HIGH POINT, N.C. — Hitting the road as a CDL truck driver isn't as easy as hitting the gas. There's a lot of pit stops along the way.
"It's a lengthy process.," said Michael Rangel owner of Kinos CDL Driving. "It's a minimum of four weeks so with the new entry-level driver training that has to be followed from the first day to the end."
Some Students at Cross Country Training School were at the final stretch, only to show up to school to see it shut down without warning.
The space is already up for lease.
Frustrating many enrolled students.
We highlighted the driving school's success in Burlington last year.
We reached out to the owner to get answers for the abrupt closure. Pamela Day did not want to speak with us.
According to Marty Homan with NC DOT, they revoked Cross Country's third-party testing ability because they were participating in fraudulent activity.
The training school recently tried to appeal that decision so they could do third-party testing again but according to Homan during a hearing this month it was denied.
"I don't know what happened. When it was in Thomasville it looked like they were doing great," Rangel said. "But the students should not be caught up in the middle of whatever that situation was and that's why we're reaching out."
To help Rangle is allowing students to use the trucks and trailers at his training school Kinos CDL Academy.
He'll let them use their equipment to get some practice in for free and use their trucks to complete their test at the DMV.
"Some of them have taken a 4-week leave from work or they budgeted their money for 4 to 5 weeks and then they don't have a job to go to," Rangel said. "so I felt like we need to help."
Rangle has already gotten calls from four former cross-country students.
He has the intention to help every one of them get the wheels turning on their new careers.
Rangel said a good way to vet a truck driving school is to check them out on the Better Business Bureau, make sure they're listed on the training provider registry and avoid schools that only take cash or money orders.