Forklift Operator CV Examples & Writing Guide

A one-page CV for an operator with eight years on forklifts: four at a builders' merchant yard, four in a large third-party logistics distribution centre. The name and employers are invented. Every bullet names the truck type, the volume moved and either a safety or an accuracy figure, because those are the three things a warehouse manager sorts on.

Forklift operator CVs are read by a warehouse manager, a shift manager or a recruitment agency consultant who needs an operator on the floor next week. They read in this order.

• Truck types. Counterbalance, reach, order picker, VNA or turret truck, powered pallet truck, rough terrain. "Forklift experience" alone makes them guess; a list of trucks and the racking height you have worked tells them where you can start on day one.
• Safety record. Years or hours without an accident, injury or damage incident. Warehouses track incident rates and pay insurance on them; an operator with a stated clean record over thousands of hours is worth more than one with a longer list of duties.
• Numbers. Pallets per shift, trailers loaded, pick or put-away accuracy, inventory variance. Warehouse management systems record all of this and shift managers know what a good number looks like in their building.
• Practical fit. Shift availability, chilled or outdoor work, overtime in peak season, willingness to take a drug and alcohol test, RF scanner and WMS experience. One header line covers it.

“Reach truck, 30-foot racking, 200 pallets a shift, no incidents in four years. That is the whole interview; the rest is checking that the certification and the drug screen are real.”

There is no forklift licence in the UK. Under PUWER and the HSE's Approved Code of Practice L117 (rider-operated lift trucks), you must be trained by a competent instructor on the type of truck you drive, and your employer must give you job-specific and familiarisation training on site and authorise you in writing before you operate. Most operators hold a certificate from a course accredited by a body such as RTITB, ITSSAR or AITT; it is real training, but each new employer still assesses and authorises you for its own trucks. Write it that way and managers know you understand the rules.

• Name the trucks the way the advert does: counterbalance (gas, diesel or electric), reach truck, very narrow aisle (VNA) or turret truck, low-level and high-level order pickers, powered pallet truck and pedestrian stacker, articulated (pivot steer) truck, side loader, rough terrain forklift. Accrediting bodies use their own category codes, and some adverts quote them.
• Give the year of your last refresher training. A manager can see that a 2019 certificate needs a refresher and will plan for it; hiding it wastes everyone's time. There is no fixed legal expiry, but many employers and insurers expect refresher training every 3 to 5 years.
• IOSH Working Safely, COSHH awareness, manual handling, fire marshal and first aid courses are real extras. A "forklift licence" does not exist in law; give the accrediting body, the truck types and the date.
• In the US there is no accrediting body: under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178 the employer trains and evaluates operators and re-evaluates them at least every three years, and the document is a resume. The UK rules above apply for UK jobs.

Three lines: years and hours, the trucks you drive, one productivity number and your safety record. Use a career objective only for a first forklift job or a move from general warehouse work to operator.

Ten to fourteen skills a warehouse shift manager could check on a walk through the building. Order them to match the advert: trucks first for an operator job, RF and WMS first for a stock control role, dock and paperwork first for goods in and goods out.

• Equipment: reach truck, counterbalance (LPG, diesel, electric), order picker, VNA or turret truck, powered pallet truck and pedestrian stacker, articulated truck, rough terrain forklift, clamp and slip-sheet attachments, scissor lift.
• Operating knowledge: capacity plates and load centres, stability, stacking to 10 metres and above, ramps and dock levellers, pedestrian segregation, battery change and LPG cylinder change, daily pre-use checks and defect reporting.
• Systems: RF scanners, warehouse management systems (SAP EWM, Manhattan, Oracle, Blue Yonder or in-house), put-away and replenishment tasks, stock counts, labour management screens.
• Dock and despatch: trailer loading patterns and weight distribution, wheel chocks, vehicle restraints and dock locks, delivery notes, load sheets, seal numbers, pallet network and full-load staging, dangerous goods labelling.
• Safety: L117, PUWER and LOLER awareness, lock-off awareness, PPE, chilled and cold store procedures, accident and near-miss reporting, buddying new operators.
• Habits managers screen for: attendance, overtime in peak season, working at rate without damage, keeping aisles and marshalling lanes clear, communicating with pickers, goods-in staff and drivers.

A weak bullet describes the truck's job. A strong bullet describes yours: which truck, how much you moved, how high, how accurately, and what your record was.

Many operators start as warehouse operatives and get their forklift training through their first employer or agency, so "no experience" usually means no seat time yet. Managers will train you if you prove three things: reliability, comfort in a warehouse, and enough safety sense not to hit anything in week one.

1. 1Header: name, mobile, town, then a line of facts: shifts available, comfortable with manual handling up to 25 kg and standing 10 hours, own safety boots, own transport, happy to take a drug and alcohol test.
2. 2Career objective: two lines naming the operator role and shift, plus what you bring (warehouse, retail stockroom, construction, farm or Armed Forces work, a forklift course).
3. 3Training: a novice counterbalance course from an accredited provider (often 3 to 5 days and several hundred pounds; ask your agency or Jobcentre whether funded places are available). It gets you past screening and shortens the employer's own training. List truck types and the date. IOSH Working Safely is a plus.
4. 4Work history with warehouse-relevant numbers: cages or cases unloaded, picks per hour, pallets built, deliveries received, accuracy. Retail stockrooms, supermarket night shifts, removals, landscaping and farm work all count.
5. 5Skills: pallet truck (hand or powered), RF scanner, pallet building and stretch wrapping, reading pick lists and labels, basic maths for counts, teamwork in a loud building. One page.

• One page. Header with truck types and shifts, three-line personal statement, certificates, two or three jobs with 3 to 5 bullets, skills, education. Certificates go above work history because managers sort on them.
• Plain single-column layout, standard font, no photo, no date of birth. Large logistics companies and recruitment agencies use applicant tracking systems that read plain text; small warehouses print your CV. Both prefer simple.
• Text-based PDF, or Word if the advert asks, named Firstname-Lastname-Forklift-Operator.pdf. Take printed copies to jobs fairs and agency branches; agencies are still a main hiring route for this job.
• Dates in month and year. Agency placements are normal: "Forklift Driver (via recruitment agency) at a drinks distribution centre, Jan 2025 to Aug 2025".
• Keywords to mirror from adverts: "forklift", "FLT", "counterbalance", "reach truck", "VNA", "order picker", "pallet truck", "RTITB", "ITSSAR", "RF scanner", "WMS", "goods in", "goods out", "loading and unloading", "stock counts", "health and safety", "manual handling", "chilled", "nights".
• Run the finished page through the cvplex ATS checker with the advert pasted in; it flags a missing truck type the advert names and bullets that have no volume or safety number.