How to write a Truck Driver Resume?
[Click here to directly go to the complete Truck Driver resume sample]
We are going to provide you with the minutest details you need in your truck driver resume which can easily help you face the rising threat of automation facing the industry.
You will learn about what should be avoided in a professional truck driver resume.
Given below is the complete truck driver resume sample; by following this format, you will surely be able to make a well-structured truck driver resume.
- CDL-A Certification | USA Truck | Mar ’16
- FAST Card Certification | PTDI | Aug ‘16
- Loading or unloading material onto trucks, preparing pick-up receipts and delivering goods across 10+ locations per day
- Delivering & picking up cross country goods, with the total travel encompassing 20+ states & 3 countries till date
- Communicating & coordinating with other truck drivers & operators for saving >1.5 hours per day
- Maintaining 100% clean driving record while scheduling timely delivery 99% of the time
- Ensuring timely delivery of all goods while preserving quality leading to 99% client satisfaction
- Registering over-time frequently to render assistance with unforeseen client challenges resulting in 5 star rating
- Drove an average of 4,000+ miles/week & secured ‘Best Employee of the Year’ Award out of 200 employees in '18
- Received appraisal of 30% owing to rigorous work ethics & sincerity towards client satisfaction
- Trained 3 entry-level truck drivers by acquainting them with timely & quality delivery via effective communication
- Loaded and unloaded equipment or materials across 20+ job site locations on a daily basis
- Transported aggregate, dirt, & asphalt, and traveled over 1,00,000 miles including 5 countries
If you want the summary for a Truck driver resume, then here it is:
- Make Professional Summary section if you are not an entry level truck driver
- Write each skill using a bullet and make sure no point exceeds one line
- Separate your Professional Experience from your training/apprenticeship
- If you've any certification such as CDL certification, then include that in a separate Certifications section
- Group every 2-3 points together under a unique subheading and bold key words to increase the readability of your truck driver resume
There are a plethora of truck driving resumes on the web, but nobody is going to inform you about the strategies & tricks which can easily help you surpass the ATS compliance test and mesmerize the recruiter in a single go.
But you need not worry anymore because this guide shall discuss all the quintessential aspects, including ‘What should be added in a driver resume’ and ‘Where to add information to maintain the best structure’ in an ideal truck driver resume.
Alongside, this blog will provide you with 20+ truck driver resume samples & numerous truck driver resume examples that will surely be your savior to beat the cutthroat competition and get you shortlisted.
This blog will cover the following areas:
- How to curate perfect Truck driver resume sections?
- What is the standard salary of a truck driver?
- How to write the truck driver resume objective?
- How to add certifications in a truck driver resume?
Additionally, you can go for Hiration's Online Resume Builder for a smooth truck driver resume making experience.
And, if you want to make your truck driver resume by yourself, then follow the step-wise guide along with truck driver resume sample & truck driver resume examples as given in this guide for a stellar driver resume.
And yes! There's more in store for you. After making a driver resume, you can go for Hiration's Resume Review Service, where you can get your truck driver resume checked for ATS compliance.
Let's begin. This 2022 Guide on Truck Drive Resume shall broadly cover the following topics:
What is a Truck Driver Resume
The primary responsibilities of a truck driver are to transport goods from one place to another (for short as well as long distances) and to perform preventative maintenance.
Besides, he plans routes & meets delivery schedules by complying with the truck driving rules & regulations.
Why is there a need for a Truck Driver Resume?
The main motive of a trucker resume is to demonstrate your proficiency level as a truck driver.
A truck driver resume gives detailed information to the recruiter on your acquired skills and your efficiency at deploying those skills in your daily activities.
Here's the deal:
While looking for a job, having a truck driver resume is a sure-shot way to get as many interviews as you can and get your dream job in a hassle-free way.
Standard Salary of a Truck Driver
According to Truckdriversalary.com, there is is a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in a trucking industry, which is indubitably much more than any other profession.
But the competition in the industry is immense as there are millions of other aspirants in the fray.
