Reach Truck Operator CV Examples & Writing Guide

One page, written for a warehouse supervisor covering a shift. The name and companies are invented. The rates, rack heights and damage numbers are the kind of figures your warehouse management system reports on you every week.

There is no forklift licence in the UK. Under the HSE's Approved Code of Practice for rider-operated lift trucks (L117), you must be trained by a competent instructor on the type of truck you drive, and your employer must give you familiarisation training and authorise you in writing before you operate on site. Understanding that changes how you write this section.

• List the truck types you are trained on, not just the word certified: reach truck, order picker, counterbalance, VNA or turret truck, powered pallet truck, clamp attachment.
• Give the date of your most recent refresher training or reassessment. There is no fixed legal expiry, but a certificate from 2018 with nothing since will need a refresher, and a manager will plan for it.
• Name the accrediting body (RTITB, ITSSAR or AITT) and the provider or employer that trained you. New employers will still assess and authorise you themselves, and they expect that.
• Add attachments and environments: double-deep racking, wire or rail guidance, cold stores, hazardous substance areas.
• If you took a course with an outside provider, list the provider, the accrediting body and the length, but do not present it as a licence that transfers automatically. It does not.
• Include your incident record with a time span. 'No incidents in 5 years' is a hiring argument in a business where a dropped pallet costs thousands and a rack strike can shut an aisle.

• Truck type and height. Reach truck skill does not transfer from a counterbalance, and a supervisor with 9-metre racking knows it.
• Rate. Pallets, cases or lines per hour. Every distribution centre measures this, so quoting yours proves you have worked somewhere that measured it.
• Damage and accuracy. Product damage rate, pick accuracy, inventory accuracy, rack strikes. These are the numbers that cost money.
• Systems. RF scanning, voice picking, and the warehouse management system by name. Someone who already knows the system is productive in days rather than weeks.
• Shift and peak willingness. Late and night shifts, weekends, and peak season overtime. Say what you can do.
• Attendance. In a building that staffs by headcount per shift, reliability is a genuine skill and it belongs on the page with a number.

“Tell me your truck, your rack height and your rate. Then tell me your damage number. That is a five-second read and it tells me whether you can go straight into the aisle or need a week with a trainer. Most warehouse CVs say 'operated forklift safely' and nothing else.”

• Trucks: reach truck, double-deep reach, swing-reach and turret (VNA) trucks, order picker, counterbalance, powered pallet truck, pedestrian stacker, clamp and slip-sheet attachments.
• Environment: narrow and very narrow aisle, wire or rail guidance, rack heights you work to, chilled and frozen stores, hazardous substance areas, high-value or secure cages.
• Tasks: put-away, letdown, replenishment, order picking, loading and unloading, staging, cycle counting, slotting support, wrapping and labelling.
• Systems: RF scanning, voice picking, warehouse management systems by name (Manhattan, SAP, Blue Yonder, Körber), labour management reporting.
• Safety: pre-use checks, load stability, aisle traffic rules, pedestrian awareness, battery changing and charging, rack damage reporting, lock-off basics.
• Reliability: attendance record, shift flexibility, peak season overtime, and any lead or buddy role you have held.

Most reach truck operators started on the floor and were trained inside the building. Warehouses would rather train a reliable operative than hire a stranger who claims aisle experience.

1. 1Apply for the warehouse operative or picker role at a site that runs reach trucks, and say in your career objective that you want to be trained on one.
2. 2Put any truck time you have on the page, including a pallet truck, a pedestrian stacker or a counterbalance on a building site.
3. 3Lead with attendance and rate from your current job. A warehouse manager buys reliability first and skill second.
4. 4Mention comfort with heights if you have it, from roofing, scaffolding, tree work or an order picker. Working at 10 metres bothers more people than you would expect.
5. 5Say you are available for late or night shifts, where vacancies and training places are more common.
6. 6Do not claim training you do not have. Every site assesses you on its own trucks before authorising you, and the claim collapses immediately.

• One page, single column, PDF. No photo and no date of birth on a UK CV.
• Put your truck types, rack height and shift availability in the top third, above your job history.
• Big distribution employers all run applicant tracking software. Mirror the advert's words: reach truck, reach truck driver, VNA, narrow aisle, put-away, replenishment, RF, WMS, cycle count.
• Name the shift you are applying for. Warehouses hire by shift, and 'any shift' is often read as no preference rather than as flexibility, so say which one you prefer and that you can cover others.
• Expect a practical assessment on the truck, and at some sites drug and alcohol testing or background checks. The assessment is the real interview.
• In the UK the job is often advertised as reach truck driver or VNA driver, so use those words alongside reach truck operator. If your hours come from abroad, say how you were trained and that you are ready for accredited refresher training.