CDL School vs Community College

First of all, welcome to the forum. This may seem harsh, but based on the information you've offered, it's a no brainer. Just do the math if that's your only concern...

 

Call some local trucking companies and ask them what they think of the community college. In my area, 3 are good and 1 flat sucks. I know it sounds good to have a job waiting for you but the community college probably has 15 employers waiting for you and you get to pick the one you want. You may get very good training and a good employer from the private school? I'd ask them who it is up front. The state subsidizes the public school,obviously, so the private has no way of competing financially. So, they better have some good companies lined up. They may have better real world training as well. They better for $6000. Don't be shy...just lay it on the line with these recruiters, but be professional.

 

I just recently was dismissed from tdi-tupelo,ms.The best route to go when dealing with tdi is to get your local job center topay for the training through the wia program.If you are wondering why I was dismissed from tdi twice actually.I told tdi I was convicted of a felony when I first signed up and they told me no problem they could still find me a job.I paid my 200 dollar for my deposit and off I went.I was called in the office on a wednesday of my first week and was told I had to go because they could not find me a job.I was told to go home and get the job center to pay for my training and that they would train me as long as I signed a waiver stating they could not find me a job.I had the job center to pay for the training.I was called in the office again and told the same thing.I had found my own job,but that was not good enough because they wanted me to have a job inside their network,which they fore you to except.If you go through the job center you will have to go with a company in their network,swift,werner,tmc,falcon,stevens,usa,covenant,h.o wolding.Your first day in class you will take a drug test and fill out a application for all these companies.

 

Well looks like you need to either find another line of work or find someone willing to give you the money for schooling.
I would only go to school if you for sure have a job lined up there is nosence in wasting money if you can not get hired.

 

That is alot of money to spend for a litle time.Fortunatly i`m going to NC Truck Driver Training School in Smithfield NC at Johnston Community College.It`s the oldest truck driver training school in the world(look it up)i`m taking the night course and that`s 12 weeks long 4 hrs. Mon. thru Fri. and 10 hrs. on Sat. and Sun. the tuition is $558.00 plus $50.00 for books.There are some other schools around here that charge close to the amount your paying but they have a lousy rep. and a simular program 3 Wks. and you`ll have your CDL.Some of the companies i talked to would only hire students out of NC if they went to the school i`m at so i would do some research before spending that amount of money(just my opinion)

 

I am sort of in the same boat. What it looks like to me is that the more expensive training through the trucking school is really a kind of diploma mill. The community college will give you far more hours in the truck, and more time to study and might be more thorough. Either way you will have to do some kind of "internship" to get enough road miles. The whole thing is how many road miles you get before they allow you to drive on your own. Personally, I would pay the 850-+ for the community college. Then you would have nearly 5000 dollars to tide you over. Just get a little part time job --

 

I hate I missed the original poster on this thread.

But everyone would be far better off using the community college route. NO training company can guarantee you a job. that's a complete lie. Unless they are the company.

Theses driver mills get your money, then a recruitment bonus.

The one thing I did notice when I trained. The new drivers that came to me from a Community College...where ready for the task at hand, and just needed a bit of polishing. While driver mill newbs....needed to have their hand held for the first couple of weeks.

 

As of September 2008, policies changed and TDI began doing background checks prior to training as opposed to the checks being done on the 1st day of training. Prior to September TDI was relying on the accuracy of the student application, and the exact nature of a felony was sometimes mis-stated, or the date of the felony was mis-stated, or the number of the felonies mis-stated.

As for the WIA paying for training. TDI doesn't care where a student goes to work, It certainly isn't required that anyone go to work with companies in a certain network. As far as I know TDI doesn't have a network of any sort. However, the WIA has to be satisfied with the job that the student has lined up. If this guy had a job lined up and TDI wouldn't train him, it is because the WIA was not satisfied with the job, and for no other reason.