Currently, the median pay of truck drivers is $59,158 per year with $30,000 as the minimum pay and $79,500 as the highest which can go as high as $100,000.
The foremost step for getting a job as a truck driver is a great truck driver resume, inclusive of all your certifications, the number of years you have worked as a truck driver in a structured way, and the perfect job title.
Truck Driver Resume Sections
The ideal way to write your truck driver resume sections is:
- Headline
- Personal Information
- Job Title
- Professional Summary/Objective
- Skills
- Professional Experience
- Education
- Certifications
Professional Experience Section in a Truck Driver Resume
Are you one of those who begin from the 'Professional Summary' or 'Objective' section?
You need to change your style if you are, because writing an ideal summary can be a task if you have not written your professional experience beforehand in your truck driver resume.
First, draft your Professional Summary section, and based on that, move to the 'Skills' section in your resume for a truck driver. Post this, begin with your truck driver resume Objective or Professional Summary.
Now, let's discuss the Professional Experience section - why it is so important, how to frame it and the perfect method to create one-liner bullet points in this section.
Professional Experience section is the most important section in your resume as what matters the most is how experienced you are as a driver and how you can benefit your next organization.
The best way to write the company's name along with the designation, dates, and location is:
Your Designation | Company's Name | Company's Location | Time (in mm/yy-mm/yy format)
Including these basic details is a must in your truck driver resume.
How to Frame Points in Professional Experience Section in a Truck Driver Resume?
Do you know that there is a proper method to write your professional experience section in a truck driving resume?
The method is called the 'STAR' format in which you don't only write what you did but highlight the results or impact of your actions.
Try to draw a cause-effect relationship in all one-liner bullet points to give a better perspective of what you did, why you did and what was the result of it.
As a rule of thumb, always frame your points in the STAR resume format: Situation, Task, Action, and Result.
- Situation: The situation when assigned a task
- Task: The task you were assigned
- Action: The approach/tools/techniques you applied to complete a given task
- Result: The net result, that is, the success rate or satisfaction percentage
This shall enable recruiters to essentially see what you did and how you benefited the organization.
The sure-shot way to grab the recruiter's attention is to quantify your contribution. For instance, as a truck driver, you can mention how many miles you have traveled, how many orders you delivered, etc.
Focusing on providing numbers instantly gives an idea of the scale at which you were handling and how big projects you can handle in your next organization.
Given below is a professional experience section to be added in a truck driver resume using the cause-effect methodology.
We have also given the truck driver resume examples for you to get a better understanding of a professional experience section in a resume for truck driver.
Incorrect Way to Write Professional Experience in a Truck Driver Resume
- Loading or unloading material onto trucks, preparing pick-up receipts and delivering goods
- Delivering & picking up cross country goods
- Communicating & coordinating with other truck drivers & operators
- Maintaining clean driving record while scheduling a timely delivery
- Ensuring timely delivery of all goods while preserving the quality
- Registering over-time frequently
The points as mentioned above are incomplete as they are just showing us what you did but are nowhere providing us any relation to why you performed a particular action. These are not framed by following the cause-effect method.
Correct Way to Write Professional Experience in a Truck Driver Resume
- Loading or unloading material onto trucks, preparing pick-up receipts and delivering goods across 10+ locations per day
- Delivering & picking up cross country goods, with the total travel encompassing 20+ states & 3 countries till date
- Communicating & coordinating with other truck drivers & operators for saving ~1.5 hours per day
- Maintaining 100% clean driving record while scheduling timely delivery 99% of the time
- Ensuring timely delivery of all goods while preserving quality leading to 99% client satisfaction
- Registering over-time frequently to render assistance with unforeseen client challenges resulting in a 5-star rating
In Example 2, you can see how STAR strategy works and easily shows what you did, its effect and impact in benefiting the organization. Without it, your professional experience section looks bland and incomplete.
Hiration Pro-Tip - For all your work profiles, mention the company where you worked, containing figures around revenue, number of employees, geographic presence, etc. to intimate a recruiter about your previous organization.
