Trucking School Costs

One guy that posted on here a couple years ago paid $18,000.00 for cdl school and some drivers get school for free. By free, I mean through Goodwill Industries which is part of their charity program, or through the state WIOA Program. There's a large range of prices. Plenty of reasonably priced schools in Florida; do some Google searches. Plenty of companies will reimburse you if that's important to you; companies such as Comcar in Auburndale and Freymiller and others.

 

I went to Johnston Community College in Smithfield NC to the NC Truck Driver Training Center.
It was an 8 week course from 7am to 6pm, 5 days a week.
It was $1200 with the books, urine test etc.

There is a similar course at Sampson County College that’s less than $500

You learn a lot more than how to pass the test.....

 

I actually went to swift first... had their training for 18 days my roommate for what ever reason decided me and her need to wash out... so i ended up letting go on test day (she never told me but I figured her antics where on purpose)... they cant legally charge you for what legally is on the job training... swift by the way keeps your cdl for 6 months...and docks you pay for the training...so go to a training company... take their course ... dont get the cdl from them then go to a school... which mine was just under 5000 for 3 weeks ... (you might not even need it if you already have a background with manual trucks and trailer backing)

schools often have loan programs to pay for it and jobs sometimes pay you back a set amount regardless of how much the school was... so although you dont get paid at the company swift like training you get more time to get the driving and maneuvers down... most cdl classes dont give enough time in the truck to get the cdl.... i will also point out when you do take a job take the automatic trucks they are alot safer in traffic much less multitasking and no stalling risks plus save a whole bunch on fuel between using cruse control and being in an automatic i can easily get my mpg above 7.5 even closer to 9 in a good new truck... my TE (on the road training engineer) said she had never seen that high a mpg as when I was with her(7.6ish as I recall)... but then i dont apply the break peddle unless stopping or holding a stop... i simply dont use the accelerator when i want to slow down and am watching traffic as far as I can see which is about 2 miles forward and 1 mile behind me ... even more sometimes

 

If you take your test in a Automatic Truck a lot of companies will not hire you even though they have automatic trucks

 

Way back when I went to a CDL mill, the cash price was $3500, the school sponsored financed price was $6000. (There was another school in town that cost $2500 cash and $5000 financed.) So yeah, the company reimbursement was higher than the cash price.

I saved some, and sold everything I had of value in order to pay the tuition, and also to pay all my bills during the company team challenge training period.

If there is any possible way to pay for it up front, do it. I ended up staying with my first company for a year, it was very frustrating at times (12 dispatchers in 9 months and such). It was nice to know I could quit if I really wanted to, and at times, I really wanted to.