Refuse Collection Driver CV Examples & Writing Guide

One page, written for a transport manager who needs a driver on an RCV next Monday. The name and employers are invented. The property counts, tonnage and safety figures are the kind of numbers on your round sheets and your in-cab device reports.

In this industry the licence and the record are the qualification. Give them their own block near the top and be exact, because everything here gets checked before an offer.

• Licence category. Most RCVs need category C (Class 2); hook loader drawbar and articulated bulk haulage work can need C+E. Say which you hold and which you are working towards.
• Restrictions and extras. List any restriction on your licence honestly, such as automatic only, because it limits which vehicles you can be given. C+E or ADR is worth a line if you hold it.
• Driver CPC and medical. Give the DQC expiry date and say your Group 2 medical is current. An expired DQC stops you driving professionally the day it lapses.
• Driving record. Years without a blameworthy accident, points in the last 3 years, and any employer safety awards. Write it plainly; employers check your licence with the DVLA anyway.
• Training you have completed: defensive driving, reversing, Driver CPC modules, forklift or plant cards.
• Testing status. Many councils and waste contractors run drug and alcohol testing, including random tests, so a clean record is worth a line and a problem is better raised by you than found later.

• Whether you can start. Licence category, Driver CPC, a clean record and passing the pre-employment checks decide that before anything else.
• Vehicle type. Rear-loading RCV, narrow-access RCV, trade waste and hook loader are different skills, particularly crew and bin lift safety on domestic rounds and the placement work on a hook loader.
• Round numbers. Properties or lifts per day, loads to the transfer station, tonnage, hours to complete. This is how the business measures a driver.
• Reversing and incident record. Most refuse claims come from reversing, mirrors and low clearances. A driver with 6 clean years is a lower insurance cost, and the manager knows the figure.
• Physical reality. Early starts, 10 to 12 hour days, heat, cold, rain, and getting in and out of the cab hundreds of times. Say you have done it, with the property count to prove it.
• Customer manner. Domestic round drivers are the most visible employee the council or contractor has, and one complaint a week is expensive.

“Licence category, medical, accident record, vehicle type. If those four are clear I read the rest. What separates people is round detail: tell me your property count and how many loads you take to the transfer station, because that tells me you actually ran a round rather than rode one.”

• Vehicles and equipment: rear-loading RCV, narrow-access RCV, trade waste RCV, hook loader, skip loader, grab lorry, bulk haulage trailer, air brakes, hydraulic systems, sheeting systems.
• Round work: domestic and trade waste rounds, round sequencing, missed collection handling, bulky and garden waste collection, recycling contamination checks, transfer station and landfill procedures.
• Safety: daily walk-round checks, defect reporting, reversing with a reversing assistant, mirror and camera use, bin lift safety, weight limits, load security on hook loaders, winter driving.
• Technology: in-cab devices and round tablets, drivers' hours records where they apply, GPS routing, 360-degree camera systems, service verification photos.
• Customer facing: handling resident complaints, working around schools and hospitals, bin delivery and repair requests, working with council officers.
• Physical: early starts, 10 to 12 hour shifts, hundreds of cab entries a day, lifting when a bin or bag needs handling.

The most common way into a refuse driver seat is the back of an RCV. Councils and waste contractors hire loaders constantly, many of them pay for category C training, and a loader who already knows the rounds is the easiest driver they will ever hire.

1. 1Apply for loader, refuse operative or labourer jobs and say in your career objective that your goal is a driver seat and a category C licence.
2. 2Ask directly about funded HGV training or in-house driver schemes. Several councils and national contractors run their own, and the details differ by employer, so ask rather than assume.
3. 3Put physical evidence on the page: properties a day handled, weather worked, weight lifted, attendance record.
4. 4List any driving you have done, including vans, tippers, minibuses and farm machinery, with the years.
5. 5Say clearly that your driving record is clean and that you can pass a Group 2 medical, a drug and alcohol test and the pre-employment checks.
6. 6Once you have provisional lorry entitlement, say so with the date. Employers will hold a seat for someone with a test booked.

• One page. Transport managers hire quickly and read fast.
• Single-column PDF, plain headings. UK conventions: no photo and no date of birth.
• Licence, Driver CPC and safety record go in the top third, before job history.
• Waste contractors and councils both use online recruitment systems, so mirror the advert: category C, Class 2, RCV, refuse collection, bin lift, walk-round check, Driver CPC, round.
• Council jobs usually go through the council's own online application form, sometimes with a driving assessment, so follow its process exactly and keep your CV consistent with it.
• In the US this job is advertised as a garbage truck or refuse truck driver with a CDL; if your experience comes from there, describe it in UK terms, mention the US term once and say which UK licence category and Driver CPC you now hold.