P endorsement

You need a CDL to drive a vehicle designed to carry 16 or more people. That CDL is only going to be for whatever class vehicle you were driving on your skills test. If you were in a 16 passenger mini-bus with a GVWR <16K, here in Illinois, that would be a class D license. 16-26K GVWR is class C. >26K GVWR and you'll get a class B.

If you are already licensed to drive a higher classification than the vehicle used to take the skills test for the passenger endorsement, then you'll get a restriction on your license limiting the passenger endorsement to the class vehicle you tested in even though you are still legal to drive larger, NON passenger vehicles.

Yes, a 75+ passenger bus will get you the restriction that your class A CDL is only good through class B passenger vehicles. Test in a smaller bus, and you will have a stricter restriction which limits your license to whatever class passenger vehicle you tested in while you are driving a passenger vehicle.

It really isn't as difficult as you're trying to make it.

 

Is there such a thing as a Class A bus? Even the greyhounds and similar tour buses are Class B I believe and those are the biggest passenger carriers that I know of.

 

You could probably hook up a 10K+ trailer behind a 74 passenger bus and you'd be a class A bus...but the jobs which would require that are few and far between. Heck, even those rafting/canoe rental places that tow a trailer or two toting the rafts or canoes and hauling the people inside would only need a class B as the trailers aren't 10K+.

 

A job like that, if they want you to work for them, they'll let you use their vehicle to take the test once they've decided to hire you. I've never seen a bus pulling a large enough trailer to require a class A license.

 

Not likely to happen. Most busses aren't equipped to pull a trailer, and even the ones that ARE, don't usually pull trailers exceeding 10K.

 

A class "A" bus is a bus which articulates when steering, they exist, but are uncommon.

 

As a former CDL examiner and school bus driver trainer I will weigh in on this. The typical full size school bus today is built on a 33,000 GVWR chassis with full air brakes, some still have hydraulic brakes but air brakes are most common. Pedigree is correct, if you take the test on a smaller bus you will have a no a or b bus restriction, most every one will get a no a restriction as there are very few areas that utilize class a buses. In fact, even the articulated buses common in large cities are not class a, they only require a class b to operate because they do not readily detach at the point of articulation.

As for the OP, unless you think driving a bus is what you want to do, drop the endorsement, it will not mean anything to any employer other than a bus company or maybe an oilfield service company that uses buses to shuttle their workers, and it is easy to obtain in the future if you need it. If you are dead set on obtaining it, you may be able to approach a local school bus company and rent their bus for the test, here in Pennsylvania where I used to work we were a cdl third party exam site and would rent our buses for the test to people that were not going to work for us. Also, most "store front" cdl schools will have a bus in their fleet that you may be able to rent for the road test.

EDIT: I missed the post stating you want to drive a bus pulling a trailer, Pedigree is correct again, most of them will not have a trailer over 10k, so if this is the job you really want you will have to rent a bus from a school to take the road test, and yes, a class B is all you would have needed to get this job.

As for the MTA bus in the picture, it is still only a class B because it is one unit, it does not detach, in fact the engine is in the rear of the unit which would make the "trailer" push the "truck" if it were to be compared to a typical tractor trailer.