Maine is your typical Yankee state when it comes to requiring education for its commercial drivers: You do it yourself. To obtain a commercial driver's license (CDL) in Maine, you need to pass both a written and a road exam. But there are no state-mandated minimums for classroom time or the number of hours you spend training on the road, so educating yourself before the exams is up to you.

Use the Manual

To help you with the written portion of the exams, Maine tells you just about everything you need to know in its 207-page Commercial Driver's Manual. The manual is available free from any BMV office or downloadable as a PDF (beware that it's a large file).

The manual is extremely detailed, explaining the application procedures and offering in-depth descriptions of the road test. The manual also offers study guides, complete with sample questions, for the various license classes and endorsements.

The manual is extremely useful for helping you pass the written exam and getting your commercial learner's permit. However, the manual alone will not give you enough information and training to actually safely get behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle.

Study Guides

If you want more help than the Maine Commercial Driver's Manual has to offer, there are study guides available from different Web sites. Do an online search for "Maine commercial driver education" and you'll find them. For about $100, you can get sample tests and advice. Some even offer money-back guarantees.

But again, reading alone is not enough. You can―and should―take your learning process a step further by enrolling in any of a number of several-week courses offered by third-party commercial driving schools.

These courses are comprehensive, they are taught by experienced truckers who know what they're talking about, and they include actual road practice in big trucks. However, be prepared to pay up to $5,000 for the tuition.

The price may sound steep, but the added safety of being professionally trained is worth it. As a bonus, often you can either borrow or rent a truck from these schools to take your road test in.

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