For anyone that is considering getting a cdl license here at this school RUN!!! DONT SAY THAT YOU WERE NOT WARNED BY A 100% REAL ACTUAL STUDENT!!! First off, I started at the 160-driving academy school of Charlotte on Hovis Road in November 2023 and was promised when I self-paid $5,000.00 out of my pocket that I would be completed in little as 4 weeks. I can personally tell you that I was enrolled in the program for 3 months and still couldn't pass the final exam test from improper training with a sleeper. So, what this means is that I and others wasted $5,000 dollars and got nothing out the deal by wasted time and a bunch of lies.
My first week experience while still in the classroom was hearing the owner of the company on speaker phone talking to his staff like slaves over the speakerphone due to an amazon accident that occurred where some students were injured due to lack of seatbelts being installed in a new truck. My second red flag was signing a contract and paying in full for my tuition, however not receiving my copy of the terms of the contract that I esigned for more than 2 weeks. The next issue that I personally encountered was being told that I would graduate in little as 4 weeks. Once I got out on the yard, I quickly learned in November 2023 that multiple students had been enrolled in the school for multiple months with most being enrolled over 3 months and still hadn't received the proper sufficient practice in the truck training. The inconsistencies stemmed from 160 driving academy being over grossly greedy by enrolling on average anywhere from 20-35 students at a time while only having 2 instructors. Therefore, you couldn't get the proper time to practice driving maneuver's because 160 driving academy consistently broke the law daily.
The improper safety violations occurred so often that some of the students started to call the department of Transporation aka DMV to report the violations. Once the DMV came out to inspect the school on several different occasions the school was shut down for improper safety equipment being installed in the trucks and also for overcrowding and being out of compliance with staffing levels to the student ratio headcount. At this point this is when I learned that by law CDL schools in NC should only have 4 students MAX per instructor. Therefore, since 160 only had two instructors the max number of students that 160 driving academy should have had was 10 NOT 30 plus students. This is when I totally started to understand that I was doomed from the start. By this time, I was over the timeframe to receive a refund despite 160 not honoring any parts of the contract which I signed. All this resulted in a Failed FINAL maneuver's exam. To add insult to injuries the only people that 160 driving academy catered to were the people from the large amazon contract it had which allowed students to come to the school for free and in the event the students didn't pass amazon would pay twice for the program. However hard-working people like I myself who self-paid out of pocket once they got my money the lack of really giving a flip went out the window.
Anyone who went to school here would agree that the school had several trucks which constantly stayed broke down, cracked windows, mirrors etc which also doesn't make sense at all to me considering how much this school is making monthly. It quickly was clear to me that 160 driving academy was keeping every penny for themselves and not investing anything into the trucks, nor building facility.
So many times, I personally had to go to the doctor to get antibiotic's from breathing the excessive amounts of dust from the parking lot not being properly paved which caused daily heavy dust to be inhaled for 8 hours a day.
My next issue is with the lack of truth that I received from multiple personnel when I brought up complaints about testing, vehicle safety, understaffing, lack of getting into the truck, and being tested in a sleeper but only trained on a day cab.
After this horrible traumatizing experience, I decided to visit other CDL schools in charlotte and found that other schools were following the law and only had on average 8 students with 2 instructors. I personally visited Trans-Tech, and CL transport in charlotte and found that some schools like these two schools were pleasantly ran professionally, vehicles were in compliance, staff was professional, and students all confirmed that graduation time is 4 weeks max. I also learned that at other schools you can take the final maneuver's test more times than what 160 offers.
So, to anyone that would like a quality learning experience then to go to any school except 160 driving academy in Charlotte. To any 160 staff that reads this honest truthful review and doesn't agree with my review please feel free to reach out to me.
Sincerely
Latravius H.
Reliable
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