[anthony1995]

Ok, so I'm full of questions...ha. What kind of price would I be looking at if I choose to pay for Trucking School on my own. In Tucson, one priced me at $4695 for 5 weeks. That's going M-F from 5-11.

[Uturn2001]

If there is a community college or tech school near you, you may be able to find something cheaper. Price in no way says anything about the quality of instruction you will recieve.

I have seen 1500-2000 programs (7-8 years ago) out do ones that cost 5,000.

[satchrox]

United Truck Driving School in Fresno, Ca = $1800... they are a joke though, all they do is give you the test answers for everything (except hazmat) and show you what the DMV looks for behind the wheel....pretty much, such a joke.

[Splitter]

Can't say for sure about schools in your area. Here in Western WA.
There's 3 schools to choose from.

Western Pacific Truck School- 4 weeks @ $4500.00

National Transportation- 4 weeks @ $4200.00

Check Ride Driver Services- 4 weeks @ 3995.00

All the above schools offer job placement assistance for life. While tuition assistance is available at some schools, the high interest rate drives up the tuition to over $5000.00.
National Trans. Has two carriers that offer sponsorships. Swift, and CRST are the two sponsors. A large portion of each class opts for sponsorship with Swift.

[redsfan]

Originally Posted by Uturn2001

If there is a community college or tech school near you, you may be able to find something cheaper. Price in no way says anything about the quality of instruction you will recieve.

I have seen 1500-2000 programs (7-8 years ago) out do ones that cost 5,000.

I would have to second that. Definitely check into the community colleges. Another way to find good ones is to talk to a few companies that you are interested in working for and ask them who they recommend in your area. IMO, the quality of the company is a bigger factor than the quality of the school. Not that the quality of the school isn't important, but a company will not continue to hire from and recommend a certain school if they weren't getting well-trained students from there.

A few companies put a lot of emphasis on PTDI certification, but they are very few nowadays and I don't know of any companies that hire exclusively from PTDI certified schools. Some will say that Crete won't hire you unless you go PTDI, but believe me they do make exceptions. I know for a fact that they hired drivers from the school I attended and the recruiter that I spoke to even told me that they would hire from there. The owner of my school was as anti-PTDI as they come and his opinion was that it was the biggest ripoff in the industry. Not saying that I know this to be true or that I even care, but I can tell you that you can find a good school in the 2500 buck range. That's what I paid.

Good luck.

[Uturn2001]

The owner of my school was as anti-PTDI as they come and his opinion was that it was the biggest ripoff in the industry.

From the owner's perspective it probably was. Schools have to pay a membership fee every year in order to get and stayed certified.

The only reason that some companies want students PTDI certified schools is that they know what they are getting unlike some of the true mills out there.

With that said there are many schools who meet or exceed the PTDI standards that are not certified by that organization.

[neverbeenlate]

A long time ago I received my training from Schneider. At that time there was no contract, so I received my cdl and moved on a little later. Now I believe that they have a 1 year commitment contract and it may be worth your while to go to them get your year and you will then have many options. The skid pad training they have is invaluable. Good luck in whatever you choose.

[NevadaJim]

Originally Posted by Uturn2001

From the owner's perspective it probably was. Schools have to pay a membership fee every year in order to get and stayed certified.

The only reason that some companies want students PTDI certified schools is that they know what they are getting unlike some of the true mills out there.

With that said there are many schools who meet or exceed the PTDI standards that are not certified by that organization.

Just to play devils advocate for a minute. You say "they know what they're getting". Just exactly what are they getting? The reason I ask is because I keep hearing how the big starter companies have crappy training programs, yet they are PTDI certified. So, either PTDI certifications really mean nothing, or there's a contradiction in what being certified really means. How can these big companies be certified, yet so many say the training sucks. What exactly does PTDI certified mean? Does PTDI go back and conduct inspections? Do they look at company safety ratings? Do they inspect the schools for safety issues? Or is this simply a certification that is bought for eyewash purposes? Just something that crossed my mind while reading the thread.

[tbogle05]

When I got out of the military I was having a lot of problems getting a job in trucking because I did not go to a "truck driving school" my training was all from the military. I got desperate and seen some as high as 18000$ the local community college here was 3997$ so your price you were quoted probably wasnt that bad. just do a lot of research on the school. try not to get yourself into one of those "come work for us for a year and we'll pay for it" deals. could go broke doing it.

[anthony1995]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the feedback. I visited my local community college here in Tucson today. They charge $3600 for an 8 week class that is 160 hours. 80 hrs behind the wheel. They offer days, weekends or nights. I'll probably try weekends from 8 am - 6 pm. long days but I hope it'll be worth it.