Testing is the visible part of getting licensed; § 383.71 is the part that happens first and stops more applicants. Before obtaining a commercial learner’s permit, a person must be 18 years of age or older and provide proof of age, and must have taken and passed a general knowledge test meeting the federal standards for the commercial motor vehicle group they operate or expect to operate. The general knowledge test therefore comes before the permit, not after it — the permit is what you earn with it.

The rest of the requirement is documentary and specific. The applicant must provide the State of issuance the information required to appear on the permit; proof of citizenship or lawful permanent residency as the section’s table sets out, or else obtain a non-domiciled permit; and proof that the State applied to is their State of domicile as § 383.5 defines it — acceptable proof being a document showing name and residential address within the State, such as a government-issued tax form. They must also provide the names of ALL States where they have been licensed to drive any type of motor vehicle during the previous 10 years, which is how the one-license rule of § 383.21 is actually enforced at the counter. A person seeking a passenger, school bus or tank vehicle endorsement on the permit must have taken and passed that endorsement’s knowledge test.

Two further requirements matter for anyone applying now. The applicant must give the State one of the certifications set out at § 383.71(b)(1) about the type of operation they will be driving in. What that self-classification then means for medical qualification is Chapter 6’s subject. And since February 7, 2022, a person must complete the training prescribed in subpart F of Part 380 BEFORE taking the skills test for a Class A or B license for the first time, before a passenger or school bus endorsement skills test for the first time, or before the hazardous materials endorsement knowledge test for the first time — with the training administered by a provider listed on the Training Provider Registry. That is the entry-level driver training § 3.4 covers, and this is where it bites: not as a general obligation, but as a gate in front of specific tests.