Hamrick Truck Driving School- Medina, Ohio

http://www.hamrickschool.edu/ Hamrick Truck Driving School, Medina, Ohio



I have bitten my tongue long enough, now it's time to shed some light on what's REALLY going on at this school.


I am a 600 hour Master Level student in the evenings at this school. This is my story, and these are my complaints, one at a time:


I've been there since April 7th, and have complained and held meetings until I'm blue in the face, but to no avail. I am also one of the top students from ANY class currently attending. I've also made friends with several people in the right place, and these complaints are not only based on my own observations, but from the comments of no less than a half dozen different employees from different areas.


-244 hour students and 600 hour students begin in the same class, at the same time. This means the 244's leave after a few short weeks, and the 600's get twice that in the class. Information is rushed through those first weeks to cram it into the 244's to NO benefit of the 600's. The remainder of my time as a 600 in the class room was taken up by watching Ice Road Truckers and Hollywood movies such as Convoy, Smokey and the Bandit, Joy Ride and Enemy at the gates. We paid for books that were never even used, and instead paid our money to the school to watch movies and TV shows that taught us nothing just to meet the 600 hour requirement so the school could keep their accreditation.


-Complaint #2 about the class room: Instructor *************. She was there for our first two weeks. She left with little notice because she "could make more hauling a load of horses from Texas than she could in a month at Hamrick". She'd stated that she would be back in 2 days, and was instead gone for two weeks, and didn't even so much as leave a lesson plan. We ended up with 6 different instructors during that time learning the same things multiple times because they didn't know what we still needed, and, as students, neither did we. *************** eventually returned to the school, and, as a friend of Val Hamrick, faced zero consequence for her actions. She has since reportedly left other classes high and dry several times, the same as she's done for years. I would LOVE to see her removed as an instructor all together, yet Hamrick school refuses to take any action, even after a lengthy meeting between both the Director of ed (Val Hamrick) and the assistant Director vs our entire class.


-Yard equipment:
The equipment there is worse than bad, it is downright dangerous, and when it breaks, which is often, it is only given the bare minimum of repairs and sent right back out. Once it comes time for D.O.T. inspection, there is a rush to make everything there look nice and pretty just long enough for that, and then it's all let go again. Trucks with no clutch brakes, holes in the floor boards, malfunctioning braking systems, one with a sticky throttle, and much more.


-Yard conditions:
Also, dangerous. Shelters with no doors for winter time conditions, cracked windows with sharp bits, nearly no protection from sun and heat, or cold and ice. I've also been told by SEVERAL instructors that, for a multiple acre lot, they are provided with one bag of water softener salt PER MONTH in the winter time which has led to several injuries, including one instructor currently out with back injuries from a winter time fall at the age of 29, and another with hip injuries from another fall on the ice. The limestone lot itself is riddled with large trench-like holes, some nearly a foot deep, from the trucks that Hamrick refuses to spend the money to fix. Combine that with poor lighting half blocked by tree branches, which, they also refuse to fix, and there have been more injuries. Most recently to a student named ****************** who suffered a broken thumb and smashed phone that Hamrick refused to be responsible for.


-Maneuvers:
Students are met with a higher than average failure rate on testing day because of maneuvers in the yard that are not even straight, let alone laid out to DOT specifications. Surprising, considering the average person gets twice as much yard time and half as much road time as they need. The road time is also a joke, where students are met with almost entirely highway time, on cruise control and holding a steering wheel. They are rarely taken anywhere that will allow them to learn turns, real-world shifting techniques, braking, or anything else that will help them outside of the school. The road equipment itself is also just as dangerous, worn out and poor as the previously stated yard equipment.


-Instructors:
Students are met with a very select few instructors, the rest of whom should not even be allowed near a student, including the previously mentioned *******, and an evening instructor named **** who prefers to yell at and belittle students instead of teaching them. Again, action against the poor instructors has never been taken. Hamrick also seems to pretty much let instructors dictate when they work and when they don't, and there's been times when our entire class has been left with only one yard instructor because ************* has abandoned the class room and only 2 people had shown up that day.


-Final complaint:
I could sit here all evening and type about all the things that are wrong at this school, but i am sure by now you get the gist of it, and a thorough investigation of all events will show the truth. Today was the last straw for me. I'll be finishing my time out with the school as I need this career.
When I signed up at this school, no mention was made to requirements for passenger endorsement for 600 level students. No mention of this was made until several WEEKS after i had obtained my CDL temporary permit. Even though mention was finally made, I was not informed until today that without it, I will be considered a drop-out and will not receive completion or my certificate. This means I have to go back to the center, re-test, pay money out again, and then complete 40 hours of bus training. I came here to become a Class A driver, not a Class B passenger carrier, yet the school refuses to cover this cost due to their negligence and refuses to remove it from my curriculum, although there is no legal requirements for this endorsement.


Bottom line, ***this line removed at the request of the author***. For every $1000 paid towards education, we are only getting back about $200 worth of education by my figures. It is unacceptable, all students are being done a great disservice, and it needs to be STOPPED!!!

 

I am unsure of how to edit or remove this thread, but recently recieved a letter in the mail from their lawyers threatening to sue me if I don't take down the negative messages about the school. If an admin sees this, can he remove the personal parts about them being thieves or the thread as a whole