Bolding and Bucketing in the Professional Experience Section in a Truck Driver Resume
When writing your truck driver resume, make sure to bold each achievement of yours for a remarkable impact as a recruiter only goes through your resume for 6 seconds in the first go. If he/she doesn't like it in those 6 seconds, then you very well know the result.
What about Bucketing?
Bucketing means to make a sub-heading of similar tasks performed by you. For all your professional experience, wherever the total number of points are more than 3, you can club similar points together and create subheadings for the same.
It allows you to showcase your broad-level skills by clubbing similar points together and avoid overused phrases such as 'Roles & Responsibilities'.
Let's see how Bucketing and Bolding work in a Truck Driver Resume.
Incorrect Example of making a Professional experience in a Truck Driver Resume
- Loading or unloading material onto trucks, preparing pick-up receipts and delivering goods across 10+ locations per day
- Delivering & picking up cross country goods, with the total travel encompassing 20+ states & 3 countries till date
- Communicating & coordinating with other truck drivers & operators for saving ~1.5 hours per day
- Maintaining 100% clean driving record while scheduling timely delivery 99% of the time
- Ensuring timely delivery of all goods while preserving quality leading to 99% client satisfaction
- Registering over-time frequently to render assistance with unforeseen client challenges resulting in a 5-star rating
- Drove an average of 4,000+ miles/week & secured ‘Best Employee of the Year’ Award out of 200 employees in '18
- Received appraisal of 30% owing to rigorous work ethics & sincerity towards client satisfaction
- Trained 3 entry-level truck drivers by acquainting them with timely & quality delivery via effective communication
What would you do if you see such a professional experience section? Will you shortlist a person for the next round who has written his experience like this? Obviously, no!
Now, let's have a look at the Truck driver resume examples given below:
Delivery & Coordination
- Loading or unloading material onto trucks, preparing pick-up receipts and delivering goods across 10+ locations per day
- Delivering & picking up cross country goods, with the total travel encompassing 20+ states & 3 countries till date
- Communicating & coordinating with other truck drivers & operators for saving ~1.5 hours per day
- Maintaining 100% clean driving record while scheduling timely delivery 99% of the time
Customer Relationship Management
- Ensuring timely delivery of all goods while preserving quality leading to 99% client satisfaction
- Registering over-time frequently to render assistance with unforeseen client challenges resulting in 5-star rating
Key Achievements
- Drove an average of 4,000+ miles/week & secured ‘Best Employee of the Year’ Award out of 200 employees in '18
- Received appraisal of 30% owing to rigorous work ethics & sincerity towards client satisfaction
- Trained 3 entry-level truck drivers by acquainting them with timely & quality delivery via effective communication
Looking at the example mentioned above, it's not hard to get acquainted with the fact that bolding and bucketing can do wonders in your Truck driver resume and can increase your chances of getting shortlisted without a doubt.
Hiration Pro-Tip - Always add a 'Key Achievement' subheading for all your work profiles for an impactful truck driver resume.
Have a look at the truck driver resume sample given below to get a clear picture of how your professional experience section in a truck driving resume should be like:
Do you need more clarity on how to make this section in a trucker resume? If yes, then you can visit Hiration's online resume builder where you will get countless Truck driver resume examples.
Headline & Personal Information in a Truck Driver Resume
How to Write Headline in a Truck Driver Resume
How would a recruiter know which resume is yours and how can he differentiate it from the other resumes he has received? The one factor that differentiates one resume from another at a single glance is the 'Headline' of a resume.
The headline plays a vital role in a truck driver resume as it gives your resume a unique identity while making sure that it is not confused with any other truck driver resume.
The headline consists of just your name. So, make sure that it is faultless. There must not be any spelling error or spacing error, as even the slightest mistake can lead to rejection.
Hiration Pro-tip: Do not write 'Resume' or 'CV' on the top of your resume. Replace it with your name in bold on the top of your truck driver resume.
Additionally, the header is supposed to be the largest text in your driver resume, written between the font size between 14-16 points.
What to Add in the Personal Information Section in a Truck Driver Resume?
The next section is your personal information section. Let's first discuss what this section should not include.
