Look up MELT. It’s now over $20k and hundreds of hours of class and driving. It’s crazy.
Hell, I challenged the test 30 years ago, it was basically hook up a trailer, drive around for an hour and do some backups, then show you can unhook a trailer. Never did a class, but I’m also a farmer so I’ve been driving trucks since I could reach the pedals.
It’s truck driving, not rocket surgery. Stay awake and avoid killing busloads of kids. Millions of miles driven a day without incidents. As far as miles per accident, even old CDL drivers are orders of magnitude safer than the run of the mill driver with a 5000lb weapon in their hands, yet I don’t see the authorities doing shit-all about the yahoos I see lobbing their vehicle blindly down the QE2