Anyone Heard Of Lobos Interstate Services?

Also, I just noticed posts are being removed from this thread that are more favorable to us and not favorable to things the moderator said. That seems a touch shady to me...

I didn't remove any posts. The only thing I removed is the links you put up to your website. We know where your website is and I've linked to it myself. But don't try to turn this around on me. Everything you guys do is a smokescreen of some sort. Every time I try to pin you down on something specific you change the subject and try to turn it around on me.

Here is a brief overview of how our CDL School works and what you can expect if you join our CDL program. The first step is something called a "Home Prep Packet" (HPP) that we will email to you. This packet contains a training manual, practice tests to help you study, and all of the information you need to prepare to come out to our school in Utah. From there we will cover the cost to bring you out to our facilities which are located in northern Utah, about 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City. Once you arrive we will provide lodging at our student apartment in Orem, UT as well as food for the duration of your initial CDL schooling (approximately 3 weeks). We will also provide transportation each day to our school facilities where you will have one-on-one time with our trainers. During the first 3 weeks of our program our trainers will work with you to help you prepare for and take your written test and road test for your CDL. They will be there to answer your questions, teach you the ins and outs of the trucks, and take you to the testing facilities. Once you pass your road test, the DMV will issue you a temporary paper copy of your CDL which will allow you to participate in the second portion of the program which is a 12 week course driving over the road with a trainer. During the 12 week portion of your program, you will be driving with a trainer pulling real freight over the road. You will get paid at a weekly rate during this portion of the program. The ultimate goal for this portion is to get you 60,000 miles of experience so you'll be prepared to handle any job or situation out on the road. Once you complete your 15 weeks, you'll receive your hard copy license and we will even work with you to help you find a great paying job!

So I think, based on this, I have a pretty good idea of what's going on here.

It's a company that finds people seeking to break into the industry, gives them a cursory training session (just enough to get them their license), then hires them out as indentured servants to O/Os who are probably struggling to keep up with their payments. That's your over-the-road training right there I guess. Then when you're all used up, they "help" you find a job with a real company.

So the whole business model is not centered around a school, it's centered around O/Os who need cheap labor.

This is just a guess of course, but I doubt I'm very far from the truth.

Nice try turning that around but I didn't ask you how you recruit people. You said you would find someone a job through your "well connected partners" as if you have an inside scoop on jobs. Here's your exact quote:

Well your "well connected partner" called "Get Trucker Jobs" is nothing but a job board powered by SimplyHired that anyone can setup in 10 minutes - see the bottom of this page where it says "jobs by SimplyHired" - job search.

So tell me that's not disingenuous and scammy. Explain to me how pointing people to SimplyHired is helping them in any way.

My point is that we work with a lot of different companies, some are for recruiting and others, like Get Trucker Jobs handle job placement. Get Trucker Jobs has a phone number and we can talk to them directly about potential people coming in when we don't have spots open or we're not a good fit. From that point Get Trucker Jobs talks to the person and helps find them a position that will be a good fit for them. That is one of the ways we help people find jobs. We also have owner-operator services to help people become their own boss, we place drivers with owner-operators as co-drivers, etc.

My research came from your website which is incredibly vague as Scott and others have been pointing out all along. That's why we're having this conversation - to figure out who you are and what you really do. For instance:

You have a school, right? No courses are listed, no prices are listed, no instructors are mentioned, no pictures of your school or yard or trucks are posted, and there's no list of major companies that hire your students. Most schools have all of this and more on their website.

Yes, we help people get their CDL and we provide advanced skills training and job placement when they have their CDL. This information is given in summary on the website and in a bit more detail on our Facebook page. I've provided links to both in this thread. The course is explained in those links. The price ($6,500) is mentioned on the website. We do not currently have a list of instructors or anything like that but there are pictures of our school on our Facebook page. As we work with a lot of owner-operators, we don't list major carriers on our website. This is something we explain over the phone all the time; we work with small, independent carriers primarily. I will certainly admit that our website is pretty basic right now; that's something we're working on improving. Right now a lot of our information is conveyed over the phone, which is why I keep stressing that you can call us to get more information. Our website gives the general summary and we can explain more over the phone and answer specific questions.

So do you have your own school or do you recruit for another school?

You have a caption under one of your pictures that says "2015 Peterbilt, one of the elite trucks in our fleet, averaging over 8 MPG! "

So you have your own fleet, also? Again, I don't see any pictures of your trucks other than a generic nose of a generic Peterbilt. Where is all the information about your fleet? How many trucks? How many trailers? Where is your hiring zone? What types of freight do you haul? Don't you think people would like to know this? Any other trucking website I go to lists all this stuff and more.

So do you have your own fleet or do you recruit for other fleets and owner operators?

We have our own school. We use newer trucks for training, though the Peterbilt specifically may be outdated information. That caption is poorly worded and I will see about having it changed. I did not personally build the website but I am working on having it updated, improved, and made more clear, so thank you for pointing that caption out. I will have that changed.

