Truck Dynasty Driving Academy

First let me start out by saying I have a little over 1/2 million miles under my belt and have driven OTR for 5 years. I have driven through blizzards, dust storms, strong winds, NYC, through all the steep mountains and have delivered in places where you can barely fit a straight truck. I am 65 years old and unfortunately let my CDL go and now I'm paying the price.


So this is my 4th day here at Dynasty Truck Driving Academy. I plan on going with CFI but not sure I'll make it through because of they unprofessional way they run this school... this is the one in Springfield, MO. The first few days went smoothly but the hours are not there for each student.


On the first day we spent the morning and into the afternoon standing on the overpass on Highway 44. The truck convoy was coming through so we spent the morning cheering them on, of course no one knew the exact time they were coming through so we were out there for quite awhile.


The second day we had what is called some 35 step questions and answers but because of the lost time from the first day, the instructor went through the slides as we copied down the answers. Today is Thursday so we spent some time on pretrip yesterday, but today and part of yesterday is a joke.


Everyday this guy comes out (I call him the warden) and talks down at all the students. He threatens eveyone everyday to send people home if they do this or don't do that. From what I can see, everyone's os doing the best they can with what they have to work with, and we don't have much to work with here. There are 10 students per truck, there are 3 trucks out on the driving range and 4 of those trucks have 4 students per truck.


There's two trucks sitting empty and no one is training on them and they could be, but apparently there's not enough trainers. One girl who has about 4 years on the road, walks around like she's hot sh@t. The other trainer likes to talk theory more then show and tell. There's one trainer that walks around telling the students one thing by interrupting the guy trying to tell us something different. It's a mess out here to say the least.


So today the warden sits in his truck with the owner of the company and observes everything going on. He gets out of the vehand again threatens to send people home if they're not paying more attention, and you're lucky if you can see over the next guy's shoulder to see or hear anything. He goes back to the truck and after a few minutes scolds the trainers and tells them that they need to be stepping up their training techniques in front of everyone in earshot.


As I said, I'm trying to get on with CFI but chose to go through a company paid program which was a mistake. This is a CDL Mill, try to get as many students in as possible and push them through to make more money. If anyone thinks that CDL Mills don't exist today, you're mistaken. CFI tells you that they will give you 3 meals a day while training, that is not accurate.


You get $15 a day for supper and lunch. During the weekends you're on your own so plan accordingly if you chose to with this racket. This is supposed to be a 3 week training course but plan on spending at least a week standing around outside twiddling your thumbs bored out of your mind. I'm not sure what the exact requirements are as far as the DOT goes, but I'm pretty sure this school (and I use that term very loosely) is not full filling these requirements. The schools head people act like they're running a jail yard while threatening students that he'll be sending students home, and there's no unruly actions going on at all. Everyone is on their best behavior and acting like a adult. My fellow students (even though they share my same feelings about this school) are good people trying to get their career in trucking. It's terrible here.

 

I already have a contract with CFI but I really wished I financed this myself. I know many here think that going with a company paid program is better, but if you're looking for quality, then choosing the right school is critical.

SAGE schools in my opinion are the best. You get more truck and one on one training time. These mega companies are all about quantity, not quality. I thought that with my experience it would be a breeze to go through one of the company sponsored schools, but was I wrong.

 

Well the end result was this... I contacted CFI via email regarding my concerns of the lack of training. CFI forwarded the email to the owners of the school. The school's warden and the owner had a chat with me and and afterwards I thought things were a little better organized that afternoon.

The hotel where everyone stays at is for 3 weeks, however the hotel only programs the room keys for every other day. You have to go through the hotel office after the second day to have your key reprogrammed.

From everything I observed, between the warden threatening the students with getting kicked out of the school and the room keys not being activated long term, they're either expecting or planning on students going home.

By the end of the day I sent the email I had to go down to the hotel office to get me room key activated again. But this time it wasn't an every other day thing, it was the very next day after I just had it activated the day before. The hotel manager gave me a hard time about it and within 5 minutes after I got back to the room that the phone was ringing.

The school was kicking me out and I had a half hour to be out of the room. The other students had come to me and we were all standing out in the parking lot. They thanked me for voicing my concerns about the poor training because the feeling was mutual among all the students. How do I know? Everyone saw the same thing that was going on and they were all complaining of the same concerns.

The students were now concerns that if they had any complaints that they may be kicked out too because from day one, the warden had been threatening anyone who didn't do this or did that, they would be sent home. My fellow students offered to pay for a different hotel and asked me to dinner with them on their dime.

While we were outside talking, one of the students coming out of the office overheard the manager calling the school telling them that I was talking to the other students. I'm back home now and back to square one. I don't know if CFI is anbad company or not, what I do know is that they have made their choice to pair up with a poorly ran school.

As far as the school and hotel goes, no stars. I know that CFI notified the school and the school must have told them something not so good, because CFI has not returned my calls. I don't owe anything on any contract because I didn't quit, I just voiced what everyone else was experiencing.