Celadon Group Inc. and its Quality Drivers subsidiary have announced the official opening of the new driver training center near its Indianapolis headquarters. The $7 million, 61,000 square-foot training facility includes dorm rooms, cafeteria, workout room, basketball court, and a state of the art driver training road course.    

Quality Drivers expects to train approximately 500 new drivers in the first full year of operation at the new training center.

Quality Drivers offers the driver training classes weekly, which encompass four weeks of basic training toward the CDL exam, a company orientation, and six weeks of supervised driving. The program is free as long as recruits fulfill a contract to log 120,000 miles driving for Celadon after completing the training. To date, more than 500 drivers have completed the program which has been held at the Celadon headquarters facility.

The driver center welcomed its first class of recruits the week of January 27. As they walked through the doors, the drivers found inside a Wi-Fi enabled facility that offers:

• Four classrooms each seating 30 students furnished with the latest audio visual equipment.

• Driver’s lounge with couches, tables and chairs

• Regulation hardwood basketball court that easily converts to a volleyball court

• Running track that circles the basketball floor

• Racquetball court

• Workout room featuring treadmills, elliptical machines, exercise bikes and weight machines

• Cafeteria serving meals three times a day – seven days a week

• 104 single dorm rooms with a full size bed and a 32” LED television

• On-site medical center staffed with a nurse practitioner and two medical assistants

• Laundry  facility with six washers and six dryers

• Business center with nine computers for use by the drivers

• Outdoor driver training road course