Hundreds of drivers in Virginia now have recalled CDLs thanks to a trucking school with a sketchy trainer

Hundreds of drivers who earned their CDLs in Virginia recently will soon be required to retest thanks to improper conduct of a trucking school. 

The Department of Motor Vehicles says that they received information that 5 Star CDL Training, a third-party training and testing site, may have been improperly administering CDL knowledge and skills tests. After an investigation, it was found that 5 Star personnel were “not administering these tests as required by state and federal law and, in some cases, were passing some applicants whose performance did not warrant a passing score.”

“In fact, some of these applicants had made driving errors during the test that should’ve resulted in an automatic failure (e.g., striking an object in the test course roadway),”  wrote Brandy Brubaker, the Director of Communications with Virginia DMV, reported WTVR News.

Now, drivers who went through the school in question like Michael Kite will have to retake their CDL test within 30 days to stay properly licensed. Kite says he took his CDL test for the second time in his life after recently deciding to get back into trucking. 

“Twenty years ago, my test was nothing like it is now,” Kite said. “Even the driving test is a lot more rigorous than it was 20 years ago. The written test is a lot more rigorous.”

“Just recently, I received this letter in the mail from the DMV and thought, ‘What is this?’,” Kite said. “I immediately thought this has to be some kind of mistake, and it’s saying that the third-party test that I went through, that was approved by DMV, may have improperly administered your CDL test, in accordance with the Virginia Code.”

“Come to find out, there’s like 350 of us who got the same letter in the mail over the past six months or so. They’re recalling everybody to pull them off the road, out of their jobs, to come back and relearn, retest,” he said. “I didn’t go through the class with the instructor that was questionable,” Kite said. “I feel that my instructor was thorough. Very, very thorough with what they did.”

“As a new employee, someone who just graduated and went to work somewhere, you get this letter that says your license is going to be canceled in 30 days or else. How do you go to your boss your first week of employment and say, ‘Hey boss, my license is going to be suspended in 30 days if I don’t go do this retest?’ You’re not going to have a job.”

5 star CDL Training has since replaced questionable instructors and is even offering to help drivers impacted by the investigation by paying for retesting and retraining. 

In response to the issue, he DMV has extended weekend testing hours, established a temporary extra testing site, and have implemented a dedicated customer service representative specifically for the CDL issue. Customers who would like assistance making an appointment to take the CDL knowledge test may email vadmvappts@dmv.virignia.gov. To schedule a CDL road skills test, they may contact Robert Thomas at 804-366-8420.