I work at the VA and my goal is to get on at out motorpool here in St. Louis. I currently posses a Class B CDL with air brakes (state of MO license). In order for me to get on at the motorpool, I must obtain the P-Passenger endorsement on my CDL so I will be able to drive the large bus, which is a school bus but do NOT need the school bus endorsement because it's adults they transport. I passed the written portion for Passenger endorsement, now I need to take the skills portion. I have to have a commercial vehicle 26,001 lbs and over and it needs to hold 16 and over passenger to take the skills test. The VA will NOT let me use their bus to take that skills test. My issue has been trying to find a bus to rent to take the skills portion here in St Louis, MO. Nobody rents buses to individuals, only businesses. Does anyone have any info as to how I should go about finding a bus? Has anyone ran into this issue themselves? Thanks!
Answers
I am surprised the VA would not help out with your existing endorsements.
I would suggest putting a request in craigslist and facebook marketplace offering to rent one. Folks have bought buses that they use occasionally (they sell them fairly cheap after their service life).
I see several buses in the RV storage areas in my area.
Good evening Matthew, thank you for your service and for your great question. I quickly realized your conundrum once I began searching for resources for you, renting a truck/bus for CDL training in Missouri seems to be a tough service to find. To speak candidly, it seems a national rental service would be a pretty good business idea on its own. That being said, I did find one website that might be of use:
http://www.lifeasatrucker.com/need-training-or-to-rent-a-truck-to-drive-for-cdl.html - though I cannot speak to the success rate of this website, it does allow for you to provide your needs and contact information to find a driver willing to lend their truck/bus for CDL testing.
I hope you are able to find a reliable individual to rent from and best of luck on the Skills test!
Thank you for your time, and have a great week,
Ian Weissman
ACP Operations Associate
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