Do You Need a CDL to Drive a Box Truck?

If you want to make money with a box truck, do you need a CDL to drive a it?

Well, you usually don’t.

Box trucks are made so that anyone with a basic driver's license can drive one.

However, there are cases when driving a box truck may require a CDL.

Let’s take a look at when you need a CDL to drive a box truck and when you don’t need one.

Exclude the CDL type that box trucks don't relate to

To understand the difference between a CDL box truck vs non-CDL box truck let's exclude the type of CDL a box truck doesn't fit in.

The most common CDL types are A and B.

A CDL A type refers to:

The driver who operates any vehicle with a semi-trailer or a trailer with two or more axles.
This includes any combination of vehicles with a gross combination weight rating (GCWR) greater than 26,000 pounds, provided the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of the towed vehicle is greater than 10,000 pounds.

From the description above, we see that the box truck driver doesn't need a CDL A because if you know what is a box truck then you know that a its GCWR rarely exceeds 26,000 pounds.

Now, let's dive into CDL B to see if there are cases when a box truck driver may need one:

A CDL B type allows a driver to operate any box truck with a GVWR greater than 26,000 pounds (vehicle weight limit).
Also, any vehicle towing another trailer or vehicle, not in excess of 10,000 pounds.

Obtaining a Class B CDL allows you to get such jobs as a bus driver, local delivery driver, or dump truck driver.

The following types of vehicles may be driven with a Class B:

Large buses, such as city buses, tourist buses, and school buses.
Segmented buses.
Box trucks.
Dump trucks with small trailers.
Some Class C vehicles with the correct endorsements.

Bingo! Box trucks are among the types of vehicles that may require a class B CDL. Let's see in which cases a box driver might need CDL B.

Is a cdl required for a box truck with air brakes?

While driving a box truck with air brakes, the driver is not required to hold a CDL as long as the vehicle’s GVWR is 26,000 lbs or less.

CDL requirements to drive a box truck

Even if the driver pulls the largest 26ft box truck, he doesn't need a CDL as long as the box truck weighs 26,000 lbs or less.

But ...

There are situations when you need a class B CDL to drive a box/straight truck. And these situations are when:

Class b cdl requirements for box truck drivers
the box truck's GVWR exceeds the 26,000 weight limit.
the driver hauls hazardous materials.

What is GVWR rating?

One very important thing to note is that GVWR does not actually refer to how much the truck currently weighs. It wouldn’t make sense to have the licensing requirement differ based on the weight of the contents in the truck.

In fact, the GVWR actually refers to how much weight the vehicle is rated to carry, which is just another way of saying how large the truck is.

A vehicle’s GVWR is the most amount it can weight including cargo while still be operational.

Any box truck with a rating of 26,001 pounds or more requires a CDL.

How to determine the GVWR of a vehicle?

To find the GVWR, you simply have to look inside the door jam of the truck. The inside sticker lists the Gross Axle Weight Rating (GARW) for both the front and rear axles.

Add those two numbers together and that equals your vehicle's GVWR number.

That GVWR number should tell you whether you need a CDL to drive the vehicle or not.

Conclusion

A box truck can be driven even if you have a regular driving license.

That's a huge advantage for anybody who may want to start a box truck business.