Profile For Randy G.

I’m so glad that I read your truth on acadamy 160. I was debating taking the class through Amazon. I live in Amarillo. Amazon offers to take the school in Lubbock for 5 months and go to the school two days a week while I work at amazon. But what you have sated how terrible they are, I will not be attending their school. Amarillo does offer to take a CDL class through Amarillo college but I was hesitate to take it because I would have to work my night shift then go to the college from 8am to 5 pm. I would rather go through a company such as Stephen’s Transportation but can’t currently do that because my elderly father lives with me. Thank you Terry, for posting the info.

Randy

I want to share my experience with 160 Driving Academy in Lubbock, Tx. I have seen others talk about their experiences, and there were both good and bad. I cannot speak about the company as a whole, so do your own thorough research on the location you may be considering attending.

I'll leave a TL;DR (too long, didn't read) summary at the bottom, as this will be fairly long.

Researching the School:

You really need to do thorough research on the location that you are planning to attend. Look on reddit, and TruckingTruth.com, and other similar sites. Google allows business owners to hide negative reviews. I know this because I, and 6 other people I know of for a fact, wrote negative reviews about 160. The reviews were visible for less than 24 hours, and none have been seen again. The reviews on the school’s website are untrustworthy, but that is true for most company website reviews. There are 27 pages of reviews there, and every one is 5-stars.

Week 1:

The first week is classroom. The classroom is 8:00 to 4:30, with a 30 minute lunch. You are sitting at folding tables, in metal folding chairs. The entire class is a zoom meeting. There is a tv up front for you to watch the instructor, and his screen. You are working on a chromebook. The classroom is 90% teaching you what you need to know to obtain your CLP (Commercial Learner's Permit) If you have your CLP before enrolling in the school, you are still required to sit through that entire week. You have to study on your own for your CLP as well, and the school tells you that. You will not learn enough in that class to pass the tests.

Week 2:

If you did not have your CLP before enrolling, then week 2 is for you to go to the DPS to obtain it. You do it on your own time. I don’t know why they require you take the whole week to do so. If you already have your CLP when you enroll, then you immediately go to the yard on week 2.

The Instructors on the Yard:

The instructors on the yard are Jerry the lead instructor, Quinton, and Eddie. Eddie is an amazing instructor. He is extremely knowledgeable, and he has a gift for teaching that makes everything easy to understand. He is always willing to help, and will always answer any questions you have. He will always do his absolute best to help every student. Unfortunately, he is only one man. He can’t be 10 places at once.

Jerry and Quinton are there for a paycheck. You very rarely see them come out of the office. When they do come out, they are teaching you incorrect information. They skip over important facts, and just forget some as well. When they try to perform the backing maneuvers to show us how they are done, they mess it up, and tell you that you shouldn’t do it like that. In my 4 weeks on the yard, I did not see Jerry or Quinton manage to perform a single backing maneuver completely.

Trucks on the Yard:

There are 2 automatic transmission trucks, and 2 manual transmission trucks available on the yard. The only people who are allowed to touch the automatics are Amazon students, so if you are not Amazon, those trucks are irrelevant. There is a day cab, and a sleeper manual. The day cab is the truck that you will take your test in at the DPS, and it will be the truck that you practice your backing maneuvers with. The sleeper is used for road driving, so that they can fit 4 students and 1 instructor. There are stadium seats bolted to a homemade frame in the back where the bed was. Those seats are extremely uncomfortable, and I recommend you bring some sort of cushion. If not for comfort, then to protect yourself from the bolts that have worn through the material of the seat.