Who Evening Classes Are For
Most of our evening students are working full time and cannot walk away from a paycheck for a month. Some are supporting a family. Some are using the current job to fund the switch. Some just want to be certain trucking is for them before they resign. Evening training lets you do all of that: finish your shift, drive to Mansfield, train, and go home.
Because ACE sits at 950 Trinity Drive in Mansfield, right off the corridors that feed Arlington, Grand Prairie, south Fort Worth, and southwest Dallas, the after-work drive is realistic for a large slice of the metro. A lot of our evening students are coming from exactly those places.
Same Program, Different Clock
The only thing that changes in the evening is the time of day. Everything else is identical to our day program:
- The same permit course, taught in English as federal rules require.
- The same daily backing practice in our yard: straight-line, offset, and parallel.
- The same on-road training with experienced instructors and the same fleet of manual and automatic trucks.
- The same daily mock pre-trip and air-brake drills.
- The same on-campus permit and license testing. ACE is a Licensed Third-Party Tester for both, so there is no DPS line for evening students either.
- The same job placement support and the same carrier recruiters.
Employers do not see a difference on your CDL, because there is none.
How Long It Takes
Honest answer: longer than the day program. Our day students typically finish in about three to four weeks because they are training many hours a day. Evening students train fewer hours per week, so the same curriculum takes more calendar weeks to complete. How many depends on the current schedule and on you. Call us and we will give you the real number for the next start date rather than a guess from a web page.
One tip that shortens it for everyone: get your permit as early as possible. The federal 14-day CLP rule means the sooner your permit is issued, the sooner you are eligible to test. Read our permit guide.
Paying for It While You Work
Working students are sometimes surprised that they still qualify for funding. Texas Workforce Commission programs and WIOA grants look at your household situation, not just whether you currently have a job, and many working students qualify for partial or full tuition coverage with no carrier contract. We check eligibility for free before you commit to anything. If you do not qualify, we offer payment plans so the cost is spread out while you keep earning.
Getting Started
Evening start dates are set by demand and they fill, so we do not post a calendar here. Call 817-864-8086 between 8 AM and 5 PM Monday through Friday and ask for the current evening start date, or schedule a campus tour and come see the yard and trucks in person. Real people answer the phone.