Schools near SE NC

Chinatown is the God of trucking!! All hail Chinatown!

 

Here's a way a driver can make $100K+ from day one out of cdl school.
Go with R&L Carriers running teams for 2 years.
After that, go with Trimac Transportation "Elite Fleet" as a solo driver and the pay will be the same and maybe a little more.
Trimac Transportation "Elite Fleet" requires 2 yrs. experience Class-A driving.

 

Chinatown, Thank you for all the information shared in your posts. I will be happy when I have my CDL in hand and am looking back with a smile knowing that I made a great choice.

 

Karrahsda, you have indeed made a great choice!

 

Thank you for saying so.

 

JCC is a great school. Not a CDL mill but a serious school.

 

Hey NCMickey, Thanks for your thoughts. I visited Mr. Erskine (the director) late last week to talk about what I need to do to get in the program (their brochures are for 2018). He was great to talk to, and I left feeling as though JCC is a good choice of schools. About the only thing he said that didn't sit great was that the trucks are pretty old, but then I thought about it and decided that wasn't a bad thing because it actually prepares students for the reality they might face. Where did you go to work after you finished JCC?

 

I went there in 2013. It was a life changing experience. The equipment is old.... but well kept. Right next to the Truck Driver Training Center is the Diesel Technologies shop. So all the trucks are maintained on site. When I was there we had a Peterbiilt 579, 3-4 Freightliner Cascadias, a Freightliner Classic, a old Sterling that used to be used for hauling the UPS car for NASCAR, and a Volvo. The yard trucks were old daycabs.

My first job was with a company named Starquest International. It is a traveling dance competition. It was a temp job. I pulled a trailer loaded with merchandise, the dance floor, video and audio equipment ect. It was a very different type job. I enjoyed it but when the tour ended for the year I went and worked for Magnum LTD. it’s a good reefer company. I was there 3 1/2 years. I left for more home time.
I now work for a company out of Raleigh called Whitley Logistics. We haul specialized refridgerated pharmaceuticals. Mostly vaccines, plasma and insulin... among other things. I am home almost every weekend and usually once during the week.
JCC was the start of a career that I LOVE. I was a carpenter for 30 years and had come to hate it. Not a single day since my first day at JCC have I not wanted to go to work.
I’ll post a link to the thread I kept up while at school.

NC Truck Driving Training School at Johnston County CC


What king of trucking are you interested in ???

 

Mickey, I so appreciate the time you are taking to respond to my questions and comments. It is interesting that you mentioned Magnum, because that is the company Mr. Erskine mentioned when I visited, saying that the owner commented that seeing JCC on an application = a job. They are out of ND, correct?

I am very happy to hear that you are enjoying your work. I have been teaching since 2004...not 30 years like you did banging nails, but as much as I love teaching, I do not love being a teacher.

As for my trucking interests, I guess I would have to say that I want to make as much money (can't live for long on less than $40K) as I can without having to unload trucks by hand. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to hard work, and am in pretty great shape for 63, but I just don't see myself hoisting tons of 70-pound boxes of flounder as I did twenty years ago for UPS.

I'm not concerned much about being home because I live alone and driving will give me about the same amount of home/family time I already have. In fact, I will likely get more home/family time than I have as a teacher (that is a 24/6 job)

I expect to pay my dues to get the experience, then settle into something similar to what you describe, being home most weekends...I guess the bigger thing is being treated better than teachers are treated.

So, again, thank you for all that you have shared. I am very optimistic that trucking will turn out to be a real good move.

Brad

 

Magnum is a really good training company. Yes, they are out of North Dakota. But they have a ton of freight to NC... so they will be able to get you home. There is a thread on the favorite trucking cos here that has a lot of info on Magnum. I was ready to move on but can’t think of a better company to get your start with.

Any questions, just ask!!