Benji's Driving School

Hello, my name is Won Joo. I am a class 1 professional driver. I took 20 hour course from Tony, the sole proprietor and instructor of 'Benji' driving school. I would like to share my reasons why I would NOT recommend this school. While I had the 'gut feeling' that Valley would have the best instructors, due to my having taken the Air Brake certification at the Coquitlam branch, I wanted to save money and sought a less costly alternative. I went into my first road test centre at the Burnaby ICBC branch with confidence knowing how much time and effort I had put into memorising the particulars of the inspection and driving components of the examination. When I received my evaluation, I realised that Tony, had failed to communicate 3 aspects that were significant to the test. 1) Starting to monitor the air pressure at 50 psi from the PRIMARY reservoir and ending the monitoring at 90 psi from the SECONDARY reservoir - Tony had never explained this to me, and instead, he told me to look at a piece of paper with ambiguous diagrams, broken grammar, and arrows related to the air build up time test - not an effective way to instruct a student foreign to the semi truck in cab environment. 2) Ensuring that the truck brakes, the yellow 'button', is 'applied', or pulled out, before stepping out of the vehicle to remove the wheel blocks, to subsequently perform the 'tug test' - Tony had never mentioned this. This is critical. To help new drivers understand why this component is important, it is because the truck may roll away in the event the truck and trailer is stationed on a non level surface such as an incline or decline. 3) Knowing to turn the truck and trailer to the right when the center of the passenger side trailer wheel has just pasted the corner of the sidewalk or pavement. I firmly believe that Tony and many instructors from other driving schools do not know this because I witness professional semi truck drivers make this mistake often. In fact, I witnessed one failure prior to writing this review. This fundamental skill in preventing collision and ENORMOUS liability, was clarified to me when I had decided to get help from John from Langley Valley school, the school I would STRONGLY recommend for new drivers, in spite of their higher fees. I hope this review would help individuals trying to get into the trucking industry, and encourage instructors to self reflect and refine their teachings ways so that students would be more successful in acquiring their licenses, and more importantly, developing SAFER drivers. One last comment - To all the trollers of the web and Benji's reviewers in particular, Please, do not insult the reader's intelligence with your false reviews. I suspect the comments were written my Tony himself with his fake accounts. 'Happy Day'. Right...

I am currently preparing for class 1 road-test and Bengie's Driving School has been such a big help so far. Tony (the owner of the school) is a very friendly guy. I feel that he genuinely tries to help me improve my driving and I feel that I am getting better and better after each lesson. I also find their fee is cheaper than other driving schools in lower mainland - which is what the other driving schools are not happy about. Also, he uses mostly basic English so people whose first language is not English (like me) can easily understand his instructions. If anyone asks, I would definitely recommend Bengie's Driving School!

If you want to get an advanced driver’s license and to drive a big rig or a bus, do yourself a favor and see Tony, the owner of Benji’s Driving School. I want to keep this brief so here it is, very concise and nothing but the truth so help me God. Tony is really passionate about driving any vehicle, is extremely good at it, and most of all, has the gift of teaching, of sharing his knowledge with his students that soon (as the one writing) become his friends. I did not know Tony but I am glad I took the decision to see him and borrow a bit of his knowledge. Godspeed Tony and thank you.

I believe benji's class 1 driving school is one of the best driving School in Vancouver, I've tried other schools but I learned so many things from Tony, he helped me to improve my driving skills so I could pass pre-trip and road test easily. Thank you so much Tony ????

After driving 5 ton trucks for years I decided to upgrade my licence to class 1 in order to open more driving options for myself, I contacted Tony at Benji's after being referred by a good friend who had recently done his class 3 with him, I signed up for my two day air course and started the next weekend, the course was very informative and I felt at ease because of Tony's great demeanour and sense of humour, a few days after I passed my class 1 learners and air brake written exam I got in touch with Tony and we started the road lessons quickly, I was very intimidated at first with such a big truck and difficult gearbox but quickly became comforatable with Tony's excellent guidance, I passed my road test and air brake practical just this morning and I am on top of the world, Tony is absolutely the best instructor I have ever worked with and I would recommend him to anyone thinking about taking on this challenge. First rate instruction and incredibly affordable prices, his vehicles are excellent and in very good shape ! "Happy Day" !!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY DAY !!!!!!!!!! Tony is an amazing, supportive, encouraging and knowledgeable instructor. I was so lucky to have him. He helped me with my confidence as much as with my skills an abilities on the road and he went above and beyond to help me in every way. I don't think I would have been able to get my license without him! Amazing

I passed the all test at first try. Tonny is the best instructor ever I met. I was afraied to drive big and long vehicle first time but Tonny guide and show me the way step by step. If you wanna be a professinal driver, I extremely recommend Benji's Driving School. Thank you Tonny!!! Happy New Year!!

Tony is a world-renowned coach, the king of all vehicles, an all-round professional with a high level of competence, a very good personality, warm and friendly, who has created a famous driving school, trained and helped many students, drivers and coaches, etc., and is highly regarded in local community, people, other driving schools, coaches, many north American companies, ICBC and so on. Perfect and Great?