Getting a Kansas CDL

Do you need a Kansas CDL?

KDOR's CDL manual (March 2025 version) says you need one to drive:

• Any single vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more
• A combination with a gross combination weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more, if the vehicle being towed is rated over 10,000 pounds
• A vehicle designed to carry 16 or more people, including the driver
• Any size of vehicle that needs hazardous materials placards or carries a select agent or toxin

Class A covers those combinations, Class B heavy single vehicles, and Class C smaller vehicles that carry 16 or more people or placarded hazardous materials.

Which knowledge tests you take

The manual says everyone takes the general knowledge test, and you add others for your vehicle and cargo:

• Passenger transport, for bus drivers
• Air brakes, if your vehicle has them
• Combination vehicles
• Hazardous materials, which also needs a TSA background check
• Tank vehicles
• Doubles and triples
• School bus

Booking the Kansas CDL skills test

KDOR says CDL skills exams are by appointment only: you call the office you plan to visit. Its list of offices that give them is Chanute, Colby, Dodge City, Edgerton, Garden City, Hays, Phillipsburg, Salina, Seneca, Topeka and Wichita, with Edgerton and Topeka marked as having limited staff. KDOR's CDL page says the skills test takes about an hour to an hour and a half.

The test has three parts: a vehicle inspection, basic vehicle control and an on-road drive. The manual says Kansas doesn't allow memory aids during the inspection, and you must point to or touch each item and explain what you're checking.

CDL fees

From KDOR's fee chart, updated May 2023.

Is there a Kansas CDL practice test?

KDOR doesn't publish one. Its CDL manual has Test Your Knowledge questions throughout its sections, and that's the closest official practice. The 20 questions on this site are for the car permit, not a commercial license.

Two more things to sort out early: KDOR's CDL page links a separate page on entry-level driver training, and since June 2, 2025, KDOR can't enter medical examiner certificates by hand. They have to come electronically from the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.