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If you are reading this you are probably being lured in or have been lured in by an ad on the internet or the Thrifty Nickel saying something like "OTR drivers needed, NO EXPERIENCE REQ, must have valid license and clean record, earn 35-40k your first year". These people promise the world to people desperate and foolish enough to think there's a massive shortage of truck drivers even in a bad economy. The truth is there is absolutely no shortage of truck drivers especially in the four trucking companies that work through driver solutions. The math is simple to calculate because there are so many students going in and out of the training school each month that all four of these companies combined don't have enough trucks to put them in.
The four companies that run the training facility P.A.M. Transport, USA, Decker, and Star make money by setting up students for failure and then collecting outrageous loan balances by any means possible including suing them and harassing their family members. The loans through these companies are not dischargeable on chapter 7 bankruptcy since they are considered a "student loan" despite the fact that the school only trains each student for maybe 30 minutes to an hour behind the wheel each day during the 4-6 week course, therefore it's no wonder why they are so willing to issue loans to people who have no credit. They are loans sharks using false advertising to commit student loan fraud.
They charge 6000 dollars plus 9-18% interest (not considering 8 weeks out of work) for a service that somebody can get elsewhere for under $1000 if they look hard enough. They also charge 500 dollars during the course to share an apartment with 3 other drivers in one of the worst neighborhoods in Indianapolis. The living conditions there are terrible, not to mention dangerous. People who use this service usually know it's overpriced, but through false advertising they are lead to believe they have guaranteed positions that pay well and really need their employment so they are given a false sense of security that the loan will be paid back.
They explain the contract very vaguely before having students sign on the dotted line without taking the health screening first (although they do perform the drug test before handing it out). The instructors are friendly to everyone at least during the first week when they are still trying to sell the course. After all signatures are down it's pretty much every man for himself to get as much time behind the wheel as they can possibly get before they are told by the instructor their time is up. If they are on the backing range they might get two chances per day to practice getting the truck in between the cones. If they are on the "road course" they might get about 30-45 minutes to drive through a bunch of school zones at 35 miles an hour through downtown Indianapolis if they get a chance to drive at all that day.
The CDL exam is relatively easy to pass, but if a student doesn't get it within 4 tries they send them home packing with no job, no CDL, and the 6500 dollar bill. The instructors state during the course (of course after all the names are signed) that at least half of the drivers there don't make it in trucking and that the course is designed to get them their CDL and get them out of there as quickly as possible so they can be trained over the road. The problem with this is there is no over the road training once a student gets the CDL. After usually two or three weeks of waiting they are forced to drive non stop with the "trainer" or go home. The "trainer" has to sleep eventually so a student driver with maybe 5 hours of experience has to drive a 52' trailer with nobody there to coach them in case they are about to kill themselves. The trainer usually after learning the driver has zero experience behind the wheel will want them off the truck anyway and wherever the truck happens to be at is usually where they get sent packing like garbage tossed over on the side of the road (personally, my "trainer" screamed at me every time I let the gas pedal off the floor, even an inch). And just like any job in the area they can fire whoever they want for any reason without repercussion so they have no problem doing that and collecting on the student loan.
Usually drivers who make it through this are used for the crap loads other drivers won't take like sending trucks for repairs, driving short runs to wait on slow receivers, etc. etc., usually in poor condition trucks, for very little pay (some weeks next to nothing). And if they end up in the hospital sick they are forced to either drive or walk. If they get sent over the road for a year straight and want a day home, it's drive or walk. If they are tired and swerving all over the road and need to rest, it's drive or walk.
It might sound good that they pay for your training in advance without checking credit history and perhaps you are considering it because you are desperate, perhaps homeless, and don't have the money up front. The truth is it's better to just get a minimum wage job or sign up for a government help now then to sign yourself over to slavery. Remember you cannot even go bankrupt on that loan. They can mistreat you as much as they want to get you to quit that job and owe the loan and they want that because the trucking company and loan company are owned by the same people. And even if you put of with all that crap and work for nothing for a year, they consider it a bonus because you paid them back by taking all their crap loads and working for free.
