Driver CV Example & Writing Guide

Your driver's CV is essentially the vehicle that will take you from A to B. That is, if A is submitting your job application, and B is the job interview room you want to get to. In your line of work, time is of the essence. So, accelerate your job search with a CV that will take you places as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

Not sure about the best route you can take in order to achieve that? It’s just a matter of taking the time to familiarise yourself with the roadmap of the CV writing process. 

Some of the roads you go down during your job search are unpredictable. The good news is that you can predict some of the key points a hiring manager wants to see in your driver’s CV. So, let’s get your application on track for success by crafting a CV that will get you the driver’s job of your dreams. 

CV guide for a driver CV

Without risking sounding like a backseat driver, here are Resume.io we know a thing or two about delivering a top CV. In fact, we have dozens of CV examples to help you with your job search. We even offer a CV builder that makes the process as easy as possible.  

This CV guide and corresponding driver CV example will cover the following:

• How to write a driver's CV
• Choosing the right CV format for a driver
• How to add your contact information
• Using summaries
• Adding your driver experience
• Listing education and relevant experience
• Picking the right CV design/layout
• What the driver market looks like and what salary you can expect

How to write a driver’s CV

The very first step in writing your driver’s CV is understanding what sections to include. Your CV should contain the following elements:

• CV header
• CV summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• Employment history section
• CV skills section
• Education section

To get to where you are today as a driver, one of the first steps was earning your driving licence. To keep it clean for work you have to follow the rules of the road to the letter. Approach writing your driver's CV in the same way. As you make your way through the following tips, keep the company you’d like to work for in mind and gear your content towards them. 

Consider the following suggestions when you’re preparing your driver’s CV content:

• Focus on accomplishments in your working career, not just your responsibilities. Have you ever hit a bump in the road at work? What did you do to resolve it? How you’ve excelled is what a hiring manager will be most interested in.
• Adapt your CV for the employer you’re sending it to. This will give it a personal touch, and demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role.
• Proofread your CV then proofread it again. While there are many sectors in which a driver can work, a common expectation of every professional in this field is their ability to focus. Show off yours with an error-free application.
• Shine a light on any impressive work experiences you’ve faced. That could be managing long-distance trips, or a role where you assumed a lot of risk. This will help you to stand out from other candidates.
• Optimise your CV with the relevant keywords from the job posting. This will ensure you’re not filtered out by the ATS screening software.

Choosing the right CV format for a driver

Drivers spend a lot of time behind the wheel, assuming risk, and need to focus their energy on safety on the road. Therefore, your driver's CV should be to the point and clear. 

As a rule of thumb, reverse chronological is the best format for drivers. With this format, you can concentrate on your employment history section, outlining your experience in reverse chronological order. 

If you’re trying to shift gears and enter the workforce for the first time, then you could also consider the functional format which would highlight your skills more than your employment history.

Design-wise you can keep things simple. Just take a look at our CV builder and choose the template that suits you. Hiring managers in this profession will be more invested in your CV’s content which will detail how you handle yourself, your vehicle, and the road as opposed to the finer details of your CV’s layout.

Include your contact information

The top part of a CV for drivers — or any profession, for that matter — should be dedicated to your contact information. It may seem easy and foolproof, but it’s easy to make mistakes. Here are some tips on getting it right to increase your chances of a call from the hiring manager:

• Full name & title. List your first and last name and include the title of the role you’re applying for. Make sure you match the title of the job the way that it is listed in the job advertisement.
• Professional email address. Regardless of how many emails you may or may not need to send during the day as a driver, your email address should always use a clean format like [email protected].
• Phone number. Employers will no doubt expect you to have to call them back if you spend the majority of your day driving and keeping your eyes on the road. Nonetheless, list a number where you can be readily contacted and make sure you have a professional voicemail greeting.
• Location. Only list the city where you are usually based. You no longer need to list your full address or postcode – this is an outdated practice and also unsafe. Include 'Willing to relocate' here if applicable.

Don’t include:

• Date of birth: This information is not required on your CV and you could open yourself up to the risk of age discrimination.
• Personal details: Your marital status, social security number, passport number, and other sensitive information are not safe or necessary to include.

Make use of a summary

Your CV summary is your chance to show off the most important experience and skills you have as a driver. The term “driver” in itself is broad and could encompass so many different roles. You can use the space of your summary to really hone in on what it means to work in your profession and what you’ve accomplished behind the wheel. 

Unlike some of the routes you’ve driven, you should keep your summary short and sweet. Two to three sentences are more than enough to communicate the top-level highlights of your working profile. Remember that it’s not just an explanation of what you do, though. You need to try and capture all of the best bits. What makes you a first-class driver? 

When it comes to summarising this into a concise space, use action verbs in the simple past or present tense. For a driver, these could be verbs like, drove, delivered, arrived, and transported. Include context to make these action verbs quantifiable in some way. For example “Reliable driver who has consistently transported goods on schedule.” 

This is the section of your CV where you get to present the professional image of yourself that you want the hiring managers to know. Start strong by choosing relevant words that emphasise your ability to deliver a top class driving service. The company you work for may change but this is a quality that you can bring to any role. 

You can find adaptable driving CV example summaries below:     

Outline your driver work experience: getting into gear

Utilise the reverse chronological format when listing your employment history in this section of your CV so hiring managers can easily skim through your most recent experience. While you may think that the more experience you have, the better, the space in your CV is finite. Only include the last 10-15 years worth of work you have carried out. If you still feel that there’s more you’d like to share with employers, save it for your interview. 

