Our class finishes up August 21st. The next day class starts on August 31st and ends on Oct 24th. Orientation starts August 4th. They have a night and weekend course also. The next one starts September 28th and ends December 18th. Orientation for this class is September 1st. This is a great school I can't recommend it enough. Google Johnston Community College. The web site has a lot of useful info.

Thanks. 38 is a big class, are there still that many left? Is this a typical size compared to other programs?

The class is down to 35. There is at least 6 instructors there daily. They also have night instructors that fill in when needed. Everything is very well organized. The instructors make sure no one falls behind. I have heard of as many as 12 to 1 ratio at some of the private schools. As far as class size I do not know.

This past class at Nash was only 9 deep (okay, 10, but the other guy either quit or got disqualified b/c of his eyes...we still don't know...)

It costs more, yeah, but we've spent a lot of time first seat in the truck for the money. I can do a pretrip with my eyes closed while upside down chewing bubblegum, eating pop rocks, and drinking a coke. And the school at Nash is shorter, if that matters to ya. I started July 6th and will have CDL in hand (if everything continues as it is now...) on August 7th. Also the cost factors in the drug test, DOT physical, MVR pull, permit cost, license cost, any endorsement fees you may have, etc. The only thing it doesn't cover is getting your fingerprints done for the Hazmat endorsement, but there are a few companies pay you back for that.

And...

Accredited school = six months of driving experience? Okay...not sure how that works. 8 week school = 6 months experience on the road? Show me the working on that one and I will drive down to JCC and buy you a steak. Or better yet, tell me a company that takes that and I'll have my app right behind yours...Accredited or not, I'm not sure that any carrier's insurance company is going to look at someone and go "Hmm...they've never ACTUALLY drove a truck for long distances and in tight spots and horrible traffic after already driving all day by themselves...but they went to an accredited school, so let's entrust them with our 125K truck and a million dollars worth of goods because 8 weeks= 6 months!" Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But if it does, I guess that I get 6 months of experience when I get done...cool...personally I think that's kind of like going straight out of driver's ed and dropping into Nascar, but I'll ask my instructor before the two of us hit the road tomorrow morning.

Yes it is true.

I know of two schools that have 50+ years of truck driver training experience: Johnston Community College, Smithfield, NC and Greenville Technical College, Greenville, SC

They have Extreme Training Programs with Extensive Equipment and Extended Class Schedules.

Many different Trucking Companies donate their beautiful trucks and trailers to these two great schools.

They also recruit the quality drivers that they produce, eagerly.

The accredition is given to these schools and their students by the trucking companies that offer to employ them.

These are strict programs. They will only accept the best picks. It is an Honor to get accepted as a student by either school.

I recommend that you search and research (Homework) your options, in schools as well as potential employers.

Best to you

__________________
KC

"For every trucker with a headache,there is another with an aspirin in their pocket."

Tough Times Don't Last...Tough People Do

I did search and research before I picked the school that I am currently in. I liked the fact that it was closer to home than Smithfield, had smaller class sizes, and one on one training BTW with 0 hours of "observation". I can also figure that any company that counts a driving school as six months of experience, no matter how long the school has been running, or if the Department of Education has accredited them, is doing it for reasons other than the quality of the school. Driving school does not = 6 months of driving a truck. I don't care how you spin it, I don't care how intense the training is, it just flat out doesn't. When i go to the company that I have chosen's orientation, I want to be treated like a noob...because I am one. Yes I can drive up and down 95 and 64 and navigate the backroads of 301 and run the roads in Rocky Mount, but that doesn't mean I have any experience.

I have no bad words about JCC. I strongly considered it against the Sage program at NCC. But in the end, those three reasons listed above sent me to Sage instead. Honestly, though, I have a suspicion that you or someone you know works there and you're in here recruiting under the radar.

Sweetheart, Community Colleges DO NOT HAVE RECRUITERS.

Recruiters from trucking companies come and recruit from the school.

