Help. No experience, no CDL

Better to ask Swift if drivers living in NC get dispatched to California.

 

Since you have a girlfriend in CA, you probably don't want to run teams.

 

Danny Herman might work out for you. Also hires from cdl schools.

 

Freymiller hires from North Carolina and runs West Coast. Also hires new cdl school grads.
Drive Freymiller – Freymiller Truck Driving Opportunities and Recruiting
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Finishing Program -
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Stevens Transport runs 48 states:
CDL Training | Stevens Transport

 

You likely can get CDL training at technical college there for free (scholarship) to obtain your license. Then decide who to apply to with license in hand. Thats what I did recently here in Columbia SC and It looks like Greenville Tech has a very similiar program and scholarship. Truck Driver Training Program - Greenville Technical College

 

I would avoid working for companies in CA. I would maybe consider companies outside of CA that go to the LA/Riverside area and Carolina. CA is such a terrible business climate, every day is an adventure for CA businesses and the taxes are high so companies can fold up overnight.

As for CDL schools. The primary advantage of for-profit CDL schools is that classes start very often, maybe every Mon or every 2nd or 3rd Monday. I had the choice of a state vo-tech that only costs $600 or 800 for CDL course, but had a several month waiting list and the course was a few months long. Or, I could go to where I wanted to live, start a for-profit CDL school that was starting every Mon morning that cost $3500 for 3 weeks. I had a CDL job waiting for me. So I took out a school loan and paid $3500 and was working 3 weeks and a weekend later. CDL school is about one and only one thing passing the state test and getting the CDL in your pocket. DO NOT pay more for a 'better school' and think it will better prepare you for driving the truck. It won't. You learn 95% of the job from the training you get at your first employer. You will ride with a trainer for some number of weeks. I rode with my trainer for 8 weeks before I got my solo truck.

The advantage to signing a contract with a trucking company and getting your CDL 'for free' from the company is you will have a CDL job waiting for you as soon as the company can pair you with a trainer. In exchange for the "free CDL" you have a contract where you are required to work 12 months, for example, or you may be requied to driver 100,000 miles, for example, for that company to avoid having to pay back the school/training cost.

The way to decide which is right for you is to ALREADY know where you want to work and to know they will hire you with your background and driving record. Lots of bad companies offer 'free CDL school' and some good companies also offer their own school for CDL. If you want to work at a company with a 'free CDL school/contract, and they will hire you, then do that. You need to get licensed and you need 1 year of CDL driving experience before you can work for most trucking companies. Some require 2 years experience.

The smart way to enter the industry, IMO, is to find the employer and let that decision dictate what to do about CDL school. Not all for-profit CDL schools are the same. Some employers only hire newbies from certain CDL schools. Some CDL schools are accredited and some are not. What matters much more than accreditation is what does the employer you want to work for think of that school.

Think of a new career like getting married. You don't FIRST decide where to get a cheap wedding ceremony and reception afterward and then pick out a woman on the day of the ceremony. Also, you can't make the woman (employer) you want to marry happy by giving her gifts and flowers (CDL school) that other women want. "Here, these are the flowers my last girlfriend really liked so you should like them too." No, first you pick out the woman to marry (employer) and then start working on the wedding ceremony plans (CDL school). In my opinion it takes months of research to find the info I need to know before picking an employer. It takes a few hours to pick the CDL school. Start researching the employer.

Lastly, trucking parking in CA is hard to find. Most truck drivers find the only good thing about CA is the weather and leaving CA. Some trucking companies will not hire drivers with CA CDLs because CA likes to drop regulations/taxes on employers with not much warning.

 

Melton Truck Lines runs West Coast, hires North Carolina new cdl school grads.
Recent Grads & Entry Level Drivers - Drive 4 Melton

 

There's nothing inherently wrong with company training, but you will be an indentured servant for a while afterwards. The money you'll owe and the contract you signed will give them leverage over you and your CDL. IMHO it's best to only go that route if you really need to.

If you can swing a private program, even better if it's at a community college, that's the way to go. The latter is relatively cheap, and they usually train on manuals, so you won't have that restriction. Look into the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) through your state's employment office if you need help paying for it.