The companies we work with haul primarily dry vans and reefers, typically 53' and singles. We recruit within the lower 48 states and we recruit for our school, for owner-operators, and for co-drivers to work with owner-operators.

I have to admit....that is a good idea. In fact, it's so good that we do the same thing. If you email me at brett@truckingtruth.com guess where I'll get it? In my gmail account. So you most certainly can have your email address associated with your website address in gmail.

You are correct, you indeed can have an email address forward to a gmail address. We simply have not done so at this time.

Post 1 of 2

So once they get their permit and it's time to start the driving portion does your school own and operate the actual trucks they'll be learning in? How many instructors do you have? How many trucks do you own for your school? Why isn't there any information about this stuff on your website?

We handle everything from when they get into class to when they get their CDL. This usually takes 2 - 3 weeks and they're working directly with Lobos. From that point we have them undergo 12 weeks of advanced skills training where they are driving with an experienced driver, being shown how to most effectively use their CDL , essentially getting skills to go along with their knowledge. We do not directly train them at that point, but we do work with owner-operators who do train them and those trainers report to us their progress. The trainers are paid by Lobos to train our students and we monitor how well the students are doing and how well the trainers are teaching.

Right....your "job listings" - what the heck is that? You call that job listings? Every one of them says the hiring company is "Lobos Driving Academy". That's not a driving job and those aren't job listings.

That is actually a typo. Our company is Lobos Interstate Services, but the school is often informally referred to as "Lobos Driving Academy." Thank you for bringing that to my attention, I will have that corrected to "Lobos Interstate Services."

One final thing - your "fleet" of truck doesn't show up on any searches we do and your school doesn't show up anywhere under the state of Utah or anything. What is the name of your trucking company so we can look up the CSA scores and such on the FMCSA website? Is your school listed as an official school with the state of Utah?

As I said, we're not a fleet or a carrier. We are a trucking services company. The caption you got "fleet" from is inaccurate and will be corrected. The website has been a work in progress lately and I am working on making it more informative and a bit more clear. Again, thank you for pointing out that error. As for the school, we train people at the facilities and teach them everything they need to know to pass their CDL test. We do not administer the tests on site; we take the students to the DMV to have all tests administered by Utah state DMV personnel.

Listen, I don't think you're intentionally malicious. But what I do think is that you're basically a recruiter that is claiming to be a lot of things you're not. At the moment I see no evidence that you're running a regular school nor do I see any evidence that you have your own fleet of trucks. So I'm trying to get to the bottom of this so I know what to tell people when they ask about you

I appreciate that, and I appreciate you asking more direct questions. You last post seemed a bit barbed, more intended to cast a negative view than get to facts. I appreciate that you have asked such specific questions here in this post.

Regarding the removing of posts, there was a post immediately after the one I made in response to your previous post. It was taken down within a few minutes of it being posted so it appeared that it was taken down by a moderator. Perhaps the forum member took it down themselves. If that is the case, then I apologize for being mistaken.

Post 2 of 2

Ok yet another oddity I've found that just doesn't seem to happen anywhere else but I'm sure there's a good explanation.

On their facebook page there's this picture of one of "their trucks" I guess with the caption:

"Are you ready to drive one of these? Give us a call and we can walk you through how you can get your Commercial Driver's License for FREE!"

Interstate tractor at truck driving school" title="white Lobos Interstate tractor at truck driving school">

Sounds great. So I thought for the heck of it I'd do a check to see what I could find out about this trucking company. Now I've scaled up this next image to show that the MC Number and the USDOT Number on the side of the truck were blurred out:

Fortunately the name of the company wasn't blurred out so it's easy enough to look up their information:

Dan Blades Turbo LLC

It appears to be a single owner operator leasing a truck through a company called Interstate Nationalease. From looking at the statistics it's kinda what you would expect from an Owner Operator who is trying to run hard - quite a few violations and one crash in Nebraska just before this past Christmas.

I'm not too alarmed by any of that report. But why the blurred out numbers in the photo? Why does everything we investigate turn out looking shady? In this case the Federal numbers have literally been shaded out. That's what I don't understand. Your job listings aren't even job listings. Your highly connected partners are websites like SimplyHired that anyone can use. Your Federal numbers are blurred out. Everything just seems to lead to a dead end.

Either you guys are trying to make it appear as if you're more than you actually are, or you're the worst communicators ever. I have no problem with you guys if you're recruiters or middlemen of some sort that have made arrangements to recruit drivers for people. There's plenty of those and that's not a bad thing. But you have to be honest and clear about who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

There's a very good reason this website is called TruckingTruth....because it's our job to help people understand the truth about what they're being told and how things work in this industry. We're trying to make sure people who are new to the industry get honest, helpful information so they can make the right choices for their career. In this case I can't seem to verify that you're an official truck driving school, nor can I verify you have your own fleet of trucks. So I'm not sure if students that get their CDL through you guys will be able to find jobs outside of your network with major, legitimate companies. I know pretty much anyone can get on with an Owner Operator somewhere, but what about Swift, Schneider, or Werner? Would they hire your students after they obtain their CDL? Would they consider your schooling legitimate? I know people can get their CDL the way you seem to be doing it but at this point I don't know if I can recommend you guys or not.

