CDL School Recommendations

i am from statesville nc, will be moving back there in june, I would suggest before you go and pay for your schooling you take a trip to your local labor board,(unemployment office) most states have a program that will pay for all of your retraining these days. i am a mentor at jbs carriers and we have a payback program that will help pay some if not all of that cost. i do know that if jbs pays for your schooling you agree to stay here for a year. my current student went that route that is why i know this. i would just go to the labor board first. they will retrain you and you don't have to repay anyone. but i would be very cautious on what company you sign on with after school. tmz will sit you till you agree to become a lease driver, swift puts you out with a peer of your own experience so its the blind leading the blind. you want a company that in your student position you will not be required to run team till you are ready. most companies you start running team freight after your first week of driving, stay away from cr england.( i was a trainer over there for a year) they have a good school but they are wanting lease drivers and you are with a trainer for 30days then you move onto a phase 2 trainer that may have six months under their belts. at this time you are nothing but a second driver in that truck to help that phase 2 driver make some money while their business is fairly new. you want to ask yourself before you take the time to train to become a driver. 1>why do i want to be a driver. (any other answer than i love to drive and have always thought about it.) is a red flag. 2>if you are in a relationship,(married,kids,girlfriend or boyfriend)how do they feel about you going down this route. (driving is like going military, you sign up for at least a year, and when you sign up you are signing up not only you but your family as well.) this is fine if you were a trucker when you both met, but if you have been with somebody and then get into trucking you are going to be in for a rocky road. I say this from the bottom of my heart, and from my own experiences. the first year of trucking is your hardest and your worst year ever. consider it your boot camp. you have three to nine weeks going around a parking lot learning to just get your cdl, then you have minimum 8weeks with a person like me at very little pay. then you have a additional 9months driving by yourself as a solo driver (if that is what your going to be) you will have no one to chat with day in and day out. you can't just drive hm walk in your back door and kiss your girl or guy, you can't pick up your kids when ever you like and give them a hug, if something goes wrong at the house your other half has to know how and be strong enough to deal with it without you. i have been on the road for 16years, have been married to a very loving man for almost 20years now. I have three great kids. but i have watched them grow up in pictures. i have tried to "come off the road " but i could not do so and get reeducated doing something else without having money coming in. if you have unemployment use this time to get retrained but think really hard before you sign up for a cdl A. and talk it over long and hard with our other half. whitewinterrose