Amaral Auto & Truck Driving

Negative experience: Such a crappy school Mike the supposed instructor all he does is sit in the truck looking at his phone he smacked one of the students in the face cause he didn’t like what he said to him so PROFESSIONAL RIGHT!!! they gave the student his money back and paid for his details and they told me if I gave a 5 star review I would get a 25$ gift card and never got it so don’t go here if u have money and wanna get trained right

Fantastic experience: I highly recommend Amarals they were very thorough and supportive through out the whole course.

Fantastic experience: Good school passed on first try would recommend this school to anyone Joe Amaral very nice guy if your looking for cdl license go to Amaral auto and truck driving won’t be disappointed or discouraged!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic experience: Highly Recommend taking the CDL course With this amazing company. They are Fully transparent with what's included in the course Before you agree to anything. Which gave me the peace of mind before starting my course. Super friendly staff whom will work with you to get your CDL and try to the best of there abilities to help you achieve these goals. The main practice facility to me is a perfect replica of the Official state exam for CDL. The Training staff is knowledgeable when it comes to CDL Exam testing. If there was anything that they did not know the team will search far and wide to find it. Because of the amazing staff at Amaral I was able to Pass my CDL Test ON THE FIRST TRY. 10/10 experience even after I was done with the course and exam I had a few question that the staff has no problem helping me with. Highly Recommend Amaral driving school.

Negative experience: Horrible Cdl school to go to. Don’t waste your time. The owner joe does not give a care in the world about the students who pay thousands to go to the school not only that but you only get 3 two hour sessions behind the wheel which is not enough for anyone. If you want more drive time they make you pay 200 dollars and they will leach as much money out of you as they can. They say you have 3 Cdl test included but yet they make you pay 140 for each test (supposedly an overtime fee for the troopers) but it’s a lie then your paying the 30 dollars for each test if you get your license. I had to go to another school and ended up getting drive time every day and passed my first time. Oh and when you try to call the office and speak to Kelsey they will lie and say she’s not available and to email her which she doesn’t even check ,whole place is a joke.wonder what she does all day !? Don’t ignore the reviews like I did and go to a different school. Whole thing is a scam. They also weigh down the test truck with hay so your shifting will be off and you will grind on the test just to get more money. Peace

Negative experience: Set up with a broken truck for license testing. Wouldn't refund. The shift column was broken. The shifter was so loose finding a gear was next to impossible and the shift knob would hit the dash in the forward gears. They completely denied. I'm a mechanic btw I know trucks.... Meanwhile on a previous road trip. I drove an Amaral's truck with broken wiper linkage. Windshield wiper would not work. The linkage was stripped. Raining out. Never had an issue driving it, yet you seem to tell me - not everyone is cut out for driving a semi Got my license in NH with my own rig purchased. Never have had an issue with any other truck I've driven besides that broken one during my final test. OK school for learning basics, but do not buy into there final tests for licensing, they set you up with faulty equipment. Yet its your fault you fail. & Having to pay more & more - With corrupt state troopers. Meanwhile after all this numerous Mass. state troopers get indicted for bribery.

Fantastic experience: Amaral CDL program is top notch, affordable and the staff there treat you like family. You'll receive guidance & assistance through the entire process to obtain your CDL. I am living proof that my success is accredited to their program & I highly recommend it to anyone looking to make the choice in changing their careers to reach their CDL goal. Their program is simple, as long you put in the work, utilize their resources to prepare yourself for the exam, you will succeed. Your success is also their success. I am so glad I chose this facility to help me achieve my goal of becoming a CDL license driver & I highly recommend it, if this is what you are looking to do!

Fantastic experience: they are great to teaching me as wells. I did passed CDL Class A once time. it's all good everything.

Fantastic experience: this was an amazing experience. the staff was professional and extremely helpful. both inside the classroom and in the truck instructors were patient and dedicated to teaching. i would highly recommend this school.

Fantastic experience: Great school they help me get my Class A license. If you apply yourself study in and out of school ask questions, and do the work you can achieve anything you put your mind too.

