Hi everyone! Please help me out!!

You will make exactly the same at a given company regardless of how you obtain your CDL.

There are two factors to consider... time and money. How soon will each school get you on the road making money, and how much will each school cost you. (Bottom line, not up front.)

I did my research on Roehl a year ago, and hopefully the diesel fumes haven't scrambled my memory too much. IIRC, they do their reimbursement based on mileage. Their schooling was in the $3000 range, and they paid back about a third at 60K miles, and a chunk every 10K for the next 60K miles. (Solo; double the mileage if team.) They will reimburse you if you get your CDL elsewhere, but it takes a few years, and doesn't cover the interest.

As for the time... you want to be on the road as soon as you can. Every week's delay costs you about $1000 in income that you don't make, so a free class that takes two months to finish isn't the bargain that it first appeared to be.

Remember, when you show up at orientation with your brand new CDL in your pocket, it makes no difference which school you attended to get it. Everyone there is equal. Might as well get it the cheapest/fastest way you can.

One plus for attending the company school is that you will be training on the same equipment (probably just older) that you will be driving once you're on the road.

 

You still need to look into WIA (Work Investment Act) funding, and see if you qualify. Likely you do. If it's available in your state, just do it, and look at it as a loan you eventually pay back with your taxes (or, in my case, already paid for with my taxes).

Search the for forum, there's a couple big threads detailing how it was done.

 

Lathan, I must commend your enthusiasm. If enthusiam paid, you'd already own Bill Gates.

If you rely on Roehl to reimburse your CDL obtained elsewhere, you will get $100 for every 9000 dispatched miles driven, and $250 @ 25k, 50k, and 75k. So it took me almost all my year of driving with them (99k mi) to get back my $1800 for CDL school. And that went right back to my father's pocket, since I got a Bank of Dad loan for school.

 

I wonder if that reimbursement happens if you get your money thru WIA...??

 

No idea how WIA works....

 

Since it's a grant, and we paid for it with our taxes, I'd say the reimbursement would be mine...

 

Lathan take a vacation to Miami, FL => go clean some tables at the local restaurants, save 1000$ => go to the local school and get your CDL free from any transportation company => choose the company you wanna drive for. Good luck because you will need it! Its up to you how much you really want it!

Ps: as you said credit is evil, you gotta think for transp comp same way! Dont look for the easy way