The Personal Information section in a truck driver resume must not include any unprofessional information such as your religion, marital status, name of your parents, etc.
Note: If you’re applying in mid-east or UAE, etc., you need to mention your date of birth, gender, etc. In the United States and everywhere else, it’s strictly prohibited.
The section should include the following information:
Personal Mobile Number: Mention only that number on which you are available 24*
7 so that the recruiter can call you anytime and have a professional conversation with you based on the information provided in your truck driver resume.
The correct way to write a phone number is:
Add the country code without the brackets, add a space, then the 5 digits of your number, then another space, and then the remaining 5 digits.
E-mail Address: The email address should be the one you use daily because most of the recruiters contact you via email and if you are not active there, you might lose an opportunity.
Your e-mail id should be professional and should not comprise words such as sweet, handsome, cute, etc.
Location: Your location is of utmost importance as the recruiter will get to know whether to contact you or not.
The location should include only your city's name followed by a country pin, but mention your state & country pin in case you are applying overseas.
Hiration Pro-tip: Do not write complete residential address in a truck driver resume. The city & ISO code is fine.
Use the format given below to write your personal information section.
{Personal Phone number} | {Professional E-mail ID} | {Your Location}
Have a look at the truck driver resume example for more clarity on how to make the headline and personal information section in a truck driver resume:
How to Write Job Title in a Truck Driver Resume?
Writing your 'Profile Title' on the top of your resume is a must as it helps recruiter know the position you are applying for and allows him to act accordingly.
If you are applying for a 'Truck Driver' position then your job title should be complete. It should not only have 'Driver' on top because it is not complete in itself and can be mistaken for a 'Bus Driver' resume or a 'Taxi Driver' resume.
To let the recruiter know your position, be specific and never forget to add the prefix before your position.
If you are a commercial truck driver, then change your job title to the 'Commercial Truck Driver'. If you are a dump truck driver, then make your job title as 'Dump Truck Driver', and so on.
See the truck driver resume templates and a truck driver resume sample given below to get a better understanding of how to make a profile title for a driver resume:
You can opt-out for Hiration's Resume Free Review benefit to be more clear on how to write your truck driving resume profile title.
Best Way to Write Certifications in a Truck Driver Resume?
Certifications play a very important role when it comes to a truck driver resume as it decides not only your chances of getting shortlisted but also your salary post selection.
CDL certification is the most important certification in a truck driver resume as CDL resumes are the most preferred ones in the trucking industry. Without it, your chances of getting shortlisted automatically go down.
The below-mentioned sample highlights the format in which you should structure your truck driver resume.
{Name of Certification} | {Affiliating Institution} | {Date} (in standard format)
The below truck driver resume sample will give you a clear understanding of how to frame the certification section in the truck driver resume:
How to Write Education Section in a Truck Driver Resume?
There is a piece of good news for you if you are not a graduate.
For becoming a truck driver, your education doesn't matter, though a high school diploma is often preferred.
The job majorly revolves around skills, certifications and professional experience.
The mentioned truck driver resume sample will surely let you know how to write an education section in your truck driver resume:
You can go for our Hiration's Resume Reviewing Service, where you can get your truck driver resume checked for ATS compliance.
Truck Driver Resume Key Sections
How to Write Skills Section in a Truck Driver Resume?
The skills section is exceedingly important in a truck driver resume as this section not only makes the recruiter aware of the skills you possess but also helps you to pass through the ATS compliance test through the keywords you have added in your skills section.
Hiration Pro-Tip - Your skills should not have a prefix added to them in the form of a soft skill. Avoid all terms/phrases such as 'excellent in', 'proficient in', 'expertise in', 'good knowledge of', etc. when writing your truck driver skills resume.
The skills should be on point and focus on the keywords and key factors. For a truck driver resume, the skills can be:
- Google Maps and MapQuest Navigation
- Mobile GPS Operation
- OTR Driving
- Unloading & Loading Freight
- Basic Math Skills
...... and so on.
For a more detailed analysis on truck driver skills resume and proper truck driver resume format, look at the truck driver resume sample given below:
How to Write Professional Summary/Truck Driver Resume Objective?
