Help! Advice Needed On Southwest Truck Driver Training in Las Vegas

People, do not listen to Wiseman! He is full of baloney! I graduated from Southwest Las Vegas on April 7, 2011. There are plenty of great jobs out there!

 

Hey I am a newbie looking at these schools a year after the last posts in this thread.

The southwest offices were smaller, more professional and their program was significantly cheaper. $4k if you pay yourself upfront, $5.5k if you finance. They also emphasized getting grants to offset or pay for the cost,
giving me the info I need to pursue them. I did not see their classrooms or
facilities, must be at a different location.

AIT was loud, disorganized and chaotic. And they are more expensive, they want almost $9k for a part time program, $5.5k for their 4 week if you pay for it yourself, and $7k for the 5 week if you finance it. They also tried to claim the 6 weeks you do for training at your first job is part of their program, calling it a paid externship.

Otherwise they both seem to offer the same things, both claim they won't take you unless they are sure you can get hired, both emphasized
the carriers have tuition reimburstment, and both seemed to have the same main carriers, Swift and Werner.

From reading the boards, it seems that the school isn't that important, just getting the license and pre-hire matter, and the real training is done on the road with your trainer on the road.

So I think am going to go with Southwest, for the cost. The other deciding factor was the students I saw at AIT. I realize truck school is not Harvard, but a lot of the students there looked like homeless people, and the school looked kinda run down, considering their higher price than Southwest. The school seemed like an out of control high school, except everyone was 10-30 years older. I'm not trying to be a snob, but this is job training so how about a little professional atmosphere. This said, I have not seen the facilities at Southwest, but they gave the vibe that they were a little more polished.

 

I felt the same way I was embarrassed after leaving the AIT campus.

 

When do the give you ur urine test @ south west in NLV & is it @ the facility or do they send you out.. stopped smoking 3 weeks ago

 

They did mine in the classroom before we started to drive. I don’t think they even send it out, just use a stick to test certain levels.