P endorsement

You do not need a bus -- you can also use any 5th wheel trailer with:

at least 2 doors on two different sides
a seat with a passenger restraint system
a means of communicating with the passengers (e.g. cb radio in tractor & handheld cb in trailer)


Alternatively, you can probably find a church willing to rent you a bus.

 

You do not need a "bus", you need anything that is setup to carry passengers and has the proper safety equipment, like a van which you can rent at budget or avis.

IF you are taking a school bus endorsement, then you need a school bus and that you do not rent.

 

In Illinois, a school bus permit requires 4 hours behind the wheel and a road test (even if you've already got the "P" endorsement), as well as an 8 hour classroom session. Then, every YEAR, you have to sit through another 4 hour classroom "update" session in order to keep the school bus endorsement active. The only way to attend the class is if you are working for a school bus company...so it isn't something you need to try to get unless you are going to drive a school bus. The passenger endorsement really isn't needed either, unless you are going to drive a bus. To get the endorsement, you'll need to pass a road test in a vehicle that is designed to carry more than 16 passengers...so that 15 passenger van at Avis/Budget/Enterprise won't be sufficient. Then, when you DO find a suitable vehicle to take the passenger road test, you are going to have a restriction on your CDL-A...because the passenger endorsement is only good up through the class bus you tested in. For example, if the bus you take the test in has a GVWR below 26K, your P endorsement will only be good through a class C. A full size bus +26K GWWR will have a restriction that it is only good up to a class B.

Unless you plan to USE it, you're probably better off just dropping the endorsement for now and IF you decide to get a job driving a bus some day, use their bus and take the test then.

 

A 16 passenger van is going to have a restriction stating the passenger endorsement is only good through class C...unless your state is like Illinois, where there is a class D (normal car license...under 16K GVWR), in which case that passenger endorsement won't be worth the ink it was printed with. Your passenger endorsement is only going to be valid up through the class vehicle you tested in. The fact that you already have a class A CDL doesn't matter. They add a restriction limiting the passenger endorsement to the size passenger vehicle that you drove when you took the road test for the passenger endorsement.

 

So if you take passenger test in school bus, you still can't drive a prevost or similar motor coach?

 

If you pass the test in a 16 passenger mini-bus, no. Your CDL will not cover passenger vehicles larger than the class vehicle used to take the test.

If you use a 26K+ GVWR bus to pass the test, then your passenger endorsement covers class B vehicles, in which case you could drive a greyhound style bus if you wanted to.

 

hmm, these numbers may be wrong on answers.com but it's saying

On the average, a 38', 84 passenger school bus weighs in between 11 & 14 Tons (22,000 to 28,000 pounds) curb weight without passengers. When you add 84 passengers, say high school students, that can add up to 14,700 additional pounds in weight, bringing the total up to about 42,700 pounds.

But then it says

The
average school bus weighs about 7 ton (14000) lbs if gross weight was over 26000 lbs the driver would need a cdl not a bus drivers endorsement and most have air over hydraulic brakes