If you go into trucking go in the right way, not like I did. Work a job and go to college like just about everybody else has to do and get this get well off quick bs out of your head before you end up owing this loan for years and years over some crap you found under a "work-at-home for $2000 a week" ad in the paper. Get some real experience before you attempt to go behind the wheel. Forget about over-the-road because the pay and work conditions suck. And if you must pay your dues, work up the ladder slowly, start with company that won't run you tired, and get a dedicated or regional route where you are not running around cross country like a chicken with your head cut off in the ice and snow.
Personally, after my experience with driver solutions I got a job driving a straight truck that I could of got easily with no experience, only required a chauffeur's license, and got me the experience I need to get a decent job driving locally. I am waiting on more opportunities because of the recession, but I at least got the experience I need now when the job market picks back up.
Take this as a lesson people that you might not have to go through all this nutty bs to get a driving job. There are places that hire new drivers, granted they might not be semi driving jobs or they may be semi driving jobs where you work in a warehouse and just back trailers in a dock, but you can get experience with these jobs and you can get it without signing yourself into slavery for a year or being rolled over in a ditch somewhere dead.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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Does anyone know of any class action lawsuits going on against Driver Solutions and/or USA Truck? My boyfriend went to the C1 school in Indiana, and all that other bs, started driving for USA Truck, got very little home time and a ### truck that the company did not even bother to clean before they issued it to him, so he had to clean it himself. VERY small paychecks, less than I get from unemployment. He wanted so badly to quit, but I told him to stick with it, so he did. And what thanks does he get for sticking it out? A phone call from USA Truck telling him he is being terminated, no reason provided. Then come the phone calls from Driver Solutions, then a letter in the mail with a bill amount of $5, 575.89. I understand the whole paying back student loans thing, but how can they expect to get their money when the trucking company fires someone without reason or explanation? You are told to work for the trucking company for a year, and I have read several complaints about people getting fired from the trucking companies the school sends them to. I am not a firsthand victim of this shady scheme, but it does affect me and my family, my boyfriend wants to sue. So if anyone knows of any lawsuits going on, please inform us.
I would like to talk with anyone who is reading this thread. Has attended C-1 training school, is being sued by driver solutions or knows of someone who is in this predicament. You can contact me at emjc1995 at the smiley. I am heading to Indianapolis to stand up to this fraudulent company and would like to have all the support I can get. Thank you in advance.
I too am looking to organize to fight back against this company and their fraudulent loan sharking tactics. C1 Driver Solutions tried to extort over $10, 000 from me using borderline threats ( I will attempt to attach a picture of one of the letters from Brian Alsip) to scare me into paying before taking me to court. I am looking for anyone that has had problems with this school. Please Email me @ C1DriverSolutionsFraud@Gmail.com and let me know how this company has hurt you. I am asking nothing from any of you willing to fight back than to just spread word of this fraud at the moment. My first strike against this company will be in the form of spreading the word to as many possible readers as I can so we can help stop enrollment into this school. I will be starting a Facebook page in the next couple of days and will use any other means of social networking I can, but this will require your help in order to take this VIRAL. I am in contact with lawyers to find out what we can do, and if I can find another way to launch a strike against them I will. C1 made a mistake, I have $10, 000- But I also have much more than that and I am willing to invest $50, 000 to see that this ends. If we can find a way to recover money then I will consider upping my efforts, because my desire to bring harm to this school for its attack on decent Americans looking for stable gainful employment during these brutal economic times has no bounds. I can not take this first strike against them alone and I am only asking minimal effort from you to aid me in this fight. Once my Facebook page goes live I will post a link here, please visit, friend, and post to your page asking all of your friends to do the same- If it is true that everyone is the world can be connected by 7 people I think we can do some serious damage to them in a very short time. Please...It is time we all start fighting back against infringement on our basic rights...all of us as Americans need to start using this wonderful tool to fight back. The Internet has given us a way to connect, companies figured it out...they have swamped the Internet with advertising. Consumers have the same ability to use the Internet the same way with an opposite outcome for businesses...Imagine if the first Google search result for " Driver Solutions " or " C1 Truck Driver Training " was a link to a story about their deceptive, extorting, loan sharking ways...It would destroy them...We can destroy them. Join me in my fight!