Negative experience: I’d give 0 stars if I could.

Fantastic experience: The driving school was really good and got my lessons done very quickly. The driving instructor Tony was amazing and his methods of teaching involved no stress and were successful in leading to a passing road test. I would strongly recommend doing your driving lessons with Tony.

Fantastic experience: Im writing this for my fiancé Anthony B, who attended this driving school. He says that if it wasn’t for this school and the owner Joe he would not be where he is today. It’s been almost one year since he’s attended the driving program . This school is for people that actually want to make a career and a living in the trucking industry like he has. With hard work and determination he makes a little over 80k a year and it’s because of this school. So he wanted me to write this because he cannot figure it out on his phone to post for himself . But he can not say enough of how thankful and grateful he is for the opportunity he received to make a career and provide a good living for our family.

Fantastic experience: Instructor Ana is the best! She's amazing.

Negative experience: Stay away from this school let me explain why. I took a class course from them had the instructor for 4 weeks in the yard all the guy does is smoke cigars and watch conspiracy videos on his phone even when he is suppose to be training you. I then went for my test the trooper was very nice and explained why I failed when i questioned the instructor in the yard about him not given proper instructions and the reason i failed he gave an attitude and told me to go watch videos then and walked away all mad. When training for road lessons all he did was text on his phone he had his head down the whole time I never learned how to down shift from him at all. The other instructor is never there and when he is all he does is yell at the main instructor. These guys are joke please stay away from here and go to another school.

Negative experience: Terrible customer service. Office doesn't return phone calls. My daughter has been ready for her driving test for 3 weeks and impossible to get a response from the office to schedule her test. We have had this issue of no response during our whole lesson journey.

Negative experience: I would like to share with everybody that is looking to get their Class A CDL in the future is to LOOK AWAY from Amarals Auto & Truck Driving School in Westport MA! There has been many issues with this school that I wished I had looked into before hand which was a mistake on my part. But I will not be able to get my CDL this year unfortunately and possibly not going to get it anytime soon. I have done a lot of research after issues had started to arise, and it never really affected me until my classmates and I completed the course. Our 6 week course started on 8/6/23 and ended on 9/15/23. On July 26th 2023, Massachusetts announced and released a new revised system for the updated CDL test, in which students were going to be tested on starting October 11th. Joe Amaral claims he never knew about this, despite the state hosting seminars for the schools to attend before teaching them to their students. My class was taught on an older system and we were not informed of a new one coming out. After completing the class, we were told about the new system coming out which was a couple weeks between class ending and the new test being put into effect. A few students got a test in time, but most did not. We were all told after failing that we had to pass Airbrakes and Pre-trip to be grandfathered in (Which nobody ever passes the first time). So now after paying $5400 and other additional fees, we are being told we need to supply Joe Amaral another $5400 so he can “Help us out” according to him to be able to use his trucks and re-educate on a whole new test that we should have been taught after it was announced on July 26th. On top of that, the school doesn’t have a parking lot big enough to practice for either tests, which will affect you when you do go, because you will be parking and maneuvering the truck in the wrong spots, causing an automatic fail. Joe Amaral, has been refusing to answer any phone calls, and only responds with “I did my job, I have your money and I don’t need your money I have a successful business” which doesn’t make sense if he’s asking my classmates and myself to charge us full tuition to teach the test that we should have already been taught int he first place. He ran off with ALOT of money and doesn’t plan on making anything right. Theres been many reports against this school, but this has to be the worst one. I made multiple calls to the state police, other schools and the RMV who all claim they can see my classroom and road credits, and that I can take the new test whenever I would like. State police and RMV say I should not be charged for being re-educated, and other schools including Parker say they educated their students on the new system when the information was released. They also claim to have a 98 percent passing rate, HUGE NO. The MA State attorney has been contacted multiple times, and no one has heard back at all. I am blessed to say my employer is willing fund to put me in school, and I won’t be making the same mistake again. But, it really sucks when my classmates and I made a sacrifice for a better life, and didn’t even have a slight chance of getting anything other than a $5400 permit.