If you have any further questions, and won't believe my answers, then please call the schools and let them explain it to you on a level that you may understand.

Please do not bash me or the information that I have provided. I did my homework.

Best!

__________________
KC

"For every trucker with a headache,there is another with an aspirin in their pocket."

Tough Times Don't Last...Tough People Do

First off let me state that before choosing Johnston Community College I did my research on several schools in the area. I chose this school 1. for it's reputation as a quality training school 2. Amount and diversity of equipment 3. You don't become the oldest truck driver training school in the country without giving a first rate education. I repeat the oldest trucking school in the country.

I have heard good things about NCC Sage program. I do find it funny that you list it's proximity to your home first rather than the quality of the program. I live five hundred miles round trip and I drive it every week! Quality of the program plus the seven hundred dollar price it's a no brainer!

I also find it very rude among other things to question Kickin chicken's motives concerning Johnston Community College. Do your homework. She has been very helpful to many wannabe's on this site. Check her post!

Really...community colleges don't have recruiters? That's hilarious because when my brother was getting ready to graduate high school this year, the local community colleges sent people to talk up the college and the great programs that they had...come to think of it they did it at my school when I graduated...and that was around a decade ago...that sounds like a recruiter to me, darlin...And besides, if you go back and reread that part, never once did I call you a recruiter. I said "recruiting under the radar." If the college doesn't have people going out there and telling people about their program (or...wait for it...recruiting them for it...), then the program goes away. If people don't know that they can go into the Army (a stretch, yeah, but stick with it here...) and nobody (such as recruiters) tells them about the Army, guess what happens? One day, there is no more Army. Now apply this to any school, including community colleges...all community colleges, and their programs, have a recruiter of some form or another, even if they aren't named as such. It's part of their job to recruit people to come to their school.

I am not disputing the information you have given as being what the college says...I'm talking about the information itself. So tell me this...if I don't believe that a trucking company is going to take completing a school as six months experience, why would I call the school to ask them if that's true if that's what they are already telling people? And what reason would I have to call them? I've got a school, I'll have my CDL next week and in orientation at a job two weeks after that. I'm just trying to look out for others who may, after reading the exact words that you stated, be going in there thinking that the trucking industry is going to grant them six months experience (which can equal more pay, less time training for the company, etc.) for attending an 8 week school...That's all I'm doing and I don't appreciate your vague insults to my intelligence level (i.e. your explanation of what recruiters are/do and that I need something explained on a level that I can understand...and if I were being personal, I would put an insult right here directed at you regarding a level that I can understand, but since I'm not, I wont...) when it's quite obvious that I get what you are saying and just refuse to believe it. I even called the recruiter for the company that I'm going to and asked, point blank, if there are any trucking schools that they count as having six months experience...she said, quite quickly, no and there's no company that she knows of that would either...I'd rather hear that from someone at a major "starter company" (i.e. a company that hires students straight out of class but still pays and treats them well...you've seen this company's trucks and their recruiters, I guarantee) in the industry than from anyone in any school. If there are certain companies that do that, then that should be stated instead of a blank "you get six months experience."

And I have yet to bash you personally, other than to say that your unending praise of the program (or more importantly that companies donate their beautiful trucks, etc.) reads like a brochure and makes you sound like someone who works for them. How that's bashing you is beyond me. Maybe this is your first time on the internet...I don't know. Bashing starts at some level FAR beyond that.