If you are interested in my full story you can read that here: /link removed/
Thank you
Josh FREEDOM
I, too, have been victimized by this company, I signed on with driver solutions in November, passed the state exam, got my CDl and started driving for PAM. I was teamed with a guy who threatened to kill me on multiple occasions so I called my driver manager and he said I would have to wait for a new partner to drive again. I was left at home with no income for weeks before driver solutiuons called me saying that my employment with PAM had been terminated and that I now owed them the full amount of nearly 6, 000 dollars. I have no idea what to do, have no money to pay them back, managed to get some menial job paying that's not going to cover this bill. What should I do? I thought about trying to contact a lawyer and see if I can dispute the contract, has anyone had success in dealing with these scammers?
I HAVE A LAWYER AND WILL BE GOING TO COURT ON SEPT 26 2012 TO FIGHT THIS GROUP IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FIGHT BACK EMAIL ME T71STANG@AOL.COM
My name is Isaac Long, I went through Drivers Solution also and went to C1 in Fort Worth, Tx. I live in Fort Worth, this company and the school is a scam! People who are interested in Drivers Solution, I can tell you this. DO NOT DO IT, the school C1 is a rip off. Also Drivers Solution, promises you 35, 000 to 45, 000, this is untrue. As a new driver for Pam or USA Truck you get low miles @ 25 cents a mile. Due to your inexperience! All trucking companies that hire through DS, suck and take advantage of you. As you read the above comments, all are 100% true. I drove to school every day and lived in the town, where the school was located. DS, charged me the exact same amount that they charged people, who; 1) They bused in from other states 2) They put up in an hotel 3) They paid for their transportation, To and From the hotel and school. I found this out much too late! On Nov. 29 2012, DS took me to small claims court in Indiana and I am sure they won cause I did not show up. Due to fact that, Indiana small claims court judgement against me has no legal stance in Texas, but they can freeze my accounts (bank). Also, read the contract before you sign it, it says that my signing this document, You forfeit the right sue via jury trial. Ummm, I wonder why? Because you would win, this is an EXTREMELY, over priced way to get your CDL. The school is not very good and they are in bed with DS. We cannot fight separately, the prove is in the contract you sign. If you want to shut this SCAM down, it needs to be a group effort. They have the, lawyers and the funds to beat us individually. Good Luck to you all, especially you fools who call them and tell them all the negative stuff yu have read about them. They will tell you, "These are written by a few who could not cut it as Truck Drivers and need to blame someone for their failure." Not true, I quit USA Truck cause I was getting 200.00 checks a week and I have a family of 5. Also, I got only one day of home for every week I was out. The most important reason was because when my wife had our last child, he was put in Prenatal Intensive Care and they told me, I could not stay home to be with my family or they would terminate me. (f*** that). I went to work for Trans Am trucking as a Lease Owner Operator. I did such a great job, They allowed me to become a Driver Trainer. I made $169.000.00 my first complete year. I got to go home anytime I scheduled it and as long as I liked. So obviously, I was a great driver, zero violations, zero accidents and zero lates. Last but surely not least, People if you want to become a truck driver, here is my advice: There are people out there who help you for as little as $300.00 dollars for three days and supply you with the truck and trailer for your test. All you have to do is pass the written test. Please do your self a favor, get all the endorsements if you are serious about being a Truck Driver(ex HAZMAT, TANKER, DOUBLES< TRIPLES & etc) that is where the money is and the good jobs are. STAY AWAY FROM DRIVERS SOLUTION AND PREPARE FOR THE FIRST COMPANY WHO HIRES YOU TO f*** YOU OVER BUT REMEMBER MOST OF THE GOOD COMPANIES WANT YOU TO HAVE 3 to 6 MOS EXPERIENCE. Send me an email if I you need any help or advice about getting into this field. isaaclong@sbcglobal.net or uniqueatforty@gmail.com or isaac.long@vcsemail.com. Sorry about the spelling, grammar and punctuation but I am at work and writing in a hurry.
