Taxi Driver CV Examples & Writing Guide

This is a CV for a self-employed driver who rents a licensed black cab from a fleet in Manchester and drove private hire through apps before that. Cab firms and fleet owners read it the way they check a new rental applicant: licences first, record second, takings third. The name and companies are made up. The numbers are the kind you can pull from your log, the meter report or your app driver dashboard.

A cab firm is handing you a vehicle worth £20,000 to £60,000 and its insurance record. The person reading your CV wants to know four things, and most taxi driver CVs bury all four.

• Are you licensed to drive a cab here? That means a full driving licence and the council licence for the area you will work: a hackney carriage (taxi) driver licence from the city or district council, or in London a TfL taxi driver licence (the green badge for All London, earned through the Knowledge, or a yellow badge for one suburban sector). A private hire licence covers pre-booked work only. Name the exact licence and say it is current.
• How clean is your record? Write it as numbers: "zero at-fault accidents in 8 years, no points". If you have one old endorsement, you do not need to list it on the CV, but do not claim a perfect record either; the council and the fleet will check your licence with the DVLA anyway.
• Can you keep the cab earning? Fares per shift, takings per shift, airport and rank share, hours you are willing to work. A driver who writes "averages 30 fares a night, 5 nights a week" is telling the owner the rent will get paid.
• Will you turn up? Taxi work is shifts, nights, weekends and bank holidays. Say which shifts you have worked and for how long. Two years of steady nights with one fleet says more than five short stints.

“I do not need a paragraph about passion for customer service. I need the council licence details, how long you have had it, your accident history and whether you will take the night shift. Put those at the top and I will call you the same day.”

Taxi licensing in the UK is local. The DVLA issues your driving licence; the council (Transport for London in London) issues the licence that lets you carry paying passengers. The names differ from area to area, and again in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so use the exact name printed on your licence or badge.

• Driving licence. A full category B car licence is enough for a standard cab; councils usually ask that you have held it for a set period first. Write "full UK driving licence" and "clean" if it is. A vehicle with more than 8 passenger seats needs a category D1 licence and Driver CPC; only list them if you actually hold them.
• Council taxi or private hire licence. Examples: hackney carriage driver licence, private hire driver licence, a dual licence where the council issues one, or a TfL taxi driver licence (green or yellow badge). Write the issuing council and "current". Councils carry out an enhanced DBS check, a DVLA check and a medical, and usually require a knowledge or topographical test and safeguarding training before issuing it; you can mention that you passed these, but do not invent course names.
• Airport ranks. Some airports run their own permit or pay-per-use scheme for taxis on the rank. If you hold a permit, list it; it tells the reader you can work the airport.
• Wheelchair and disability training. Many councils require hackney carriages to be wheelchair accessible (every London black cab is), and drivers have legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 to carry assistance dogs and help wheelchair users. Training here is worth a line.
• Advanced driving certificate, first aid. Optional. A recognised advanced driving course (IAM RoadSmart, RoSPA) shows you take your record seriously and can lower the insurance cost. One line each if current.

Most taxi driver CVs list the duties everyone already knows: "picked up passengers", "drove to destinations", "collected fares". Rewrite each duty with a number from your meter report, your daily log, your app dashboard or your licence record. Seven before-and-after examples from real cab work:

Keep the skills list to things a controller would test you on in the first week. Ten to twelve items is enough. Split them by type so the reader can find what they need.

• Driving and road knowledge: local streets, ring roads and motorways, airport terminal layouts, station, hotel and venue ranks, night and winter driving, defensive driving.
• Equipment and apps: taxi meter, in-cab card terminal, radio or app dispatch, booking apps, sat-nav (Waze, Google Maps), dash cam, wheelchair ramp.
• Fares and records: council tariffs, extra charges and tolls, daily logs, cash and card cashing up, receipts for business travellers.
• Passenger handling: tourists who need directions, business travellers in a hurry, late-night and drunk passengers, elderly and disabled passengers, assistance dogs, children and child seats.
• Vehicle care: daily walk-round check, tyre and fluid checks, spotting brake or suspension problems early, keeping the interior clean between fares.
• Languages: list any second language with a level (conversational Spanish, fluent Polish). In airport and hotel work it is a genuine advantage.

The personal statement is three lines at the top: licences and years, your record, and one number about volume or takings. Use a career objective only if you have never driven for pay; even then, lead with the licence you already hold.

Cab firms do take on drivers who have never driven a taxi, because the council licensing process filters applicants for them. What they want to see is that you can get through that process and that you have driven a lot, safely, in the area you will work.

1. 1Start the council licence before you apply, or at least confirm you qualify (minimum age, years licensed, enhanced DBS, medical, knowledge test). Write "licence application submitted" or "eligible, knowledge test booked" in your personal statement.
2. 2Lead with your own driving record: years licensed, zero accidents, no points. This is your experience section for now.
3. 3Add any paid or volunteer driving: delivery jobs, shuttle work, driving for a family business, van hire moves, driving relatives to hospital appointments. Give miles or trips where you can.
4. 4Show you know the area. Years lived there, neighbourhoods you know well, whether you can name the station entrances, airport terminals and main hotels without a phone.
5. 5Show availability. Nights, weekends and bank holidays are where new drivers get their start. Say so plainly.
6. 6List customer-facing work from any industry (retail, hospitality, security) in one or two lines each, with a number: customers per shift, cash handled.

• One page. Nobody in a cab office reads a second page, and a driver with 20 years still fits on one if older jobs are one line each.
• Put your driving licence and council licence in the contact line under your name, not at the bottom. Many cab firms sort applicants by that line alone.
• Order: contact line with licences, 3-line personal statement, experience with 3 to 5 bullets each, certificates, skills, education (one line; GCSEs are enough).
• No photo, no date of birth, no National Insurance number or licence number on the CV itself. Town or city, not your full address. The firm gets the licence details on the application form.
• Plain single-column layout, standard font, saved as a PDF named Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf. Many cab firms still accept paper; print a copy on white paper for the office visit.
• Mirror the advert's words once each: "hackney carriage licence", "clean licence", "DBS", "night shift", "airport", "rank", "card payments", "wheelchair accessible", "customer service". Larger firms use applicant tracking software that matches these words before a person reads anything.
• If you are applying in the US, the same layout works; call it a resume and name the local permit (for example a TLC licence in New York City or a public chauffeur licence in Chicago).

Before you send it, paste the cab firm's job advert and your CV into the cvplex ATS checker. It flags missing licence and shift words and shows whether your bullets carry numbers.