Paying For Private School.

Hello everyone,

First I don't know if I'm the right section. Its also very specific where I am (Las Vegas,NV). Start with a short back story.

So I did my taxes free at the community college yesterday. I was expecting $1000 refund I could use to start trucking school and it turns out it is less then $100. There are two trucking school that I know of in the Las Vegas area. AIT trucking school and Southwest trucking school. I visited both locations. I want to go to Southwest. Southwest actually treated me well didn't rush anything while AIT I felt rushed through the process. Southwest also gave me a list of 25 different company that can help me with employment while AIT only had 3, Warner, Swift and I forgot the third one. However Southwest want $500 down and $1500 at the completion of the course versus AIT with no money down. (Both are roughly $6000, but tuition reimbursement should cover them both.) Schneider trucking is where I want to start and work for (Southwest list has Schneider on the list and on Schneider website has SW on there website). My top concern is someone paying for my schooling, and stuck there because of the loan agreement. I should be able to walk if I'm not being treat right or any other thing doesn't feel right. I don't know what to do now. Asking for your guys help. Any grants, scholarships, or any other ideas to help start my journey?

Joe

Honestly you will need to learn one thing very fast about trucking. Learn to take a Bowl full of **** and turn it into ice cream.What I mean is there is a lot of stress in trucking and not everyone feels comfortable during school or sometimes even the first few months while learning their job driving a truck. So get the "I Will Walk If I Don't Feel Right" attitude out of your head right now cause your setting yourself up for major failure. You either want to go through with the schooling and get a job driving a truck or you dont. Simple as that. You can't not have it both ways.

If trucking is truly what you want to do then stop worrying game about the money. $6000 is a drop in the bucket compared what you can make in trucking. You can have that paid off in a years time.

So if you truly want to drive a truck then you need to commit yourself to that path. You will always have doubts about trucking. Getting into the trucking industry can be a very scary thing but that is when you "Buck Up" and pull yourself through whatever your scared of and come out the other side better for the experience.

So the question is how committed are you to really learning to drive a truck?

You may wish to check with your local employment office about the WIA program...if you qualify, they will pay tuition, and you don't have to pay it back. Also...if you are a veteran, the VA has programs just for you !!! There are a few options if you don't want to go to the company sponsored schools. But in all reality...you will need to stay with a company for a year to get that year's experience, and to prove that you are an asset as an employee. So going to a company sponsored school will do 3 things for you...get you your CDL , get you a years experience, pay off your tuition for your training...and guarantee that you will know whether you want to stay with that company, or go somewhere else. Now if you go to the school you have been looking at, you are STILL going to end up with a trainer at a company...but you won't know all the stuff about that company. And you end up about the same...you will STILL need to stay there for a year for your experience, and proof that you can be a good employee. So when you get right down to it.......Theres not alot of differences...the only thing that you need to do alot of thinking about is WHICH company you want to drive for for that first year.....

I agree with the things Guyjax and Starcar said above.

Joseph, you're looking to go to a private school but tuition reimbursement will not pay for the schooling up front. Here's how it works:

If you go to a private truck driving school you have to pay for the schooling yourself or get a grant or financing from somewhere as you mentioned. Some schools will let you pay a certain amount down and give them the rest before graduation. You won't get your certificate if you aren't paid in full by graduation time so you won't be able to land a job.

Now once you graduate from a private school you can go to work for a company like Schneider National which has a tuition reimbursement program. They will either pay you a certain amount each week toward your tuition or make your tuition payments for you if it was financed while you work there.

Now if you don't have the money to pay for CDL training up front you can go with a Company-Sponsored Training Program which is a trucking company that runs their own truck driving school. Generally the way those programs work is they will finance your training for you. You go through the training for little or no money out of pocket and then you agree to work for the company for a specified amount of time in return for the schooling. They finance your schooling, you pay it back by working for them afterward. That's the way to go if you don't have the money up front to pay for private schooling.