You don't become the oldest person in the world without living for a long time, either. But that doesn't mean you can do a lot when you're the oldest person in the world...The age of the school is of little importance, especially if the school is funded by the state (and it is. The JCC program actually started at NC State many a year ago and was then moved to JCC). State funding means that as long as the program is getting people in and out, the money doesn't go away...but again, I never disparaged the program at JCC. Not once. And yet you bring up a fact like this as though I did (or, maybe, to advertise it...and why would a student do that?) And why would you assume that the age of a school makes it any better than another? Rutgers has been around since 1766, but there isn't a single college ranking list that places it as a better school than Duke University unless it was done by Rutgers. CR England has been at this training thing for about 21 years and I wouldn't quite call them a "quality school" Or actually...I wouldn't even call them a school really. But they still have schools they have contracted as CDL mills. They haven't shut down despite the fact that many many a complaint has been levied against them, because people still get suckered in. And the schools keep running. But before you think somewhere in your brain that I am comparing JCC with CR England training schools, I'm not. I only use that as an example of age does not always = quality. In JCC's case, it's not the age that's important. It's a quality school, yes, but being in place for 50 years is not the big factor in that.



I didn't list quality of school because both are high quality schools. Had you done more research into the Sage programs, you would know that. [Also, just to let you know, you sound like a pitchman when you say things like "Quality of the program plus the seven hundred dollar price it's a no brainer." Sounds like advertisement (or...wait for it again)...recruiting techniques...to me...But I digress.] My cousin went to JCC years ago and is still doing great out on the road. My neighbor went to Sage and told me that I needed to go there. Still out on the road and loving it. So with that quality factor being equal (each of the people that I know and more importantly trust say one vote for each), I had to go through other factors. And if you don't have a life where you need to be able to work so that you can eat, pay the rent, lights, etc then congratulations. I do, and therefore had to factor in the ability to work when I chose my school. The amount of time to get to and from Smithfield, along with class time, prevented me from doing so. So yeah, proximity is a big issue. But if it were a h_llhole of a school, I wouldn't have gone to it even if I could walk across the street. Imagine if all those costs that you mentioned WIA was paying 1/3 of (classes, books, lodging) were coming 100% out of YOUR pocket...which would you have chosen? The quality school five minutes down the road or the quality school an hour away which prevented you from working? THAT'S a no-brainer.

But please do answer me this one: how many hours of behind the wheel training, actually first seat behind the wheel, not in observation, do you have at this point, with a little less than a month to go until the end of your school? How much are you going to have before the school ends? I'm honestly curious, because if you're gonna be hauling an 80,000 lbs possible death machine in and around my state, I wanna know how many hours of actual driving training you have logged. And also, do you have anything lined up for when the school ends?

Rude? Okay, whatever. I can question anyone's motives I feel like, including yours, and you can call it rude if you like, but...when something smells strange, I tell you what I think it is. Then again I'm cynical and also know that anyone can be anyone on the internet. And saying what I said doesn't discount any other post that she has made. Never talked bad about her, just stated an opinion based on what I had read. The posts that were put up were just reading more and more like a brochure and less like someone's actual opinion. And then the six months experience thing came up and my b.s. detector went off. So I wanted to call her, and actually you too, on it. It sounds like a line to get people in the building and the last thing this industry needs is someone else getting their expectations crushed.

Example:
[Student]: Hi, Maverick, are you hiring in NC?
[Maverick Recruiter]: What's your zipcode?
[Student]: 27856
[Maverick Recruiter]: Yes we are hiring in your area. How much experience do you have?
[Student]: I went to Johnston Community College and they tell me that counts as six months experience.
[MR]: No it doesn't. Thanks for calling. Good luck.
[Student]: Whaaa....???

And what's with the obsession from both of you with "homework" whether it's been done or I'm being told to do mine (which I really don't understand why you would repeat that in multiple posts when I've obviously done my homework already being that I'm in school)? It seems that you keep trying to insult my intelligence level, or maybe my researching skills, or maybe my choice of school. Good luck with that.

Honestly, I thought that the NCC Sage Truck Driver Training Program had already been shut down.

Nash Community College has a great reputation. However; Sage Truck Driver Training DOES NOT!

Your numbers are down for a reason.

Denise was holding that program together, when she left the quality and professionalism went with her.


This Thread is about KinnaKeet and his journey. That is and will remain my primary focus of this Thread.

__________________
KC

"For every trucker with a headache,there is another with an aspirin in their pocket."

Tough Times Don't Last...Tough People Do