Private Trucking School Or A Community College

Hello ... I live in Thomasville, NC and I'm considering getting my CDL. I have two options for school. One is Davie Community College in Mocksville, NC and the other is Cross Country Truck Driving School in Thomasville, NC. My question is: Which would be my best choice ? I've read that companies are reluctant to hire drivers from a community college. Any comments or help would be appreciated.

We'd need more info to help you how many hours is each program? How many instructors? Students?

Also contact a few trucking companies and ask if they hire graduates of those 2 programs. Ask the schools as well, which companies hire your graduates?

Either school you go to will need to be certified, and give you 160 hours....so starting with that knowledge, ask them what they offer in job placement.

I've read that companies are reluctant to hire drivers from a community college

That's not true at all. Community colleges are often times the best place to get a CDL. Their prices are usually quite a bit lower than private schools and community colleges follow a pretty strict regimen when it comes to their materials, course structure, and equipment because they're a public institution. They're under a lot of regulations and scrutiny. So I would certainly consider a community college.

We have a series of articles on How To Choose A School and we also have a section in our truck driver's career guide about it - How To Choose A Truck Driving School.

The two main things you want to do are:

1) Go for a visit to the schools you're considering and speak with some of their current students in private, away from the staff, to get their opinion on the school. If the current students are happy with it, that's a good sign.

2) Ask them for a short list of major companies that hire their students. If several major companies are willing to hire their students then you know they're a legitimate candidate.

Those are two of the main things but read through our articles for a long list of considerations.

Hi Ira...I live about 50 miles south of you in Huntersville NC and for me the only real difference is the time it takes for each course to finish and about $800 overall in price. I'm looking at both options right now but like the Private school because of it's a shorter time frame but I also feel that better, more in depth training will come from a Community College because they take longer plus they have more requirements and hoops to jump through just to get enrolled...Either way one of the most important things to find out is who will hire you after finishing either course