class B, vs class A, need help

speaking from personal experience, get the A. i have a B right now and im gonna be upgrading it to the A, i wish i had got the A license in the first place.

 

WHAT? I started getting my Class A. No, If you want to drive a bus, you will need to pass a bus driver test. It's a complete different beast, and a new driver test.. School bus is another driver test,,, but get the school bus test first and the the passenger written test at the same time,,, you have both..... excluding class A bus.

 

The bus driver test is the standard Class B license with air brakes and passenger endorsements (and no restrictions). The road test depends upon the vehicle class license you're obtaining.

As stated, if you already hold a Class A license, you can drive a bus only after obtaining the Passenger endorsement. So your Class A would include the letter "P" which would allow you to legally operate a transit bus (city/OTR).

A school bus is a whole different animal. But again, the license class remains the same. It's the endorsements that are required.

 

When we got our B license we had to take some of the same tests as the class A. We took the Class A general knowledge, and the Airbrakes, then the passenger endorsement was a seperate test. Right now I hold a Class B w/P endorsement. And I can drive either a Bus or a straight truck. So the licenses are the same either way. Unless you have a restriction. I know some people that drive transit that have an automatic restriction on their license. So unless they could find a straight truck with auto trans then they wouldn't be able to drive it.

 

Interesting. Here in NY, you can't operate a New York City Transit Authority bus in passenger service with any license restriction other than corrective lenses.

What are your allowable restrictions?

 

My Automatic restriction was due to the fact that the transit agecies, at least the major ones here in Cali, all do their own training, and their trainers are all certified through DMV to give the testing, both road and written, and submit the final tests to the DMV. And all the vehicles we trained on were automatics, so I wouldn't be able to take my current license and legally drive a manual straight truck. I wouldn't be able to take it and drive a school bus here because a large portion of the school busses are manuels. It is not a persay restriction that I have physically but just to the type of vehicle I was allowed to drive. I dont have to worry about it anymore cause I have no plans on going back to driving bus if I can help it.

 

are the school buses manuals? ones i rode growing up weren't....interesting!

 

Weird. A class B is all about weight. Basically anything with more than two axles. For Maryland, I don't see any way to get a class B with an automatic tranny.
I started with a class A, giving me B automatically. To get a bus endorsement, I had to take the same driving test again with an actual bus as well as the two book tests, passenger and school.

 

Because that's what the driver school say. "get your license. spend the next 5 weeks training with a OTR company and then maybe get hired."

Get your A. That puts you into "interstate commerce". You'll make more money. I went the recruiter route for OTR at first. Two weeks in I was not going through with it. I then found Conway. You will be home everyday, but you will start as night linehaul, and you will load freight on the dock,,, alot. I'm now city P&D and reasonably happy.

 

My mother in law has her hand in our local school.
She wanted me to get my class b cdls,but i got my class a and got a local job.
IMOP Driving a school bus = prison time!
I would be bald dealing with them little ########