Celadon and its Quality Drivers subsidiary have opened their second driver training school located at its Osborn Transportation facility in Gadsden, Ala.  Quality Drivers expects to train approximately 500 new drivers in the first full year of operation at the new training school. 

“The driver shortage is here to stay and we want to stay on the cutting edge of recruiting for new drivers,” stated Paul Will, president and CEO of Celadon.  “We’ve had great success with our first school in Indianapolis and we plan to duplicate the results at this second school.”

Quality Drivers offers driver-training classes weekly at the Osborn facility, 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 or Osborn after completing the training. 

To date, more than 1200 drivers have completed the program at the first driving school, which opened in October 2012 at Celadon’s headquarters in Indianapolis.

“We’ve realized outstanding results at the flagship school we opened in Indianapolis in the fourth quarter 2012,” said Danny Williams, vice president of Quality Companies.  “Given our interest from potential drivers from Alabama, coupled with the costs and logistics of getting these candidates to Indianapolis, opening a location within the Osborn facility in Gadsden was an easy decision.”