Fantastic experience: I just recently went through the cdl training and got my “Class A”. I thought the class offered enough of everything to obtain the license. You get out what you put in. It starts out with two weeks in class going over the cdl book preparing students for the permit test (I already had it prior to signing up) the next four weeks you spend in New Bedford having access to practicing maneuvers and air break test and pre trips. The instructors will help you if you ask for assistance but if you are not doing anything in the class don’t blame anyone else if you aren’t putting in the work to learn while you have everything you need to learn! Mike was my instructor the entire time we were doing maneuvers and on the road, he showed us how to do things, he explained how to things and then let us do it.

Negative experience: A total waste of time and money. When in the truck practicing your lucky to get a half an hour behind the wheel practicing out of 4 hours. The week I decided to quit and get some of my money back the first day of the week was a holiday and the second day I had only 15 min. behind the wheel. I only received less than a quarter of my money back. And when you take classes for the permit quite a few students need to park on Rt 6 due to limited parking places. Also, during the classroom, the rest rooms were out of service half the time. A couple of times we had to drive to use facilitis at another buisness. Dont waste your money

Negative experience: Well when you are doing 70 on the highway and you have a student coming up behind you flashing lights and beeping his horn. And then goes around you get some front of you then slows down. Then after that he gets faster. That moves over slows down. Now he's behind you about a quarter of a mile. Then he speeds up gets in front of you. And as he gets in front of you he's kind of going into the other lane almost hitting somebody. I think that deserves a one. Maybe it's zero if there was one.

Fantastic experience: Today I have passed my road test at RMV Newbedford after only couples of hour training with polite & genorous lady. She is excellent teacher. She takes care about student appointment time for road test .Today my schedule was 2pm but she was concern about that time was very busy so she pick me from my residence early & manage 1pm time road test by discussing with road test supervisor due to avaiable schedule.Previously my two friends passed by training with her .So my friend recommend me for learning with her also hour rate is reasonable than other school. I would like to give her 5 stars.

Negative experience: During a driving class, sat in car while kids came in and went home before I was even thought of, poor quality, do not come here

Negative experience: PLEASE DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY! My husband had to learn from watching YouTube videos. Instructors are NOT professional and provide incorrect information. The amount of failed students from this school is mind blowing. The main priority for these schools/instructors should be focused on their students passing the exam without doubt. My husband passed the written and breezed through maneuvers. He took full Advantage of what very LITTLE they had to offer. Before his exam today he asked his instructor who accompanies the students to and from the exam if he needed to clear the cones on the “offset back/right” maneuver. The “instructor” told him to clear the cones then gave a sarcastic answer saying “would you stop in the middle of the road?” Well this instructor was WRONG and he failed. The trooper giving the exam said the school should have given you a certain Manuel to know where to stop . This school gives zero support and takes ZERO responsibility for their failed students! My husband is not the only one. It is disgusting the amount of money paid for this school and then the money you have to pay to continue to retake the exam. Hundreds more wasted! Save your money and time to research other schools.

Negative experience: Waste of money.... instructors spend more time on their phone than actually teaching you.... example I'm going over my in cab pre trip trying to ask questions instructor cares more about watching YouTube videos... get out to do outside of the truck pre trip and the instructor never left the truck, when I ask him if he can step out to help out his response is" you really gunna make and old mm stand up" then he walked away and continued playing on his phone...STAY AWAY STAY FAR AWAY.... and the cash only for private lessons and for the state exam is so sketchy....

Fantastic experience: As an alumni of both NETTS and Amaral, Class A, I can tell you that Amaral gives you all the tools and professional support you need to obtain your license, at a much better value. Apply yourself, and you will succed with Amaral. Thank you, Joe, Staff, and Instructors!

