Truck Driver Resume Advice From HR Pros

Drafting a winning Truck Driver resume is not the easiest thing to do. Knowing this, we got a professional and experienced HR expert to draw up the most important resume tips that will get you the job. You will learn what hiring experts look out for so you can create an effective Truck Driver resume.

Before you begin drafting your cover letter and resume, it's better to know all aspects of the job you're applying for. You should at least know about the requirements of the role and the general payment structure in the industry. With the right knowledge, you can craft a winning resume that fits all aspects of the truck driver role.

Truck Driver Job Description

The most prominent requirement of truck driving is the controlled movement of a large vehicle from one point to another. However, truck drivers are typically obligated to do more than drive trucks around counties and cities.

Truck drivers collect raw materials and finished products, check that the consignments are properly packaged, and verify the addresses for pick-ups and deliveries. The job requires you to know how to pack and unpack goods, maintain supply routes, keep track of distance covered and time, and keep the truck functioning before and during pick-ups and deliveries.

The salary expectations of truck drivers vary. The precise figure depends on average miles covered, truck ownership status, experience level and certification. According to Indeed.com, the average annual base salary for truck drivers is approximately $70,000. Drivers with more than 5 years of experience earn around $5,000 more. But one of the side benefits of truck driving is the bonuses that generally come with shipment deliveries.

According to U. S. News and World Report Delivery Truck Drivers made a median salary of $37,050 in 2020. The best-paid 25 percent made $50,850 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $27,580.

Now that you know what to expect as a truck driver, let us move on to how to draft an effective resume for the job. We have taken each of the necessary resume sections into consideration, so you can use this guide more effectively.

There are typically 5 sections in a resume, reflecting different categories of information:

• name and contact information
• professional experience
• certifications
• education

There's an additional section summarizing the resume.

Name and Contact Information Section

The name and contact information section comes first in your resume because it introduces you. The goal of this section is to tell the hiring manager who you are, what you have, and where you can be reached. The WHO requirement in the section mostly covers your full name. The WHAT requirement relates to your certifications, both professional and educational, if available. The WHERE requirement covers your home address, phone number, email address, and social media address.

A good outline for the name and contact information section is provided below:

1. Write your full name with professional and educational qualifications in abbreviation. For example, John Gates, M.Sc, CDL, EPA, and so on.
2. Include your city and state. Your home address is not essential.
3. Include your current phone number and email address.
4. Include links to social media accounts. LinkedIn is the most popular platform used in resumes as it usually has your career profile, achievements, and recommendations documented in a progressive sequence. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, you can leave this out.

Resume Summary Section

This section summarizes the content of your resume, including your professional career and achievements. After reading this section, the hiring manager expects to know you to a reasonable extent, at least enough to continue reading the rest of your resume. This is why it is so important, as messing this part up can discourage HR from going further.

Whether it is a resume for a truck driver position or otherwise, the resume summary is usually brief. In 3 to 5 sentences, you can highlight how long you have worked as a truck driver, what your certifications are, where (if any) you excel, and other skills you possess that may further consolidate your value to the hiring agency.

Professional Experience Section

Hiring managers expect the professional experience resume section to include relevant information about your work history. The operative word is ‘relevant’ which means that you should not mention that you were an assistant coach to your high school volleyball team. Instead, you have to list out old job positions that are directly (or at least convincingly) related to being an effective truck driver.

A good outline for a professional experience section in your truck driver resume is presented below:

1. Emphasize where you worked. This lends credibility to your resume.
2. Emphasize what you did. Be specific and highlight how your actions influenced the company at the time.
3. Use verbs that align with the job description. Hiring managers are often on the lookout for these keywords. Even when they use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), your resume will still end up on the shelf of qualified applicants.
4. Organize this information in chronological order. Make sure the most recent role comes first.

Certifications Section

The certifications (and licenses) section presents endorsements from reputable agencies regarding your abilities, skills, and achievements. Include only relevant certifications and licenses.

Many certifications are more ‘native’ to professional truck drivers than other lines of work. Some examples are

• Commercial Driver License (CDL) from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
• EPA Amusement Operators Safety Certification (EPA) from the Event Planners Association
• OSHA Safety Certificate from the Delaware Technical Community College
• Defensive Driving Instructor (DDI) certification from the National Safety Council

These certifications have fairly lax requirements; so you can enrich your resume by getting them. Including one or more driving certifications tells the hiring manager you have experience in truck driving and are familiar with the main aspects. Thus, you can stand out from other applicants with no additional certifications.

A good outline for how you organize this section is presented below:

1. If you have certifications included in the job description, use them.
2. Give personal details about the certifications so that hiring managers can confirm their authenticity if they want to.
3. Include expiry and renewal dates if applicable.
4. If certification requirements are included in the job requirements, arrange this section in the same order. But if there are no certification requirements, present your driving certifications in chronological order of acquisition.

Education Section

Truck driving is unlike professions such as nursing, engineering, teaching, etc., that specifically require academic qualifications. Hiring managers may gloss over this section or they may not. Those that do often don’t want to see educational qualifications that indicate to them that you may leave the job anytime you want. Academic qualifications such as MBAs and LLBs may pique their interest, but are unlikely to get you the truck driver job. So, while developing the education section, make sure to:

1. Include only the most relevant educational (that is, school) acquisitions, such as a college diploma.
2. Highlight other educational acquisitions that were not received in school but are relevant, e.g., driving lessons.
3. Organize the section in chronological order.

Additional Information

This section is your chance to score extra points with the HR reviewer. The trick is to highlight information that makes you more noticeable than competing applicants.

You can include information that is not directly related to driving in this section. A good example includes known languages, implying to hiring managers that you can communicate with more people than the average truck driver. As such, you are more useful. You should also include relevant soft skills such as time management, patience, and self-motivation, as well as hard skills such as mechanical skills and accounting.

Resume Formatting and Layout

The formatting and layout are crucial to a winning resume. You can increase your chances of being selected by hiring managers by using features such as bullets and tables. They make your document more readable and HR can easily grab your highlights at a glance.

Every resume section after the summary should be formatted with tables and/or bullets. In addition, take note of the following points:

• Arrange your resume in a neat and orderly manner
• Keep your resume under two pages
• Use the same font style throughout your resume
• Use capitals, bold font or italics for things you want to emphasize
• You may increase the font size for section names

Lastly, note that an effective truck driver resume is written around the job requirements for the position you’re applying to. So, use keywords in the resume summary, professional experience, and certification sections. This helps your resume stand out to hiring managers, even when they use ATS to filter all the resumes submitted by applicants.

HR content specialist

Sam M. Dike

Sam is a HR content specialist. He enjoys sharing career advice and helping professionals land the right jobs. You`ll always find him conquering quests in video games when he`s not writing about human resources.