Comments By Lobos A.

It was all a lie im not a complainer whats so ever... this company is honestly a joke with no communication between eachother or there recruits, the funny thing is i have pictures on the way of your trucks so that will be exposed... your instructor is a newbie driver just as i am and we both know that i had spoke to him well i was there cause he was begging me to stay... i also have an email from matt and not once was i told about a contract until my arrival..

It's pretty common practice to have a contract to drive a truck. I'm pretty sure I talked about the paperwork and orientation on the phone; if I didn't mention explicitly that there was a contract you'd have to sign on the phone then I apologize. As for the instructor I do remember you talking to him but he isn't a new driver. As I said, he's been an instructor here since before I worked here and I started 5 months ago. I do recall him and others in the company going over the contract in detail with you when you got here, making sure you understood everything about it, and yes, trying to change your mind about not signing on with us, but no one begged you to stay. We actually did not have a high demand for drivers at the time so we were able to get someone else to take that spot pretty quickly. But yes, of course we tried to convince you to stay as we had just spent $200 to get you out to our office. So obviously we didn't want to lose that investment but we have no need to beg people to sign on with us.

An identity problem:

Hey Anthony, This is Matthew, the recruiter you spoke with on the phone.

Then further down this post:

I've seen Matt go over paperwork before ...

There is insurance involved and other things, I know, which I'm sure Matt went over with you.

... and more.

Are "Matthew" and "Matt" the same person?

Popcorn, please. Extra large.

Lol on the popcorn comment. We get a lot of really great people coming through our office and using our programs and systems, but every once in a while you'll get a really loud complainer that will misunderstand something or just not pay attention and think they're being lied to or something.

I'm Matthew, I'm the primary recruiter at Lobos and there is also a Matt that works here who has a different job and he usually is the one to go over contracts and such with the new guys.

Hey y'all, so i made it to provo utah last Tuesday night...

Hey Anthony, This is Matthew, the recruiter you spoke with on the phone. I am sorry you had a layover in Salt Lake City; unfortunately that is something Greyhound is in control of and we cannot change that. I would like to address some of the things you mentioned here as a lot of the numbers you have given are exaggerated or just plain inaccurate. The apartment we have for our students is a 3 bedroom apartment and we do not go above the maximum capacity which is 8. You were told on the phone that you would be making 25% of the profit of the truck for 3 - 6 weeks which is typically in the range of $300 - $600 and would be moved up to 50% after that period (typically $600 - $1200). I'm not sure why you're talking about training and 6 month periods. We do indeed have a two year contract that all of our guys sign which does have an early termination fee. However, there are also terms in there which allow you to end the contract early if you give two weeks notice. To the best of my knowledge that is a pretty standard deal and I don't think 2 weeks notice is unreasonable. I've seen Matt go over paperwork before and I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't look you in the eyes or acted shifty as you're describing. The way our system works does indeed put you as an owner operator or driving for one and you are responsible for certain -repairs- to the truck. In other words, if you damage the truck in some way then yes, you are responsible for the damages. If you blow out a tire or hit something, that's on you. There is insurance involved and other things, I know, which I'm sure Matt went over with you. As for the school, you weren't attending the school so I'm not sure how you would be able to speak much about it. I can tell you that I have been here for about 5 months and the instructor has been here that entire time so he didn't just get his CDL 3 months ago. Regarding our trucks, all of the trucks we use for our over the road drivers are relatively new (within the past 1 - 3 years). I've seen the truck that they use out in the yard for practice and it's nothing like what you described and I know the tires were recently replaced. It's clear to me from your description of our system and services that you were not understanding the orientation you went through. The orientation is summarized in our recruiting calls so I'm not sure why you were surprised by the terms when you arrived. Obviously we can't cover everything in a 15 - 30 minute phone call but I do cover quite a bit. That being said, since you came out we have improved our pre-travel process to make 100% sure that everyone is 100% on the same page. We've prepared written summaries of what we talk about on the phone and before we book travel we go over that summary on the phone and email it to our students and drivers coming in to sign before they come out. This way there can be no confusion or mis-remembering or problems. I do apologize that this was not yet in place when you came out. We went over these things on the phone, but perhaps having the written copy of it would have helped improve understanding before we bought you a bus ticket out to our office. I am sorry we were not able to work with you. We had things prepared to get you out to your co-driver as soon as you got your paper work done and were looking forward to seeing your driving skills out on the road. However, we also understand that it is ultimately up to you whether or not you want to sign the contract. I do remember the day you were here and I thought you were very respectful and professional. I also recall you being offered a ride to our local public transit train station where you could take a train all the way to the airport (the train costs about $5 for that trip). Again, I'm sorry we couldn't work together and that you somehow felt mislead by what was discussed on the phone before you came out. Again, what I say on the phone is a summary of what they go over with you in orientation so I'm not sure where the disconnect happened, but either way I do apologize. We lost out on the cost of the bus ticket and time put into going over everything with you but that happens. That's part of the reason why we've tried to improve our recruiting materials so that there is no room for misinterpretation. It not only helps save time for everyone and avoid issues, but it also saves us money. It's in our best interests to make sure people know what they're signing up for before they get to our office, otherwise we lose money on the bus ticket, the time it took to procure leads, time spent explaining, etc. So again, I'm sorry we were not able to work with you but I do wish you all the best in your career and job searches.

