I don't know why people go to mega for cdl school.

You do realize that YRC's school is the exact same as swift, werner, or Schneider?

 

I'm not a trainer and have no intention of ever being one. It's called a discussion. You made an assertion that mega schools are bad. I engaged, even gave my own point about why I didn't go to one, and asked you why you thought they were bad. I was not hostile or rude, yet you attack me. Why post if you don't want to engage the discussion, or are you just wanting to hear an echo chamber of agreement?

 

To give you my scenario as an example of @Terlingua and @gentleroger 's .
I was a mechanic with 23 years in the industry. Burnt out, didn't like the industry as a whole the entire time as it was and saw the path modern society is going down. Knew there is no room for me in my straight forwardness and honesty. Having a customer facing job was not going to be in the cards for me much longer. Thought about driving trucks. Looked at my options.
1) the company I worked for had a training program to train for CDL and have a car haul job waiting. BUT. Wanted a 2 year commitment after that. Even though I was already on payroll with the company for 7 years, just as a mechanic. No go.

2) Do community college route. Sure there's grants, loans etc. I didn't have the up front cash. However for me to continue making bills I would have to go to the mechanic job all day. Then go to a night course, or week end only course for CDL. Which stretched that out to about 4 months + if I remember correctly and still have added debt on the back end and still have to search for a job with no experience.

3) Go to a mega- which I chose. Went to Schneider through their C.A.T (CDL Apprentice Training) course. Got the training while being paid. After that month of training the very next Monday had a truck awaiting me and my first destination to head to. Real paycheck a week later to continue back on bills and other debts already being paid down. Chose Schneider for a few reasons. Safety was first. Terminal close to home was second. Above both of those was "contract" time. Schneider only asked for 9 mos. where everyone else wanted 1 - 2 years. So in the about the same time it takes a woman to make a kid , I was contract and debt free and with a new career path.

That's why some choose to go to megas. My time with Schneider over all was a great experience. Most of the problems you hear - most, not all- are from folks that go in with pre conceived notions, schemes, or ideas of what they ARE and AREN't going to do only to get reality checked. And then they do the modern society thing and get on forums and social disease------I mean social media and gripe and moan to get validation from an easy echo chamber.

I'm happy I chose the path I did. Now I fuel haul locally and am home every day. And don't have to deal with current condition that has afflicted modern society.

 

Another thing to think about is that depending on where you live some licensing bureaus may require training at a CDL school that’s certified before they issue you a CDL. I went to a CDL school in my respective state and with the tuition,loans and training costs it costed me approximately $11,000. However, luckily for me I found a job that allowed me to pay all that off 5 years early.

Not many people are that fortunate.

 

You still have to go somewhere to train.
While some companies will take you with 3 or 6 months experience the better ones want 2 years.
It's not a job it's a lifestyle.