M&A activity snapshot
Driving schools are a small, local, owner-run niche. Census counted 2,648 automobile driving school establishments with 16,610 employees in 2023. Of those, 1,603 had fewer than five employees, about 60% by Axia arithmetic.
The niche splits into two markets. Teen and adult driver education depends on state licensing rules and local demographics. Commercial truck-driver (CDL) training depends on freight demand and federal rules. BLS projects about 214,500 openings a year for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, which keeps CDL schools in demand.
Named deals are few and none disclosed a price. They include TransForce's purchases of The CDL School, which trains about 4,000 drivers a year, and HighGrove's acquisition of All Star Driver Education. CDL schools are also covered under Trade & Vocational Schools.
Who is buying
PE-backed CDL school platforms. 160 Driving Academy received $100 million in financing from Lafayette Square and Upper90, and runs 151 CDL schools in 44 states. It grows partly by acquisition: it bought Professional Driving Institute in Rochester, where final licensing approvals took until November after a sale that began in August.
Trucking staffing firms and carriers. Palladium-backed TransForce bought United States Truck Driving School, its eleventh acquisition under Palladium's ownership. Carriers build their own pipelines: Werner operated 20 driver training locations at the end of 2025.
Driver-ed roll-ups and online platforms. In teen driver education, Top Driver, the largest private driving school in the Midwest, bought Drive Home Safe Driving School in 2022. Online course provider Aceable took a $50 million growth investment from HGGC. Generational Group sold CL Driving School, a North Carolina CDL school, to Sonoran Desert Institute in 2025.
What buyers look for
Federal compliance for CDL schools. Since February 7, 2022, every entry-level driver training provider must be registered in FMCSA's Training Provider Registry and upload each student's certification by the end of the second business day. Enforcement is now heavy. In December 2025 FMCSA removed nearly 3,000 providers and put 4,000 more on notice. By August 2026, DOT said more than 8,000 providers had been removed in 18 months.
A testing license, where states allow it. States may authorize third-party CDL skills testers, but an examiner who is also an instructor may not test applicants they trained. A school with state testing authorization and a compliant examiner setup holds a hard-to-copy asset.
Student pipeline. For CDL schools, buyers look at carrier and workforce-agency referrals. The non-domiciled CDL interim final rule, effective September 29, 2025, narrows who can get a CDL and changes some schools' student mix. For teen schools, buyers look at state mandates and local high-school relationships.
What makes a strong company
A driving school that draws buyer interest usually shows:
- For CDL schools: an active Training Provider Registry listing, on-time certification uploads, qualified instructors, and no notices of proposed removal.
- A state driving school license in good standing, and state testing authorization where available.
- Several instructors and vehicles, so the school does not depend on the owner teaching.
- Enrollment backed by state mandates. California requires at least six hours of behind-the-wheel training with a professional instructor for drivers under 18.
- A fleet with documented maintenance and insurance, since vehicles are the main asset.
- Referral relationships with carriers, workforce boards, or high schools that predate the owner's personal network.
Valuation and deal structure
There is no public valuation data for this niche. None of the named driving school or CDL school deals disclosed price or multiple. The closest honest proxy is GF Data's all-industry lower-middle-market data: deals of $1 million to $5 million averaged 5.5x EBITDA in H1 2025. That data covers sponsor-backed deals; a small owner-run school typically sells on seller earnings, below it.
Regulatory approvals shape the structure. A state license and, for CDL schools, the registry listing must carry over to the buyer, which can delay closing; the Rochester deal took from August to November to clear licensing. HighGrove's All Star deal used mezzanine debt and an equity co-investment from Charter Growth Capital Fund. Owners can test their numbers with the valuation tool.
Outlook
Expect CDL school consolidation to accelerate through 2027. Federal enforcement is removing weaker providers, and FMCSA is launching a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers. Compliant schools with clean records become scarcer and more valuable to platforms and carriers.
Teen driver education is steadier. Licensing rates are flat: 25.2% of 16-year-olds held a license in 2023, compared with 26.2% in 2016 and 44.0% in 1990. Growth there comes from state mandates, such as Ohio's new requirement for drivers under 21, more than from demand.
Own a driving school or CDL school? Run the valuation tool, or read how buyers build an M&A target list.