The Passenger Transport endorsement test

Cargo that can stand up and walk about

That is the whole difference, and it is why this endorsement exists separately. A load of freight does not get off at the wrong stop or block an exit.

Six subjects

49 CFR 383.117(a) names loading and unloading passengers; emergency exits, including push-out windows; fires and unruly passengers; railroad-highway grade crossings and drawbridges; proper braking procedures; and operating practices and procedures.

Three of the six are emergencies

Exits, fires and unruly passengers all describe something going wrong with people aboard. That share is higher than on any other endorsement, and it sets the tone of the test. The questions tend to ask what the driver does first, and the right answer is usually about controlling the vehicle and the crowd before dealing with the problem itself.

The crossing subject is specific

Railroad crossings and drawbridges are named together in the regulation because a bus stops at both, and the stopping procedure is a sequence rather than a judgment. Knowing that a bus stops where a truck may not is the point of it.

Braking gets its own line

Proper braking procedures is a separate subject here, which it is not on most of the other tests. A loaded bus is heavier, its weight is high, and passengers who are standing have nothing holding them. Smoothness is a safety matter and not a comfort one.

Passing it, and what sits on top

Three choices a question and 80% to pass. A school bus driver sits this test and the School Bus test, not one instead of the other. Our own forms run twenty questions, which is our length rather than the state's.