Now here's an opportunity you might possibly be a great candidate for - what about people with recent felonies? Your website doesn't mention that as a requirement. I get questions daily from people who have had felonies in the past 7 years or so and they have a heck of a time getting started in this industry. Maybe you guys are the perfect ones to give them that opportunity. If so you'd be doing a lot of people a great service. You'd be helping people get things turned around and going in the right direction in their lives and that would be awesome.

So yes, I'm definitely picking apart your marketing and I'm not too happy about some of it. But that doesn't mean you guys aren't a legitimate option for a lot of people. If I can ever get to the bottom of all of this I'll certainly recommend you guys if you can provide a helpful, legitimate service.

Ok you were posting your replies the same time I posted my last one so that wasn't in response to your last two posts.

But this is actually going really well now. Now I have a much clearer picture of what you guys do and how you're doing it. Excellent. Like I said, I don't like the way you guys have been marketing some of the services you're providing but I don't have a problem with your company or the approach you're taking.

I'm interested to hear if you guys accept people with recent felonies, like say in the past 7 years or so. Because I've never had an answer for that. I've gotten requests for years from people with less than stellar backgrounds and nobody wants to work with them. If you guys can work with them you may be an awesome option for a lot of people.

Ok yet another oddity I've found that just doesn't seem to happen anywhere else but I'm sure there's a good explanation.

On their facebook page there's this picture of one of "their trucks" I guess with the caption:

Sounds great. So I thought for the heck of it I'd do a check to see what I could find out about this trucking company. Now I've scaled up this next image to show that the MC Number and the USDOT Number on the side of the truck were blurred out:

But why the blurred out numbers in the photo? Why does everything we investigate turn out looking shady? In this case the Federal numbers have literally been shaded out. That's what I don't understand.

I actually took those pictures myself. I blurred out the numbers because that's not my personal truck or company and I was posting it to a social, online medium. I also blurred out the license plate numbers on the cars in the parking lot for the same reason. It's just common courtesy if you're going to take pictures of vehicles that are not yours to blur out personal information like that.

...if you're recruiters or middlemen of some sort that have made arrangements to recruit drivers for people

Yes, we are a trucking services company and one of those services is recruiting.

...I know pretty much anyone can get on with an Owner Operator somewhere, but what about Swift, Schneider, or Werner? Would they hire your students after they obtain their CDL? Would they consider your schooling legitimate? I know people can get their CDL the way you seem to be doing it but at this point I don't know if I can recommend you guys or not.

I obviously cannot speak for other companies regarding their hiring policies but I can tell you what our students have once they complete the program. At the end of the program they have their CDL, 3 months of experience, and approximately 60,000 miles under their belt. We also work with them to get them placed in a job from that point which is, as I said before, primarily owner-operators.

Now here's an opportunity you might possibly be a great candidate for - what about people with recent felonies? Your website doesn't mention that as a requirement. I get questions daily from people who have had felonies in the past 7 years or so and they have a heck of a time getting started in this industry. Maybe you guys are the perfect ones to give them that opportunity. If so you'd be doing a lot of people a great service. You'd be helping people get things turned around and going in the right direction in their lives and that would be awesome.

We do actually bring on people with felonies on their records. It is a case by case basis but typically if it is older than 3 years ago and/or non-violent in nature we can usually help them.

I just graduated from Rocky Mountain truck driving school out of Albuquerque NM and obtained my class A, i have been applying every where and keep getting turned down due to my felonies from a fist fight back in 2006 and a DUI back in 2010 and the only company to give me a chance so far is Lobo, they purchased a bus ticket for me and ill be heading out there this monday to start my training. I appreciate the chance they are giving me to start driving and start my career.

I just graduated from Rocky Mountain truck driving school out of Albuquerque NM and obtained my class A, i have been applying every where and keep getting turned down due to my felonies from a fist fight back in 2006 and a DUI back in 2010 and the only company to give me a chance so far is Lobo, they purchased a bus ticket for me and ill be heading out there this monday to start my training. I appreciate the chance they are giving me to start driving and start my career.

Congratulations, Tony! Since you have your CDL-A already, what training will you be getting? Will you be driving for Lobos, or become an Owner(Lease) operator with them? If you have read the previous posts here, we are very interested how things turn out for you.

Thank you i appreciate that, i will be with a trainer otr anywhere from 3-6 weeks and then i can drive on my own as long as i meet the driver requirements. Ive been applying everywhere and no one will touch me with out at least 9 months of otr experience but lobo is giving me the opportunity to get started.