CDL Requirements in South Dakota
Verified against South Dakota Department of Public Safety, Driver Licensing Program ·
Compiled and verified against primary state DMV/DPS/BMV sources by GetCDLLicense — cite-or-deny, with no invented figures. How we source & verify →
South Dakota licenses commercial drivers through the Department of Public Safety's Driver Licensing Program. The department's public website migrated to a new, JavaScript-rendered portal platform at some point after mid-2025, and as of this review every path on the former dps.sd.gov domain — including previously published CDL, fee-schedule, and manual-PDF URLs — redirects to that new platform's application shell, which returns no crawlable content. As a result, this record captures only the federally uniform baseline; South Dakota's specific fee amounts, CLP validity period, and endorsement-level detail could not be independently verified against a reachable current source and are left blank rather than estimated.
South Dakota's CDL requirements are verified against South Dakota Department of Public Safety, Driver Licensing Program (see South Dakota Department of Public Safety — Driver Licensing Program), current as of 2026-07-25.
South Dakota CDL Requirements at a Glance
This is the fee, age, and testing detail for South Dakotaspecifically — for the full step-by-step process see how to get a CDL, and for what Class A, B, and C each permit see CDL classes.
| Commercial learner’s permit (CLP) | |
|---|---|
| CLP fee | — |
| Minimum holding period before skills test | — |
| CLP validity | — |
| Age minimums | |
| Intrastate minimum age | — |
| Interstate minimum age | 21 (federal floor) |
| Fees | |
| Application fee | — |
| Initial CDL fee | — |
| Renewal fee | — |
| Renewal period | — |
| Knowledge test fee | — |
| Skills test fee | — |
| Testing rules | |
| Third-party testers allowed | — |
| Retest waiting period | — |
21 is the federal interstate-commerce age floor, identical in every jurisdiction. South Dakota's intrastate-only minimum age was not verifiable against a reachable current DPS source, so it is left blank rather than assumed to be the common 18.
South Dakota CDL Endorsements
| Endorsement | Available | Fee | Knowledge test | Skills test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hazardous materials (H) | Yes | — | — | — |
| Tank vehicle (N) | Yes | — | — | — |
| Doubles/triples (T) | Yes | — | — | — |
| Passenger (P) | Yes | — | — | — |
| School bus (S) | Yes | — | — | — |
For what each endorsement permits, the federal knowledge/skills testing baseline behind it, and hazmat’s separate TSA security threat assessment, see CDL endorsements.
Federal requirements that apply in South Dakota
These are set by federal regulators and are the same in every US jurisdiction. Full detail here.
- Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT). Since February 2022, first-time CDL applicants — and drivers upgrading to Class A or seeking a first-time school bus, passenger, or hazmat endorsement — must complete Entry-Level Driver Training with a provider on the FMCSA Training Provider Registry before testing.
- DOT medical certificate. Most CDL holders who operate in interstate commerce must hold a valid DOT medical examiner's certificate, issued by an examiner listed on the FMCSA National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
- Interstate minimum age. Federal rules set 21 as the minimum age to drive commercially across state lines; states set their own intrastate minimum, commonly 18.
- Hazmat security threat assessment. A hazardous materials endorsement additionally requires a TSA security threat assessment, which is a federal process separate from the state endorsement.
Self-certification in South Dakota
South Dakota Department of Public Safety, Driver Licensing Program administers self-certification for the following FMCSA operating categories:
- Non-Excepted Interstate
- Excepted Interstate
- Non-Excepted Intrastate
- Excepted Intrastate
These are the four federally-defined FMCSA self-certification categories (49 CFR 383.71) that every State Driver Licensing Agency, including South Dakota's, is required to offer. South Dakota-specific form names or administrative detail were not verifiable against a reachable current source.
Source Notes
Where a source is stale, conflicting, or required a judgment call, we document it here rather than presenting a single confident-sounding number. See our methodology for how these calls are made.
- South Dakota's Department of Public Safety migrated its website to a new platform in 2025; as of this review the site's CDL pages return no content to automated research tools, so fee amounts, CLP validity, and endorsement-specific requirements above are left blank rather than guessed. Contact the SD Driver Licensing Program or visit sd.gov/dps directly in a browser for current figures.
means no primary source publishes that figure — left blank on purpose rather than estimated or copied from an unverified aggregator.
Data last verified: 2026-07-25 (verified by: agent) | Source: South Dakota Department of Public Safety, Driver Licensing Program