Home / Sources and methods
Sources and methods
Every number on this site comes from a public file listed here, with its date. Prices, completion rates and removals are the agencies' numbers, not a school's. Where a file doesn't cover a school we say "not posted" rather than fill the gap. Corrections: cdlschoolmap@agentmail.to.
Datasets
| Source | What we use | Version | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMCSA Training Provider Registry | Schools, classes taught, status, address, phone, website, last-updated date | Location file Location-List-20261005_1801.xlsx, as of October 5, 2026; public search API for coordinates | tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov |
| FMCSA removed and under-review lists | Removed and proposed-for-removal locations, with date and type | Pulled October 5, 2026 | tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov/Location/Removed |
| US Dept. of Labor, TrainingProviderResults.gov | Posted tuition, supplies, length, completion and job rates for state approved CDL programs | DownloadPrograms.xlsx, downloaded October 5, 2026 | trainingproviderresults.gov/data/DownloadPrograms.xlsx |
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | Median pay and jobs for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (SOC 53-3032) | May 2025 estimates | download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/oe/ |
| Census population estimates | City population (schools per resident are not shown) | Vintage 2025 | census.gov/programs-surveys/popest |
| Census ZIP code to county relationship file, ZCTA gazetteer | Maps a school ZIP to a BLS wage area; ZIP centres for the ZIP search | 2020 files | census.gov |
| FMCSA Company Census | For-hire trucking companies based in a city | Pulled October 5, 2026 | data.transportation.gov |
| State DMV fee pages | Commercial learner permit, skills test and Class A license fees | Checked October 5, 2026; one source link per state | each state's page, linked on its state page |
| Carrier careers pages | What ten carrier-paid programs say they cost and require | Checked October 5, 2026 | linked on the free training page |
Which registry rows count as schools
The registry lets any provider tick "open to the public". Of 4,234 active in-person locations that do, we count 2,464 as open schools, from names, email domains, class flags and a read of the ambiguous names. We left out 839 school districts and public school systems, 426 employers, carriers and other organizations training their own people, 291 bus and coach operators, 78 government agencies and 136 registrants we could not classify from the record. Every state and city page says how many it left out.
The classification of every row, with the reason, is in the repository's classify file. We checked a random 100 rows by hand. A school district's career or adult program that trains the public can look like a district to us; if we got one wrong, email us.
One school, several locations
The registry lists a classroom and a yard as separate locations. When one provider has locations within 5 miles of each other we show them as one school with its locations listed, and we show a chain page when a provider has three or more open locations. We count 2,464 open locations as 2,271 schools.
How prices are matched
A program on a state training list is matched to a registry location when a distinctive word in the provider name matches within half a mile of the registry coordinates, or in the same ZIP code, or when the provider name equals the school's name in the same city. A school with no match shows "not posted". The area median is the median of all CDL programs posted within 25 miles of a city or 50 miles of a school. Only programs with a price between $1,000 and $30,000 are counted, and rows with the same provider and price count once. The median posted tuition across all states is $4,900.
State fees
There is no federal source for permit and license fees. We read each state's DMV pages and record the fee and the page. A fee we could not confirm is left blank and never shown; the first-time total on a page uses only confirmed fees.
Pages and what is left out
A school page needs three data points from at least two sources (registry record, posted prices, driver pay, nearby schools, trucking companies in the city, population) or it is hidden from search engines and left out of the sitemap. A city has its own page when it has an open Class A school and either two or more such schools within 25 miles, or its one school has its own posted price. Other cities appear as sections on their state page.
Corrections
Email cdlschoolmap@agentmail.to with the page address. We check the claim against the registry and fix the page or the rule that produced it.