Private Schools In Virginia

So I know opinions are like well you know. Anyways any opinions on the best private driving school in Virginia? CDS vs Shipperschoice! Thanks for your input and feedback. Greg

Why do you want to use a private school vs a company sponsored program? Just curious.

Oldrookie I don't want to be obligated to anyone. Want to have the choice to pick the company and the job I think is best for me.

Here's a ton of awesome information on how to pick the right school. I don't know if anyone can tell you for sure what the best will be or not, but you'll be able to figure that out from this information:

• Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing A Truck Driving School
• Article Category: Choosing A Truck Driving School
• Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Truck Driving School"

Just a heads up too about the job selection thing. A lot of people hear that anyone with a CDL is in high demand, but it's not like you're a high roller in Vegas. There are only a handful of companies percentage wise that hire students straight out of school, and many of them have particular hiring areas and criteria. So if your background is nearly perfect you'll probably get the choice of a few companies, and most of those operate almost the same, and likely have their own schools anyhow.

So it's perfectly fine and good going the private school route, but as a rookie you're not about to set the night on fire with your performance no matter where you go, and it's likely you're not going to find a lot of advantages of one company over the others when it comes down to the ones who actually offer to hire you out of school. So just be aware of that.

I just like to give people the heads up because it's common to see people get this idea that they're a big roller playing the field and literally two days after they arrive at their first company they're on a bus back home. Seriously, it happens more than you'd expect, and you'll see this when you do show up for your first orientation.

I'm not accusing you of any wrongdoing. I just like to warn people so they don't get the wrong idea right off the bat. It's not anyone with a CDL that's in high demand. It's proven top tier drivers that are in high demand. Anyone with a CDL will be given an opportunity to show what they can do, that's about it.

Oldrookie I don't want to be obligated to anyone. Want to have the choice to pick the company and the job I think is best for me.

Greg, this is the kind of thinking that I don't really get. You say you don't want to be "obligated" to someone, and yet you are going to "obligate" yourself to paying a nice little chunk of change to a school that offers you no guarantees of success.

I have no problem with folks going to private schools, I did it that way myself. But to think you are not obligated is kind of weird - you do have to pay the bill, and you are out the money. For me, that is being "obligated."

I'm just going to put in a plug here for Paid CDL Training Programs because I don't want people to read what you've said and think that they are not a good way to go. In many aspects the folks who go through these company training programs end up having a better chance at success. When you go through these programs, your first employer has invested themselves in you, and they really want to see you succeed. Most of us hit a few snags at the start of this career. Maybe you have a little fender bender, or back into someone's truck while trying to get parked at a truck stop late at night. Some of us even total a truck out in a bad wreck. The folks who went through company sponsored training are usually given a little more consideration by their employers before getting canned altogether. It is hard getting another trucking job after being fired as a rookie for an accident, we hear the sad stories all the time in here.

Then there is that logic that states...

I want to have the choice to pick the company and the job I think is best for me.

Most of the company sponsored training companies are really big companies with multiple choices and divisions that you can go into. Some of them you can do flat-bed, dry van , refrigerated, tanker, dedicated accounts, or even home daily type accounts - all of that at the same company! It's really easy to go ahead and make your choice of what you think you would like to do and then make that choice before you even go to a company sponsored program. If it turns out you aren't well pleased with it, then you make a request to switch to a different division withing the same company. We have many very successful and content drivers in this very forum who went this way with companies like Roehl, Swift, and Prime who have all switched around to a different type of job than they started with. They found their niche, and they are doing well. They weren't considered slaves or indentured servants. The company that trained them saw the potential in them and did what they could to keep them on board.

Private schools are not bad either, but no one gets into this business without some sort of obligation and Commitment.