When writing your professional truck driver resume, you must consider writing the professional summary or truck driver resume objective section in the end.
Why? Because this way you would be knowing your key achievements & skills in detail which would assist you to create a professional summary in the best possible manner.
Hiration Pro Tip - A summary is only in a paragraph form (not bullets) not exceeding 3-4 lines
What to Add in Your Professional Summary Section?
Begin your Summary with:
“X years experienced Truck Driver highly skilled in … “
In your summary, don’t just list out your skills, instead describe how you can use those skills to deliver a quantifiable impact.
Write your achievements, your certifications and how you can benefit the next organization through your skills and achievements.
Hiration Pro Tip- Don't just list out generic qualities or skills, but add those things which can help you stand out from the crowd.
How Professional Summary is Different from an Objective Statement?
Always add a professional summary in your truck driver resume if you are experienced and then discuss the points in it as mentioned earlier. Professional Summary discusses your experience and expertise as a truck driver.
On the other hand, the objective section is more generic and doesn't provide the recruiter with the quantifiable impact you can deliver.
For an untroubled experience, you can go make your truck driver resume on Hiration's Online Resume Builder:
When to Write Objective Section in a Truck Driver Resume
Truck driver resume objective section can only be added if you are an entry-level truck driver. If you have the experience, then make sure to add a professional summary section.
When drafting the truck driver resume objective section, pay attention to what you can give to the next organization and not on what you expect from that organization.
Given below is the truck driver resume sample which will assist you to make your professional summary or an objective section:
Key Takeaways in a Truck Driver Resume
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Make sure to not to add your skills only in the key skills section in your truck driver resume as your skills are the keywords that go through the ATS compliance test.
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Based on these skills, the recruiter gets to know whether you are capable of performing a given task as a truck driver or not. For example, if making a commercial truck driver resume, make sure to add the skills related to it, not only in the skills section but throughout your resume.
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Truck driver resume format plays a key role in your truck driver resume as most of the driver resumes lack a proper format which makes it look dull and incomplete.
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To look more different, build your resume in such a way that it looks logical and the content should have a direct relationship with your job profile and your contributions.
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When writing your truck driver resume, make sure to begin all the one-liner bullet points with a power verb.
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Avoid usage of words such as 'worked' and other weak verbs, but try to insert power verbs wherever possible in your truck driver resume to make it look more impactful.
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While using verbs make sure to use the present continuous tense for your present/current profiles and use past tense everywhere else. Using incorrect tenses will not only confuse the recruiter but also can create a negative impact.
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Make sure to write your entire truck driver resume in a one-liner bullet format as it increases the legibility of your truck driver resume.
Only make your professional summary or truck driver resume objective in a paragraph form.
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Never add a full-stop after a bullet point because these are not complete English sentences. Only add a full stop after a paragraph i.e. after a truck driver resume Objective section or Professional Summary in a truck driver resume.
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Bold the key achievements or key words throughout your resume to highlight your achievements. This strategy will surely help to grab the recruiter's attention and therefore increases your chances of getting shortlisted.
Do not bold more than 3-4 words in one go as it will lower down the impact of your key achievements.
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Don’t use short phrases (if a bullet point doesn't reach the end of the margin) in a truck driver resume. Instead, frame complete one-liner bullet points with a concrete cause-effect relationship in each point.
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You can elaborate your short phrases with your role/contribution/impact to make sure your point reaches the end of the margin.
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Use reverse chronological order across your truck driver resume, which means writing the most recent profile in terms of dates first and then dating back to the oldest one.
Use this approach not only in the professional experience section in a truck driver resume but throughout your trucker resume.
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Remove all instances of roles and responsibilities from your truck driver resume, since a resume is achievement-based, not responsibility-based.
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You can make a separate sub-heading and use the bucketing method to avoid usage of 'roles & responsibilities' in your truck driver resume.
Go to Hiration resume builder and create a professional resume for yourself. Additionally, reach out to us at support@hiration.com and you can get 24/7 professional assistance with all your job & career-related queries.
