Class A
The combination license.
- One run
- 50 questions
- To pass
- 40 of 50
West Virginia runs its commercial license through the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles, the same office that handles a car license, rather than a separate commercial licensing board. What sets West Virginia apart is not the agency so much as the terrain: this is a mountain state, and the drive between one DMV office and the next often follows two-lane roads through hills rather than the straight highway miles you would cover in a flatter state, so it is worth choosing which office to test at as carefully as you choose when.
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 West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles 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 combination license.
The heavy straight vehicle license. Group B covers a single vehicle rating 26,001 pounds or more, or one towing a unit of 10,000 pounds or less.
The small vehicle license.
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 license. 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 center 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.
The knowledge exams themselves are federal rather than West Virginia's own invention. Part 383 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations sets what is tested, what the endorsements cover, and the 80 percent pass mark, and all of that reads the same whether you sit the exam here or in a state a thousand miles away. Where West Virginia genuinely differs is logistics: a mountain state with a smaller population than most of its neighbours means fewer DMV offices spread across more difficult roads, so a return visit for a resit costs more time here than it would somewhere flatter and more built up. Plan for one trip covering as much as you can rather than several short ones.
General knowledge is compulsory for everyone. After that, the vehicle decides. Air brakes need a dedicated exam, and failing it does not stop you getting licensed — it puts a restriction on the license barring you from air-braked vehicles. A trailer over ten thousand pounds means the combination vehicles exam. Beyond that come the endorsements: tank, doubles and triples, hazardous materials, passenger, school bus. Hazardous materials adds a Transportation Security Administration background check that runs separately from the written test and on its own schedule, so start it alongside your studying rather than after you finish it.
A commercial learner permit comes before a skills test, and federal rule holds you to fourteen days between the two, no matter which state issues the permit. Given how far apart West Virginia's testing offices can sit, use that fortnight to get the knowledge exams out of the way early rather than close to your skills test date — a fail with two weeks left to fix it is a minor setback, a fail with two days left is a missed slot and another long drive.
Fees are not published here. They change, and West Virginia sets its own, so confirm the current amount with the Division of Motor Vehicles before you travel. What we cover is the material each exam draws from and where in the source it comes from.
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