Commercial driver's license
specialist driver's license for driving large commercial vehicles
A commercial driver's license (CDL) is a driver's license required under 49 CFR Parts 300-399 in the United States to operate large and heavy vehicles (including trucks, buses, and trailers) or a vehicle of any size that transports hazardous materials or more than 16 passengers (driver included).
United States
In the United States, the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 established minimum requirements that must be met when a state issues a CDL. While recreational vehicles and farm vehicles are federally exempt from requiring a CDL, federal law allows states to require a CDL for these vehicles. The following types of CDL licenses are:
Class A – Any single vehicle, class 7 or 8, that has a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 26,001 pounds (11,794 kilograms) or a vehicle combined with a towed unit(s)/trailer with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) that exceeds 26,001 pounds (11,794 kilograms).
Class B – Any single vehicle class which has a gross vehicle weight rating less than 26,001 pounds (11,794 kilograms) and is towing a towed unit(s)/trailer with a gross vehicle weight rating that exceeds 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms).
Class C – Any single vehicle, or combination of vehicles, that does not meet the definition of Class A or Class B, but is either designed to transport 16 or more passengers, including the driver or is transporting material that has been designated as hazardous under 49 U.S.C. 5103 and is required to be placarded under subpart F of 49 CFR Part 172 or is transporting any quantity of a material listed as a select agent or toxin in 42 CFR Part 73.
Age requirements
State governments determine the minimum age for issuing a CDL. All states, as well as the District of Columbia, have made 18 the minimum age for a CDL to be issued with the exception of Hawaii where the minimum age is 21.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) which oversees the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 requires drivers to be 21 years or over to drive a commercial vehicle in interstate commerce (to move goods across state lines) or to transport hazardous materials when placards are required. The FMCSA allows states to issue a CDL to drivers under 21 providing they only drive a commercial vehicle within the state where the CDL was issued, i.e. intrastate commerce. Additional age restrictions vary by state law.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Commercial driver's license” as specialist driver's license for driving large commercial vehicles. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as specialist driver's license for driving large commercial vehicles. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3077425. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1986.
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This entry incorporates text from “Commercial driver's license” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.