Alliance Tractor Trailer Training Center, Wytheville

Since it was established in 1981, Alliance Tractor Trailer Training Center has helped more than 85,000 students join the trucking industry's roster of drivers, dispatchers, safety directors, and managers. In the classroom, expert educators and customized software impart the knowledge needed to cruise past written tests. But out on the road—where such knowledge is imperative—patient instructors show students how to use all a cab's equipment, such as the complex navigation controls and the 16th century organ pedals that control the horn. All told, students can graduate in as little as three to four weeks, after which they'll be qualified to obtain their license and finally hit the pavement.