Seat time, not screen time
Theory is done in the first week and you are behind the wheel on day three. The rest of the course is range work and road miles.
Now enrolling · Boise, Idaho
Heritage is a family-run truck driving school in the Treasure Valley. Small classes, real equipment, and instructors who ran the miles long before they taught them.
Why Heritage
Big chain schools put ten students on a truck and hope you catch on. We cap ours at four, so when it's your turn to back into a dock, nobody is watching the clock.
Theory is done in the first week and you are behind the wheel on day three. The rest of the course is range work and road miles.
Our teaching staff has run reefer, flatbed and tanker across the Northwest. They teach the habits that keep a career going, not just the ones that pass a test.
You will know your instructor's name and they will know how you shift. Classes cap at twelve, split across three trucks.
DOT physical, Clearinghouse registration, permit appointment, skills test booking. We keep the checklist and remind you what's next.
The road to your CDL
Nobody explains this well, so here it is in plain English. The course is two weeks; the paperwork around it is what most students underestimate. First phone call to a CDL in your wallet is usually three to four weeks.
You need a valid Idaho driver's license, and you must be 18 to drive commercially inside Idaho or 21 to cross state lines or haul hazardous materials. We run a free eligibility check over the phone before you pay a dollar.
A certified medical examiner signs off that you're fit to drive, and you create a free FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse account so employers and schools can verify you. We'll point you to local examiners who see our students same week.
Federal rules require entry-level driver training from a school on the FMCSA Training Provider Registry. Our classroom week covers the thirty required theory topics and preps you for the written exams.
You take the general knowledge, combination and air brakes written tests at an Idaho DMV — before your two weeks start. Federal rules make you hold that permit fourteen days before the skills test, so we get it early and let the clock run while you finish your physical and your studying.
Pre-trip inspection, straight-line and offset backing, alley dock, shifting, mountain grades and city traffic. This is the bulk of the course and the part that makes you employable.
Three parts: vehicle inspection, basic control skills, and the road test. Pass, upgrade your permit to a CDL at the DMV, and take the job offers we've been lining up since your first day.
Programs
Every program includes ELDT theory, behind-the-wheel training, and use of our truck for your skills test.
Most popular
$6,450 / 80 hours
$3,950 / 40 hours
from $1,200 / hourly
Graduates
★★★★★
“I'd never driven anything bigger than a pickup. Six weeks later I was running produce to Portland. The backing practice is what got me through the test.”
★★★★★
“They sorted out my DOT physical and my permit appointment in the same week. I'd been putting it off for a year because I didn't know the order to do things in.”
★★★★★
“Coming off ten years out of the seat, I just needed hours and someone honest about my habits. Two weekends of refresher and I passed clean.”
Straight answers
The course itself is two weeks. Around it sit the DOT physical, the permit tests, and the federal fourteen-day permit hold — which we start before day one, so it runs in the background. Most students are licensed about three to four weeks after their first call. Evening and weekend students take about six weeks.
You will have one before day one — we send the study material at enrollment and book your knowledge test, because the permit has to be fourteen days old before you can take the skills test. Already hold a permit? Even better: your clock is running.
Yes, with our evening and weekend track. It runs the same curriculum over five to six weeks instead of two, with range time on Saturdays.
Often. Students have used WIOA workforce grants through the Idaho Department of Labor, VA education benefits, employer tuition sponsorship, and our own payment plan. We'll walk through what you may qualify when you sign up — see paying for training.
Carriers recruit from our yard because they know our graduates can back a trailer. We introduce you to hiring partners in your first week and help with applications, but no school can promise you a job — your record, your endorsements and your interviews decide that.
Sign up and we'll confirm you qualify, book your DOT physical and permit test, and hold your seat on the next start date. Want to stand next to a truck first? Say so and we'll set up a yard tour instead.