When listing your previous roles, you should include the following information: 

• Your job title
• The name of the company you worked for
• Your dates of employment
• The location of the position

You can use these details to create a dedicated subheading. Next, you can detail your duties and contributions to the role in brief bullet points below. You don’t need to use “I” in these short statements. You can make the phrases more descriptive without taking up unnecessary space by using dynamic action verbs. Avoid vague statements and try to select verbs that focus on what you can bring to a company as a driver, in whatever capacity that takes.  

Results aren’t the only things that matter in your line of work. However, you’re answering questions employers would likely ask you in an interview before you’ve even stepped foot into the room. They want to know less about what you’ve done, and more about how you did it and why they should hire you to do the same for them. 

So, rev up their interest in your application by including as much as you can, as concisely as possible. For more ideas on how to tackle this section, take a look at the driver employment history CV sample below:

Include the relevant key skills that make you a great driver 

Driving is a job that requires a variety of skills, depending on what capacity you work in the transportation sector. Your skills list allows you to shine a light on what it takes to cut it in the industry. Naturally, depending on your daily responsibilities, those skills can differ slightly from driver to driver. 

When writing this section, remember that your skills list should include a mix of hard and soft skills and both should highlight your competency. Hard skills refer to things like your know-how in handling hazardous materials, meanwhile, soft skills will be things that are harder to be taught.

Consider writing about some of the following soft skills on your driver’s CV:

• Time management. Getting from A to B might sound easy, but you need to take responsibility for everything that happens in between and make sure you can still respect the given timeline.
• Attention to detail. Whether you’re dealing with large quantities of cargo or working to tight timetables, attention to detail is paramount in a logistics-led job like driving.
• Problem solving. We all know that when you’re on the road, there are a number of unpredictabilities and obstacles that can occur. A hiring manager wants confidence that you can handle this.

Remember that you can include skills throughout your CV — you don’t have to save it all for the skills list. Subtle inclusion throughout the relevant sections such as previous employment and your CV summary is recommended. This will help remind the hiring manager of what you’re capable of as they read through your application.  

If writing isn’t your forte, don’t worry – that’s where we come in. With our CV builder, you can find various pre-written key skills to help you get started. From there, you just add any others that you feel are applicable. 

Have a look at what the skills box looks like in our CV template for drivers, if you want some more ideas. 

Detail your education & relevant driver certifications

Your education section should be kept simple and clear. Condense your education and training by using the reverse chronological order. List your education or academic achievements by including the name of the qualification, where you studied, dates of attendance, and location. 

Typically it’s wise to only list the most pertinent information to save space. However, alongside your education, there is space to list any certification or training that’s relevant to your career in driving. Consider the following points when deciding what you will or won’t include in your driver CV education section:

• Secondary school education. Only list your GCSEs or equivalent if you haven’t pursued a university degree or formal higher education
• Driving certifications. If you hold a valid Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) to drive a lorry, bus or coach, this is worth mentioning.
• Specialist transportation licencing. Transporting certain types of goods, such as high-value items or hazardous materials, will require special training. If you hold a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence or similar, then include this in your education and certifications section. You can even include mentioning it in your summary.

If you feel that your training is more impressive than your employment history then you could consider changing things up in terms of your CV’s format. A functional CV format would focus more on qualifications that would be more appealing to employers, regardless of how much experience you have behind the wheel professionally. 

Before you sit down to start writing, we’ve included a CV sample below that you can check to ensure your education section gets you where you need to go. 

Pick the right CV layout and design for a driver

You wouldn’t give a potential employer the best impression if you showed up for an interview in a car with more than a few dings and dents. The state of your vehicle ultimately says a lot about your ability as a driver. Much in the same way, your CV layout reveals a lot about you as a professional. 

As a driver, lean into a design that’s sleek and streamlined, while at the same time retaining its reader-friendly qualities. You want to catch a hiring manager’s attention while also ensuring they can navigate the content of your CV with ease. 

We also recommend clean lines for separating sections. Colour isn’t necessary but it also isn’t necessary to omit it. Just aim for a neutral palette as opposed to something too flashy and in your face. 

Don’t fret too much about being a design whizz, though. Instead, you can consider browsing through our field-tested and professionally designed CV templates to find one that you like. With the formatting problems resolved, you can shift your focus back onto your job search. 

Driver text-only CV example

Driver job market and outlook

Being a driver is not limited to a specific sector or industry. In fact, being a driver can mean a multitude of things. Some options include becoming a delivery driver, a driving instructor, a van driver or even a tanker driver. 

Our modern world is run by transportation logistics, and the industry needs professionals like you to keep its wheels turning!

What type of salary you can expect as a driver

The type of salary you can expect will depend greatly on what kind of driver you are. A delivery van driver in the UK, for example, can expect to earn anywhere from £16,500 to £27,000 a year. Typical working hours per week range from 20 to 42 hours and may include weekends and bank holidays. 

Key takeaways for building a driver CV

1. Driving is a broad profession which demands a variety of skills. Make sure you list the most relevant ones for the role you’re applying to.
2. Don’t overcomplicate your CV in terms of design. Keep things simple. Hiring managers will be most interested in your CV content, so prioritise readability.
3. Use keywords to prevent your application from getting filtered out by ATS software.
4. Don’t feel guilty if you want to focus on your job hunt and take a shortcut by using our CV builder so you can deliver your application on time.
5. Switch up your format and use a functional CV format if you are new to the workforce.