pursuing this, you and he should probably contact your regional DMV office - which for you is likely in Albany (this would be the office and phone number listed in the suspension letter) - and explain that initially you were asked to pay for the tests and could not at the time. I would imagine they will waive all initial fees for you, even at this late date.
If the regional office won't help out and refuses to contact your county bureau regarding the fees, let me know and I will see if I can help through my contact friends within DMV.
At this point I don't think there is anyone we can contact at Swift regarding refunds - Swift denies any wrongdoing on their part, and refunding tuition fees could be construed as an admission of guilt - so at this point we wait for the outcome of the investigation and can only hope that charges are ultimately filed against someone. I don't know how to go about starting a class-action suit at this point.
"jmeek30", I don't know what Ohio's policies are either. All I can tell you is that, working together with my local assemblyman, we were able to get my state to reverse policy and suspend our commercial privileges upon failure of the road test, as opposed to the 30-day revocation that they had initially imposed.
The Assembly is the lower house in New York's legislature. I don't know what they call it in Ohio, but contacting a representative from the state legislature, especially if you can find one from whose constituency you belong and is on the transportation committee in your home state, is likely to be your best bet if you run into a revocation issue like I did.
Convincing your state's DMV that this is a special situation unlike most license suspensions, and that revocation serves only as a punitive measure against hardworking, taxpaying customers of the DMV would be a major goal for you and your elected representative.
My best suggestion is to practice your straight-line, parallel park, and alley-dock manuevers well before your road test and walk around the truck before you back up! Practice practice practice your pre-trip! Get the CDL manual from Ohio. Talk to a local commercial driving school if you think you need study materials - a local one near me gave me a study guide for free. I posted a straight truck pre-trip guide in this thread: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...licenses-suspended-post744620.html#post744620 . Keep in mind that this is for a straight truck (wish I had been more clear on that in the initial post) but if you need something for a tractor-trailer I will try to help by typing that up for you.
"STL GUY", I also feel terrible for what you are going through! I wonder that it might be possible to contact your new employer and see if they'd be willing to help you out with a truck and a licensed driver, especially if they understand what a special circumstance this really is. Point them to my blog if you have to. Borrow the money if you can. It will be much easier for you to keep your CDL than to try to get it back later.
I don't know why some states are choosing to retest all Millington grads, while others are only retesting certain drivers, while others still seem to not be retesting any (I personally know of a Phoenix resident who was not required to retest). Keep in mind that the Millington school only enrolled students from certain states in the geograhic area - Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, New York, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, etc - and it's likely that the majority of those grads have remained in their home states - so it's also likely that not every state in the country has a Millington grad as a resident.
I don't know if this scandal is Missouri's fault - I don't live in Missouri so I can't comment on the state's track record - but I do know that this story isn't going away yet. I can say that I've heard more than once that Tennessee has a history of corruption within government.
Yes, everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else. Hopefully the ongoing investigation will yield some clues as to where we can begin to lay blame. I'd like to add again the Tennessee has refused to disclose the name of the third-party examiner(s), yet we all know that we all have the Millington Academy in common.
Whom did you speak with at Swift?
"safety1st", yes, I did file a complaint with the FTC, but they have not contacted me regarding it, so it seems that I may need to follow up with them. I would encourage you and anyone else out there who feels that they've been defrauded to contact the FTC and their state's bureau for consumer protection.
TO ALL: I spoke today with Charlie Morasch at LandLine magazine, the official publication of Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), and he is working on a follow up to his initial article I referenced in an earlier post: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...licenses-suspended-post747895.html#post747895
Hopefully we will see this new article within the next few days, although I did not get a definite timeframe from Mr Morasch, but keep watching LandLine magazine for it.
Hope this helps,
Tony -
By the way, "jmeek30", I was born and raised in Youngstown until I turned 13 in 1989 - how are things back in my hometown? Good to hear from someone back home!
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The article below was published February 13, 2009 in LandLine magazine.
I'd like to add that I did NOT imply to the writer that Swift employees were working in the TDoS office in Memphis - that never happened - and, I never said that happened either - but that it was the instructors who also moonlighted as third-party examiners.
I have never intended to spread mis-information, now unfortunately, my name is attached to that article.
Ultimately, not much more info in this article that I'd hoped for. I'm almost embarrassed to post the link, but I said I would.
The rest of the article seems to still be valid.
"Swift was third-party tester in CDL debacle
"After months of questions and two Freedom of Information requests the Tennessee Department of Safety finally coughed up the name of a third party CDL tester whose practices have put thousands of CDLs in jeopardy. . . ."
http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Feb09/020909/021309-02.htm
Oh well. . . .Baack Thanks this. -
Now we know "pawpaw" works for Swift as an instructor in Millington!
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...drivers/64763-swift-academy-5.html#post767564
(I'd like to add that Obie is indeed an excellent trainer - it's because of his patience that I was successful in learning to drive the truck!)Last edited: Feb 16, 2009
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Hi Tony how are you doing with your problem. I just got done with the acadamy but I took my test in Florida and passed. Are you getting any results on your end I did not have time to read. Hope everything is good with you.
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I think that if you live in an area where there is a lot of freight moving, then you likely will be in a truck pretty quickly. Maybe my area of New York is extra slow on freight in the winter.
I passed my road test and am back to driving. No charges have yet been filed against anybody. Tennessee finally named Swift Professional Driving Academy as the third-party examiner in question.
All the recent posts on this thread are mine. I guess some threads get quiet after a while. -
Ok good for you. Now all you need is somebody to cover your downtime and all the crap you had to put up with. I was thinking about you while I was in TN they have changed since you were there. I actually took my dmv test in Florida. I'm glad everything is good with you and your driving again. Pawpaw still there I had Tobi for the range instructor he was pretty good.
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Texas-Nana Thanks this.
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