NCDMV waited 21 months to audit truck driving school that was changing answers on tests

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - The NCDMV found so many problems in its audit with Carolina Truck Driving School that it revoked its agreement for third party CDL testing for truck drivers. But the NCDMV did not conduct that audit until nearly 21 months after the school opened, even though their policy is to audit third party testers annually.

WBTV first reported in August that 479 Carolina Truck Driving School students in North Carolina were forced to retake their CDL tests with the NCDMV because Carolina could not produce their skills test records during an audit.

NCDMV originally only provided WBTV with a summary of that audit but when they released a copy of the entire audit it showed a whole lot more.

An auditor found 18 total deficiencies with Carolina’s third party testing program, including that whiteout was used to correct answers and that examiners weren’t scoring tests correctly.

When WBTV asked the DMV why those issues wasn’t revealed in the audit summary a spokesperson responded that they were “minor errors which did not cause the driver to fail the test and no retest was required , therefore this was not included in the summary.”

When WBTV asked why NCDMV only conducted an audit at Carolina Truck Driving School after 21 months, instead of annually like its policy we did not receive a response.

Carolina Truck Driving School owner Barry Henson also did not respond to an email. Previously when we asked Henson whether there were issues with other audits Henson responded “No, we have past every previous audits with flying colors. There was never an issue with the quality of the tests.” We now know Carolina Truck Driving School had not received another third-party testing audit.

He also said that Carolina helped in the re-testing of students, even though WBTV has learned their third party testing agreement was revoked.

WBTV interviewed attorney Patrick Knie in August, who is representing truck drivers who are suing the school.

“We’ll learn a lot more about the roles the DMVs played and whether or not there should have been monitoring which did not take place at this point we just don’t know,” Knie said.

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