Negative experience: Very disappointed with my experience here, they don't give you a lot of crucial information that other schools teach you in classroom, the practice site has a lot of pot holes, and its in the back of a daycare, and they usually have 10 to 12 students taking turns for 3 to 4 hours, and even when you tell them that you're not ready to go for your road test they will still send you, after you fail all your tests, they will charge you more money to get more lessons, instructors also have no patience, very rude. Pay more money and go to a professional trucking school.

Fantastic experience: I was in the first class after the new regulations took affect back in February. Joe Amaral was very straightforward and honest. His instructors out in the lot and on the road were great. It's definitely a place where you get what you put in. So if you're serious about driving truck you'll do alright there.

Fantastic experience: Amaral auto and truck driving school was amazing. If you think your going to just show up and pay to get a cdl, your wrong. The instructors give you the tools, tricks and knowledge to obtain a commercial drivers license. It is up to YOU to ask questions, study and be involved. no one is going to hold you hand. With that being said they’re flexible, fairly priced and the instructors are top notch. Good luck

Negative experience: I have read many negative comments, when paying for the classes in cash, which is the only form of payment they accept, and will they give me a receipt? a voucher? and for that money the school agrees to do everything to obtain my license? if I fail the road test they schedule a new appointment with the state tropper? Or will they just try to avoid road test appointments? in case i failed the first time

Negative experience: Would give 0 stars if it allowed me to. This guy would schedule private lessons knowing damn well we didn’t have any time scheduled then demand payment for “missing an appointment” ($180) this has happened multiple times and I’ve always been religious about writing these things down. Not to mention he took my ($350) for signing up, refused to refund me and told me to find another school. These guys are a bunch of clowns. Stay as far away as you can!

Positive experience: I only go there for a state inspection sticker, but the people I've dealt with have always been pleasant, and courteous.

Fantastic experience: Professional staff values of customer and reasonable rates

Fantastic experience: My experience comes from the private CDL lessons. Amaral gives you all of the tools to succeed, prices are fair, and there is very little wait to start, unlike most CDL schools. You have to be prepared to put in the work, though. Studying pre-trip and paying attention to how manoeuvres are done are 100% necessary. Mike and Joe both take the time to point you in the right direction, and the right attitude will carry you to a new career. Realize you don't know more than the instructors about driving trucks, be willing to follow directions, and ask questions. Also understand that students learn at different paces, and that classes have rolling enrollment, so not to get frustrated if another student is way ahead of or behind you. Your experience levels may be much different. Mike and Joe also do a good job managing this, but you need to talk to them about your progress to make sure you're on the same page. Always be willing to communicate. Amaral gives you back what you put in. I gave it my all, and Amaral led me to a new career thoroughly, quickly, and affordably.

Fantastic experience: Anna is very professiona, I felt very at ease with her, I highly recommend this driving school

Fantastic experience: Great school, great instructors cdl, auto and school bus. Reasonable rates.

Fantastic experience: The driving instructors for the Amaral School Bus Training program in the Summer of 2020 were effective teachers. They successfully combined instructive techniques with motivational behaviors. The instructors not only taught us how to drive, but also patiently encouraged us to be safer and better drivers. The Amaral Bus training was like being trained to drive by your dad but without the swearing and yelling. One important opportunity would be for Amarals to add another summer instructor so students could accrue more quickly the behind the wheel driving hours.

Fantastic experience: Fast and professional.

Fantastic experience: I had Anna and she the best driving instructor you could ask for, very patient and thorough with teaching you how to drive and I passed my road exam on my first try because of her

Fantastic experience: F 350 inspection was fast & efficient & service was friendly

Fantastic experience: Good customer service.

Fantastic experience: Ana was a great teacher!

Negative experience: Disappointed. Stay away

Fantastic experience: Ana is an awesome driving instructor she helped me to get over the fear of driving and I was able to pass my driving exam today!!! Thank you so much !! I would recommend Amaral's Driving School!!!