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.

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

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

There's really not much more I can provide. I've posted several links to information on our various services, posted our phone number for people to call in and discuss questions with us, and I've been patient with the borderline hostile tone taken by the moderators. I've yet to see someone post about how they've called and talked to us and were unsatisfied with the explanations they received.

Everyone is free to have their own opinions and state them; that is the purpose for which a forum exists after all. However, when you cherry pick which posts to keep up and which ones to remove to spin a negative perspective towards a company or individual it ceases to be an open forum and becomes something else entirely. It seems to me that it is less "Trucking Truth" and more "Moderator's Trucking Opinions."

I would encourage everyone to do their own research and call in to discuss our services with us. If, at that point, you feel it is not for you or you're not comfortable with something, you are free to not go with us. However, if you take a look at our information and, after talking with us, you feel you'd like to give us a try we'd be more than happy to help you get started.

Sites like this are great for discussion and exchanging ideas, but remember to also do your own research and feel things out for yourself. If anyone would like more information than what is provided on our website or social media pages I would encourage you to give us a call and discuss your questions and concerns with us. I am more than happy to answer any questions for you: (801) 224-7947.

Your website doesn't offer much info... If someone goes to a real company sponsored program their website is packed with info... Yours just advertise free cdl that's it... Really try again.. I smell a scam...

Here is some specific information from our website and Facebook page regarding the CDL school:

School Info from Website

School Info from Facebook

Here is some information from our website about our Driver Services: Driver Services

Again, you can also call us and we'd be happy to go over any questions, give you any details you're curious about, explain anything you're unclear on, etc. You can call us at (801) 224-7947.

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...

Ok I've finally found an honest description of what Lobos Interstate Services does:

Lobos Interstate Services helps CDL Truck drivers to become owner operators. We help to get drivers set up with their own company and their own motor carrier authority. Through our strategic partnerships, we help drivers get into a leased truck, get set up with insurance, billing and admin, and help them get on the road safely, legally and compliant. We also act as consultants with drivers to maximize their individual business profits.

Lobos, you've been quite disingenuous with us. In fact, you're shady:

• You mentioned in another thread having a "well connected partner" which was nothing more than an affiliate job board through Indeed.com that anyone can put together in 10 minutes.
• You never once mentioned anything about looking for Owner Operators
• Why is your email address a gmail address? Why isn't it associated with your website?
• Why do you keep signing up here with different accounts trying to make it look as if different people are posting about your company?

These are very shady tactics. I'm going to have to recommend publicly that people avoid this company altogether. It's incredibly rare that I do that and in fact I can't think of another time I have. But nobody ever comes here using so many blatantly shady tactics like you have. You obviously can't be trusted.

That is certainly your prerogative to do as a moderator of this forum, however, I would like to address the questions and points you have made here and point out that you've not done much research if that is all you've found about us. Even a cursory Google search will bring up our web page, Facebook page, and a page showing our job listings. I have also posted links to these pages here and (I believe in a different thread) given out our phone number so anyone can call in and have their questions answered. Much, if not all, of what I'm going to post here can be found on our website.

Re: the "well connected partner:" We partner with many different companies and Indeed is not the only company we work with to recruit new students and drivers. We utilize job boards, social media, and more. We also partner with other companies who recruit students and drivers so that, if we find someone who isn't a good fit for our services, we can get them some help to find somewhere that IS a good fit. We also work with companies that offer other services such as leasing, dispatching, etc. So while perhaps saying "well connected partner" may be, at worst, vague, it's not dishonest.

RE: Owner Operators: I have not mentioned Owner Operators as that is not what was being asked about in the OP. The OP asked about our CDL training program so that is what I have been primarily addressing. We do offer services for owner operators and we do look for drivers who are interested in that. We also have a CDL school where we train new drivers and we recruit CDL drivers to co-drive with owner-operators. As I said before, we offer several different services relating to the trucking industry. Just because I didn't post a list of all the services we offer does not mean that I was "hiding something."

RE: my email address: I have a gmail address because the company managers utilize Google services to handle most of their communication, organization, file sharing, etc. It's simply easier to have a gmail address to integrate with those services and handle email messages.

Re: different accounts on this forum: There are three accounts on this forum that are associated with us. One is from someone who no longer works at our company and I do not have access to. This account is mine; the other account is from someone else at Lobos who also saw this thread and responded to it.

So, I hope that clears up your questions and I sincerely hope you will do more research or perhaps call in to trucking companies that you're investigating before posting borderline libelous statements in the future.

Once again, here are links to any information you would like to find on our company and what we do. I'm also including our phone number so anyone can call in and ask questions.

Thanks for asking about us! We are, indeed looking for CDL drivers for OTR Team Driving opportunities. We also have a Class A CDL school to help people get their Class A CDL and experience along with it. If you'd like to know more you can check us out