Pennsylvania runs commercial licensing through PennDOT rather than a motor vehicle department, and its manual is PUB 223. The June 2026 edition is current, which makes it one of the more recently revised manuals of any state, and it is what we cite when a question comes from a Pennsylvania page.
Every figure below names the document it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Fees change without notice, so we do not repeat them here. Check Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for the current cost.
The knowledge tests are set by federal rule, so the questions are the same wherever you sit them. What changes is the paperwork above.
The knowledge test every commercial driver takes, whatever class or endorsement they are after.
Required before you may drive any commercial vehicle with air brakes.
Required for a Class A licence. Coupling and uncoupling, off-tracking, trailer brakes and the handling of a vehicle that is jointed in the middle.
The H endorsement. Placarding, shipping papers, loading and segregation rules, and what to do when something leaks.
The N endorsement. Surge, baffles, bulkheads, high centre of gravity and the way a part-full tank changes how a vehicle stops and turns.
The T endorsement. Coupling and uncoupling multiple trailers, converter dollies, crack-the-whip and the inspection points a second trailer adds.
The P endorsement. Pre-trip and post-trip checks on a bus, loading and unloading, standee lines, and handling passengers on the road.
The S endorsement, taken alongside the passenger endorsement. Danger zones, mirror adjustment, loading and unloading students, and railroad crossings.
A study drill for the pre-trip inspection.
Pennsylvania issues a Knowledge Test Authorization for each class, endorsement and restriction removal you have applied for. That authorization is what lets you turn up at a Driver License Center and sit the test. You do not simply arrive and ask to be examined, so the paperwork has to be done before the studying pays off.
Then there is the waiting period, and this is the one that catches people out. Pennsylvania does not let you take the skills test until fifteen days after you have passed the knowledge testing and been issued a permit. The federal floor is fourteen days, so Pennsylvania is one day stricter. If you have booked a skills test around the federal number, check it again.
You can call PennDOT or book online to schedule skills testing straight after passing a knowledge test, so the fifteen days is a wait, not a delay in getting into the diary.
PennDOT offers the knowledge tests in several languages, in written and audio format. The audio option is genuinely useful and is not something every state provides. As almost everywhere, the hazardous materials test is English only.
Everyone sits general knowledge, for Class A or for Class B and C. Air brakes applies to any vehicle fitted with them, and a fail puts a restriction on the licence rather than stopping it being issued. Combination vehicles covers pulling a trailer. The endorsements are tank, doubles and triples, hazardous materials, passenger and school bus.
Hazardous materials requires a Transportation Security Administration background check on top of the written test. Start it early.
Get to eighty percent reliably on general knowledge before you touch the endorsements. Eighty is the federal pass mark, so it is the real target rather than a comfortable one.
Read the explanation on every question you get wrong, not only the ones you guessed at. Each explanation names the manual page the answer came from, so you can go and read the paragraph around it. That is the difference between recognising a question you have seen before and knowing the rule when you are the one behind the wheel.
Fees are not listed here. PennDOT changes them, and a wrong number would cost you a trip, so check their site before you go.
Every question on every one of these is free, and each answer names the handbook page it came from.
Every question names the handbook, section and page it was read from, so you can check the answer instead of taking our word for it.
How we write these