Truck Driving Schools – What You Should Know

Are you about to make a career change and considering driving truck? There is nothing wrong with that idea. There are jobs out there to be had. You do need to find a company and hope they will be around for a very long time. Even the best and largest can close their doors without any warning whatever.

  • What do driving schools cost?
  • What will you learn?

You'll be able to find a pretty large and varied list of prices for schools all around the country. If you look around you may find one for under $ 1000.00 or so at a community college. The courses may be stretched out so long that they may not meet your needs. The shortest schools that I have been able to find were two weeks in length. You'll find them running from about $ 3000 – to $ 4000 for the course. Do not panic usually only the big outfits are able to hire you straight out of school and there is a blessing in disguise in that. Most of the larger companies will pay a large portion of the tuition over a period of time. They do not want you to quit as soon as you get the loan paid so they stretch the payments over a year or so.

There is financial aid for those who qualify and you can call and ask your school if they can point you in the right direction. They'll have that sort of information. You can also ask your city, county and state organizations if there is any aid to be had for the schools. The guy who sat next to me in my school received a full ride from his National Guard benefits. Ask someone if you need help.

You will all need the knowledge in order to pass the state truck driver exam. They should teach class in order to also receive several endorsements, such as Hazmat, doubles, tankers and others. The driving ranges will be there to get you to go forward, change gears, turn corners. They are not going to teach how to do basic driving; it's assumed you can drive because you already have a license.

After going forward they will teach you to backwards. There will be classes on preventive maintenance, air brakes, dropping and hooking to the trailers. You will also get out into traffic on the highways and put all of your knowledge to practical use. The training will provide you with practice going on to on and off ramps and then how to merge, line up your truck to make turns and other essential maneuvers that you will need to know.