Students at a Fort Lupton, Colorado truck driver training school were left dumbfounded when they arrived and the doors were still locked. They later learned that the school had closed during their training term.
Owner cites increased fuel prices and property rent as reasons for closure
Michael Euglow of the Commercial Vehicle Training Center (CVTC) in Fort Lupton has some explaining to do to his students. The students had invested thousands of dollars, some into the tens of thousands, for training to take their commercial driver’s license (CDL) test.
The students were left in complete shock when they learned – without any warning – that the school was about to close indefinitely. And the owner of the school has not been forthcoming as to why or what students should do next until he was pressed by local media outlets such as CBS Colorado’s Michael Abeyta, who wrote an article bringing this to light.
Euglow has offered to pay for the students to take their test, but has not offered to refund the thousands of dollars students have paid for incomplete training. Students fear not only that they will fail the CDL test, but it could be dangerous for them to be on the road in one of the most dangerous driving areas in the country.
Colorado is infamous lately for inexperienced drivers losing their brakes and not using the runaway ramps on I-70 and I-25. Mount Vernon Canyon has been in the news due to several crashes, including one BTU covered in this article that led to one of the most severe punishments ever handed out to a trucker.
What should students do now?
My personal opinion is that the students should hire a lawyer. There has to be some way for them to get some, if not all, of their money back for receiving incomplete training. (Although I have a suspicion that Euglow may have spent the money already.)
Maybe another training school could step in and take on the students, but that’s a lofty goal.
With all the pressure added by the government on new drivers through the Entry Level Driver Training program, I wonder if that could also be a reason the school closed.
Instructors have to be certified to give out the training cards needed to take the CDL test. This is a FMCSA mandate and cannot be ignored.
I don’t know if Euglow lost certification with FMCSA. His school is still on the ELDT website listed as a provider as of this article’s publishing.
There are other options in the Denver area, as well as some online schools for the bookwork portions of the training needed.
This is a developing story and BTU will be staying on top of this disheartening situation.
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