Minibus (Shuttle Bus) Driver CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is a shuttle driver with about ten years across hotel and airport shuttles, a dial-a-ride community transport service and a car dealership courtesy van. The name and employers are invented. Replace the vehicles, passenger counts and licence details with your own.

Shuttle and minibus hiring is usually done by an operations or transport manager who has an empty run to cover this week. They are checking four things, in this order.

• Can you legally drive their vehicle? A minibus with 9 to 16 passenger seats needs category D1 on your licence when you drive it for hire or reward, and professional drivers also need a Driver CPC. An 8-seat people carrier can be driven on a car licence, but plenty of employers and insurers ask for D1 anyway. Say exactly what you hold.
• Will their insurer accept you? Points, accidents and any disqualification inside the last three to five years. If your record is clean, write that as a sentence, not as a hope.
• Can you handle passengers, not just the vehicle? Elderly passengers, guests with luggage, wheelchair users, school groups and people who are late and unhappy about it. Tail lift and wheelchair securing experience is the single most valuable extra skill in this job.
• Will you be there for the shift? Shuttle work runs early mornings, late nights, weekends and split shifts. Attendance and availability decide many of these hires.

“Two things get you an interview with me: a clean licence and the fact that you have run a lift and tied down a chair before. I can teach the route in a day. I cannot teach somebody to be calm with a nervous passenger at five in the morning.”

Three lines: licence and Driver CPC, years and type of service, passenger numbers and safety record. If you are new to passenger driving, use a career objective and lead with your licence and your record.

Write what you drive, who you carry and how many, plus one safety or on-time number. Numbers are easy to find in this job: passengers, trips, miles, on-time percentage, years without an accident.

Ten to fourteen. Licence and vehicle skills first, then passenger skills, then the practical ones.

Licences and vehicles:

• Your licence categories (B, D1, D1E if held) and Driver CPC, spelled out
• People carriers (8 seats) and minibuses (9 to 16 passenger seats)
• Tail lifts and ramps; four-point wheelchair restraints
• Daily walk-round checks and defect reporting
• Experience on larger vehicles, if you have it and your licence covers them
• Reversing, tight turns and manoeuvring in drop-off and loading areas

Passengers and service:

• Passenger assistance and disability awareness
• Assisting elderly passengers, children and passengers with luggage
• Calm handling of upset or intoxicated passengers
• Clear announcements and stop calling
• Fare, pass and concessionary pass handling
• A second language, if you have one

Route and record keeping:

• Sat nav routing, diversions and timetable keeping
• Radio, tablet run sheets and trip logs
• Drivers' hours and break rules, where they apply to your operation
• Incident and accident reporting procedure
• Basic vehicle checks: fluids, tyres, lights, wipers

This part decides whether you can be hired at all, so write it precisely and never guess.

• Category D1 is needed to drive a minibus with 9 to 16 passenger seats for hire or reward, and drivers who do it as their job also need a Driver CPC. An 8-seat people carrier is below that line, but many employers and their insurers still want D1. Write your categories, any restriction codes and your Driver CPC expiry.
• Drivers who passed their car test before 1 January 1997 often have D1 with a "not for hire or reward" restriction, and some charities and schools run minibuses under a section 19 permit, where different licence rules can apply. Neither is the same as full D1 for paid work, so say exactly which applies to you.
• A Group 2 medical is required when you first apply for D1, and again from age 45. You do not need dates on the CV, but be ready to confirm your medical is in date.
• Your licence record is the real gatekeeper. If it is clean, say so with a time frame: "no blameworthy accidents and no points in 8 years." If it is not clean, be ready to explain in the interview rather than hiding it, because they will check it with the DVLA.
• Work with children or vulnerable adults usually needs an enhanced DBS check, and many operators also run drug and alcohol screening. Saying that your DBS is on the Update Service saves the employer a step.
• MiDAS, the Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme run by the Community Transport Association, is the training most often named in community transport, school and charity adverts, and it has an accessible module for passenger assistance.
• First aid, defensive driving courses and any manufacturer tail lift training are all worth a line.
• Requirements vary by operation, and Northern Ireland licences are issued by the DVA, so check the advert and GOV.UK rather than assuming. In the US the same job needs a commercial driver's licence with a passenger endorsement, which has no direct UK equivalent.

Companies hire drivers from delivery, warehouse, valet, hotel and retail backgrounds all the time. Two things get you across: a clean record and evidence you are good with people.

1. 1Put your licence categories and record in your first two lines, even if the driving was in a delivery van.
2. 2Add your total accident-free miles or years if you can estimate them honestly.
3. 3Turn any customer-facing job into passenger service bullets: how many people you served a shift, complaint handling, how you dealt with someone upset.
4. 4State your availability plainly. Early morning airport runs, late nights and weekends are what these operations struggle to cover.
5. 5If the advert needs D1 and you do not have it, say when you can get it. It means a medical, theory tests and a practical test, so give a realistic date.
6. 6Add first aid if you have it, and MiDAS if you are aiming at community transport or school runs.

• One page. Transport managers read a stack of these between runs.
• Order: name and target title, three-line personal statement, licences and training, work history, skills, education.
• Plain one-column layout, PDF. Hotel groups, councils and transport operators use application systems that often break two-column designs.
• UK conventions: no photo, no date of birth, no marital status. Your licence details give the employer everything they need to run their checks.
• Put your shift availability in writing. Early, late, split shifts, weekends and bank holiday cover all matter in this job.
• If you can drive both a people carrier and a minibus, or you hold D1E or full D, say so. Fleets are mixed and flexible drivers get rostered first.

Words worth mirroring from an advert when they are true of you: minibus, shuttle, D1, Driver CPC, MiDAS, people carrier, clean licence, walk-round check, tail lift, wheelchair restraints, passenger assistance, community transport, dial-a-ride, run sheet, on-time performance, route, loop, guest service, defensive driving, enhanced DBS.