Southern California Legitimate CDL Schools.

Ensure the school is minimum of 160 hours. Most every company will hire from a 160 hr. school. I can't help with school names, but can give you some trucking companies to apply with that hire new cdl grads. Best wishes.

 

Heard good things about these guys.
They're in Chatsworth.


Truck Driving School | CDL | Alliance School of Trucking

 

UPS Freight Linehaul - $.7042 cpm


UPS Freight is hiring individuals to work as Full Time Road Drivers in a growing freight market. This position involves driving of a tractor-trailer over the road as a Linehaul driver. There are immediate openings for these positions including meet and return to domicile, travel to locations and perform dock functions and return home, as well as Sleeper opportunities.
UPS Freight is offering an industry leading compensation and benefit program with top rate mileage earning $.7042 per mile. UPS Freight has a fully funded pension plan paid for by the company and industry leading healthcare packages for full time Road Drivers.
Road Driver candidates are 21 years of age or older with a class A CDL issued by their resident state with the following endorsements: Haz-Mat, Twin Trailer, and Tanker.

 

I went to California Career School back in 2010. It's a vocational school that teaches a bunch of different stuff. Back then they only had two trucks out of Anaheim, but the trainers where awesome and the class size small. One trainer was laid back and kind of watched you then told you what you needed to correct the other was old school stern but knew his stuff. I was a fast learner and was floating gears by week three or four lol, so I banged it out rather quickly. Unfortunately one trainer I know for a fact is no longer there, he went owner op and the other is probably gone as well. Best of luck to you sir.
www.californiacareerschool.edu

 

Read this regarding Alliance School of Trucking
Operators of Trucking School Charged with Defrauding VA by Collecting Tuition for Veterans who Never Attended Classes

 

Roll With Us as a CDL-A Delivery Driver!
West Covina, CA
Drivers will safely operate an over-the-road tractor-trailer and deliver product to a specified route of restaurants on time with the best accuracy possible and in a friendly, professional manner. Drivers make multi-stops on their routes and are REQUIRED TO UNLOAD FREIGHT at each customer stop using lift gate and electric pallet jack delivery method.
$80,000 AVG. ANNUAL PAY
The website has "experience required", but the fact is, they hire new cdl grads and in some cases hire drivers with only a cdl permit. The new cdl school graduate drivers and drivers with only a cdl permit, will run teams with an experienced driver until they're qualified to go it alone. They usually give the cdl permit driver 90 days to get the hard copy cdl. For these jobs apply for "Driver Associate" or "Driver Helper."

 

Here's some more that hire Los Angeles driver new grads from 160 hr. cdl schools.

~~~~Dynamic Transit~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Freymiller~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dynamic Transit - coast to coast refrigerated trucking and no Northeast.
Freymiller - www.drive4freymiller.com - click on "Restore Program" which is for new cdl grads. Coast to coast refrigerated trucking.

 

Have you tried Yelp! to look for schools? In SoCal a lot of the student drivers are immigrants for example, you won't see many of them on this site leaving reviews but you do on Yelp.
I was looking at a refresher course and I saw a slick web-site from one school and they seemed friendly enough when I talked to them. But then I checked for local reviews on Yelp and they were terrible!

Do yourself a favor and look a bit closer at any claims a school makes. If it is not in writing then it's not contractual so that means they have no obligation to honor it.

If you have some companies in mind, it would not hurt to contact their HR directly and ask them is there a school they prefer or recommend? All trucking schools will teach you to pass the DMV tests. Not all schools will go above and beyond that minimum.

I won't name any names but there are several schools in LA that offer training for $1,200 to $1,500. If all you want is a class A CDL they will train you to pass the test.

Either way, most of your real training takes place in the real world since all the major OTR companies will require you to do "training" with a trainer for at least 4 weeks and sometimes for several months. The quality of such "training" is dubious since it's usually just a way to make you run team at low weekly pay while the trainer rakes in the dough from all the miles you drive.

But again, some of the better companies especially local ones, will hire you direct from school if it was at least 160 hours and you can pass a road-test well. As already said above by other posters.

Most of what I needed to know I learned on my own, without a "trainer" breathing down my neck. Once you have the basics down the rest will come to you.

 

I have read one Yelp review where the student stated that she was writing the positive review so she could then receive test prep material she had paid for in the tuition.
If you read many of the glowing trucking school reviews on Yelp, they seem disingenuous., ie no specifics but general.

I have likewise tried to pinpoint a respected, state approved CDL school in So Cal. to no avail. Roadmasters for example owned by Werner No thanks. Alliance School of Trucking, owners under federal indictment. etc etc