Fantastic experience: Anna is such a nice lady and helps a lot she tells u little tips and tricks that help u remember for what u are doing

Negative experience: Amaral cdl driving school is horrible ! What a nightmare experience. First Everyone who takes there class a cdl course fails the test 3-5 times before they get there license some won’t even get there license . I took private lesson and there is one class a instructor for the entire school and is he over worked and hates his job and is impossible to get any helpful information out of him. Also private lesson are not private , there will be another guy taking private lesson there in a tiny little pathetic parking lot in the slum of New Bedford or there will be a huge group from the cdl course there with you while taking your “private “ lesson. Oh ya they only take cash for private lessons no checks or cards just cash . Joe amaral is a shady guy that is only out to get as much money from you as possible. Stay away from this school . Try Parker school in Avon and they have a guarantee that you will pass with Parker school.

Negative experience: I do not recommend there CDL driving school!! The owner Joe amaral only cares about how much money you spend there and is very shady . They have one driving instructor for the entire cdl school. The private lesson are not private at all , there will be another person there taking a private lesson at same time or a group of 6-8 people from the cdl course they have witch is a joke. The people who took the cdl class a course Can’t even pass there test after 3-4 times taking test . The cdl instructor is over worked and hates his job and you will get no valuable information from him . Do not go to this school. Go to Parker’s school in Avon they have a guarantee that you will pass and great reviews .

Negative experience: (1) Their car for sale advertisements say negotiable, but they do not budge on price. (2) They charge a $150 dealer fee for cars purchased and thia fee is not listed on their ads. (3) They leave advertisements on craiglist/autotrader long after car is sold. (4) Rude service on the phone.

Negative experience: By far the worst driving school. They were contracted by the Town of Dartmouth and we were told we “had to use them.” A total waste of money. The wife sat in the car, as the instructor, and made phone calls during the entire lesson. They were late to pick up, they missed appointments. She taught my daughter nothing because she was on the phone the entire time of her “lessons”. I found out too late that this was happening. They should be banned from the field. I complained towards the end and on the day of my daughter’s driving test, she deliberately instructed her incorrectly, so my daughter failed the test. I should have reported her then. RUN, do not walk away from this company. Also, an incredibly rude woman.

Negative experience: Waste of time and money,spechially with instructor Ana!! I would pay her the $40 during the class,she never gave me any receipt. Only having me book “classes” but never would wanna take the next step in getting my license. I found that strange. I am going somewhere else. Waste of time.

Negative experience: Worse driving school to deal with. Ripped off both of my sisters $600 each. The instructor was giving them half hour lessons for the price of an hour. The instructor Ana Wouldn’t take checks from them and only took cash and wouldn’t give them receipts , charged them both for 2 hour lessons but would only give them 30 minute lessons. Always bad mouths her clients Very unprofessional. My sisters were nice enough to let it go but I wouldn’t want this to happen to anyone else so just a heads up for new drivers. Stay away from this company specially Ana!

Negative experience: In the past two weeks I have witnessed illegal moves at Fairhaven’s High School by them when the INSTRUCTOR was driving. Once parked out back for at least TWENTY minutes in the MIDDLE of the road Not stopped, PARKED. And then stopped blocking the entrance to the front driveway, stopping cars from entering from Main Street. My son will not go to this school when he becomes of age next year because I am absolutely BESIDE myself with what I’ve witnessed in such a short time. How can they be teaching these kids how to drive when they can’t even drive themselves?!

Fantastic experience: I went to this driving school to help get my CDL. I passed the test on the first attempt. Prior to my first class, I had zero truck experience.

Negative experience: Worse school ever! Ripped my son off for $110!!!! You dont need Anna as your sponsor. Parents can be sponsors and use their own car! Dont let her scam you!!!!!

Negative experience: Slow service and there is limited parking because of the cars for sale

Fantastic experience: Would highly recommend.

Negative experience: The worst school owner only cares about money. They take students to the test without proper training 10 guy's practicing in the same truck there's a guy named Joe I mean the younger Joe he's rude and disrespectful if you want to get your cdl go somewhere else they don't even deserve one star.