Greetings,
I am an attorney here in Indianapolis, IN. I have considerable experience representing people sued by Driver Solutions to collect "unpaid" student loans/tuition.
I recently wrote a report: The Poplicola Report On The Marion County Small Claims Courts, that details much of the predatory debt collection practices used by Driver Solutions. This report was issued to the Indiana Supreme Court, the Indiana Attorney General, Judge Louis Rosenberg, and the medial. The report received significant coverage by the Indiana Press. You can find and read the Report, online, with a simple internet search.
I urge anyone who has been harmed by Driver Solutions to file a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, the F.T.C. and the CFPB.
Good Luck.
Jeffrey C. Boulden
Attorney at Law
The Poplicola Law Project.
Thank you so much for posting this review. My husband was considering signing up with this company. I am so glad I read this first. I'm sure it will save us a lot of money, time, and heartache. Thanks again.
I also went through driver solution. This story is spot on. They tried to sue me too. I went to the school in little Rock, AR. They left me with nothing.
I also went to driver solutions c1 school in AR and quit driving for PAM for reasons regarding safety. I was expected to "help" my team driver while off the clock thus resulting in interrupted sleep patterns. Long story short, my team mate couldn't safely negotiate turns, couldn't dock, and could not plan a rout using an atlas. I notified safety and was told that I was responsible for my teammate. I wasn't a trainer. I made 17.5 cents per mile. He also urinated on the bunk... Which is when I decided to quit. Since then I have been paying back the "loan". I called a lawyer and was told that since I signed an agreement that there was nothing I could do but repay the loan.
If anyone has had success in fighting this company I would love to hear from you. My husband went through this school years ago and had all the same issues that everyone above is talking about. We tried for the first two years, after he was fired from USA trucking because I had to have emergency surgery, and they started telling me that we owed more than we had every borrowed, even though I had been paying. So, we asked for a copy of the signed agreement and then were told for about 6 years that they did not have a copy of the agreement, and the loan/debit was not being reported to the credit agencies because they had no proof we owed anything. We thought it was done. Then last year we received the paper work saying we were being sued and surprise...they found a copy of the signed agreement. They then told us we owed twice as much as he originally borrowed. We have been paying but ran into some medical issues in the last six months and paid less than we had been and now are being sued again and this time, they are not showing any of the payments we made in the past year and have added another $3, 000. This company is ridiculous. We were going to claim bankruptcy and were told that they are a "student loan" but in the lawsuit they state that they are not a "student loan" and do not have to follow the same rules that govern student loans. I would love any input that you might have if you are being sued, were sued, won against them, or have any suggestions. myles2208@comcast.net
Hi.. I'm being sued by this company now. What do I need to do to have a chance. Please any help would be appreciated. You can reach me at my email address. stephen.frierson@yahoo.com
My husband also went to Driver Solutions his job at the company he had been with for over 25 years was eliminated. After a long period of not being able to find a job he turned to driving but did not have a CDL so thought this school was the answer. He had many of the same issues while in school but is a good driver and finished. Came home got his license and waited for the job to call and let him know when to start. The school called and told him that he was not being offered a job because he had had a conviction from over 20 years prior. On the application for the school they ask if you have any convictions in the past 10 years to which he answered no. So no job and feeling really bad he talked to a couple of friends that were drivers and one of them gave him a lead which worked out best for him. The problem now we were stuck with a huge loan bill and that is when the calls started. We did get behind and were trying to make the payments and get caught up but they were unwilling to make any sort of arrangements and called him daily all day and night while he was on the road driving. We finally got caught up and have been making the payments here is the next problem is we never get a statement and I have no idea how much we still owe. The rate was 18% I had to call my bank find out where the deduction was coming from and work my way backwards to find someone to talk to. After a conversation and me trying to find out how much we still owed they did drop our rate to 9% only because I asked. So if this happens to you call and ask for a rate reduction. The reason I am here today is because I am once again looking to contact them to find out when the loan will be paid off. The has been a terrible experience for us and I feel bad for all of the people that have been taken advantage of by companies like this one.
They already went to court on me and it went to default judgement, and I didn't even know they were suing me.