Passenger Study Guide
This study guide condenses the AAMVA CDL Manual chapter on Passenger into the concepts that show up most often on the knowledge exam. Read it through once, take the practice test, then come back to anything you missed.
Pre-trip on a bus
In addition to standard pre-trip items, check passenger seats (none can be unsecured), entry doors, emergency exits, signaling devices, the destination sign, the wheel-chair lift if equipped, the kneeling mechanism, and the fire extinguisher and emergency reflective triangles. Sweep the interior for trash and check that all passenger windows operate as designed.
Standee line
On buses with a standee line — typically transit buses — passengers may not stand forward of the line, which is usually 2 feet behind the driver. The line keeps standing passengers out of the driver's way and away from the doorway in case of emergency stop.
Prohibited cargo
You may never carry on a bus: any explosives other than small-arms ammunition, any tear gas, any radioactive materials with limited exceptions, or any other hazardous material likely to cause death or injury, except in small quantities. You may carry emergency-shipment materials, small-arms ammunition, hospital supplies, and certain household items, but only with the carrier's approval and only in the baggage compartment — not in the passenger area.
Railroad crossings
A bus must stop at every railroad crossing, with limited exceptions (industrial switching tracks, abandoned tracks, streetcar lines in city traffic). Stop no closer than 15 feet and no further than 50 feet from the nearest rail. Look both ways, listen, and proceed only when you can clear the tracks without stopping.
After the trip
After every trip, walk through the bus and check every seat for sleeping passengers, lost items, and damage. Many drivers have left passengers locked in a parked bus overnight by skipping the after-trip walkthrough.
Disqualifications
A passenger-endorsed driver convicted of certain offenses — driving under the influence with passengers aboard, leaving the scene of an accident with passengers aboard, or using the bus to commit a felony — faces immediate disqualification.
How to use this guide before your exam
Read each section carefully and try to put the rule in your own words before moving on. The CDL knowledge exam tests recognition more than recall — you'll see the right answer in front of you and have to pick it from distractors that all sound plausible. The way to defeat distractors is to know the underlying rule cold.
Once you can read this guide and answer "what's the rule?" without checking, return to the full practice test. If you score 85% or higher across two consecutive runs, you are ready to schedule the official knowledge test at your DMV.