Transport Manager CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a transport manager with about 14 years in own-account and general haulage, now running a 90-unit operation with an £11M budget. The name and employers are invented. Replace the fleet numbers, costs and dates with yours.

Your CV is usually read by a head of transport, a supply chain director or a site general manager. They are hiring someone who can keep freight moving without generating fines, a Public Inquiry or cost overruns. They look for four things.

• Scope. Tractor units, trailers, drivers, sites, loads per week, and how many people reported to you. "Managed transport operations" without numbers gets skipped.
• Money. Budget owned, cost per mile, cost per drop, subcontract haulage spend, fuel economy, or savings delivered. Give the starting and ending figure, not just the percentage.
• Compliance and safety. OCRS bands, DVSA visit outcomes, accident frequency, driver licence check records, drivers' hours infringement rates. This is the risk question, and it decides interviews.
• People. Driver turnover, hiring numbers, supervisors managed, and whether you have worked under a union recognition agreement. Turnover is the single most quoted number in fleet management.

“Show me your fleet size, your cost per mile before and after, and how your last DVSA visit went. If a candidate cannot tell me their OCRS standing off the top of their head, they were not really running the operation.”

At this level, use a personal statement, not a career objective. Four lines maximum, and the first sentence should state fleet size, headcount and budget.

The searches for this job include "what are the duties and responsibilities of a transport manager." Here is the answer, rewritten the way it should appear on a CV. Every line has a figure in it.

Group your skills so a reader can find the compliance block quickly. That is the part they most want to verify.

Compliance and safety:

• Operator licence undertakings and OCRS management
• GB and EU drivers' hours rules, Working Time and tachograph data analysis
• Driver licence checks, Driver CPC and tachograph card records
• Drug and alcohol policies, pre-employment and random testing
• Driver defect reporting, safety inspections (PMI) and annual tests
• Dangerous goods (ADR) transport documents and vehicle marking if applicable
• DVSA compliance visit and operator licence application preparation

Commercial and financial:

• Transport budgeting, cost per mile and cost per drop analysis
• Subcontract haulage, haulier tenders and rate negotiation
• Operator licence administration and vehicle tax (VED)
• Contract hire versus purchase analysis and vehicle specification
• Fuel cards, idle reduction and mpg management
• Goods-in-transit claims and waiting time charge control

Systems and people:

• TMS platforms: Mandata, Oracle Transportation Management, Blue Yonder
• Telematics and cameras: Microlise, Samsara, Webfleet, Lytx
• Routing tools: Paragon, Descartes, Optrak
• Excel modelling and Power BI or Tableau dashboards for cost and service reporting
• Supervising transport planning, compliance and workshop teams
• Union recognition agreements, grievances and disciplinary procedures
• Peak-season and winter weather contingency planning

In the UK, the transport manager named on a standard operator's licence holds a regulated position. Alongside the core qualification, these are the credentials hiring managers recognise.

• Transport Manager CPC in Road Haulage or Passenger Transport, the qualification the nominated transport manager on a standard operator's licence must hold.
• CILT qualifications or membership from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, listed with your grade.
• IOSH Managing Safely or the NEBOSH General Certificate, if safety is part of your remit.
• FORS training, if your operation holds FORS accreditation or works on contracts that ask for it.
• A category C or C+E licence, listed with Driver CPC and current status. Not required, but it changes how the CV reads.
• A Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser (DGSA) qualification or ADR training if you move dangerous goods, with the year it was last renewed.

An operator with a standard goods or passenger vehicle operator's licence must name a transport manager who holds the Transport Manager Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC), in national or international form. That person is responsible for the continuous and effective management of the transport operation, and the Traffic Commissioner can disqualify a transport manager who falls short. If you hold it, list it exactly, with the awarding body and year, and say how many vehicles the licence covered.

• Two pages is normal and expected at manager level. Do not squeeze 14 years onto one page and lose the numbers.
• Order: header with target title, personal statement, key skills, experience, qualifications, education. Your Transport Manager CPC can sit in the header if the advert asks for it.
• Lead each role with a one-line scope statement (fleet size, headcount, budget, sites), then the achievement bullets. Recruiters need the scale before the story.
• Single column, no photo, no date of birth, no charts. Haulage and supply chain roles run through the same applicant tracking systems as any corporate job.
• Quantify with before-and-after pairs. "Cut cost per mile from £2.00 to £1.81" beats "reduced costs by 9.5%" because it tells the reader what scale you worked at.
• If you have gaps or a short stint, label interim and contract work clearly, including the client name if you are allowed to use it.
• PDF unless the application says Word. Name the file Firstname-Lastname-Transport-Manager-CV.pdf.

Advert words worth mirroring when they apply: fleet management, DVSA compliance, operator licence, OCRS, drivers' hours, tachograph, Working Time, driver licence checks, safety inspections, cost per mile, on-time delivery, subcontract haulage, haulier management, Transport Manager CPC, routing, transport planning, driver retention, safety culture, budget, P&L, KPI reporting, continuous improvement, unionised environment.