Truck Driver Resume Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a driver with eight years of commercial driving, six of them with a Class A license, who started on a Class B route truck, went over the road in a reefer, and now runs regional dry van. The name and carriers are made up. Copy the layout and swap in your own license, equipment, miles and safety numbers.

Trucking recruiters are not reading for style. They are checking whether you can pass the carrier's hiring rules and whether their insurance will cover you. Four things decide that in the first 20 seconds.

• License and endorsements. Class A or B, which state, and which endorsements (H hazmat, N tanker, X tanker and hazmat combined, T doubles/triples, P passenger). Many jobs cannot hire you without a specific one, so list them in the header.
• Verifiable experience. Most carriers want 1 to 2 years of recent Class A experience for over-the-road, and their insurer wants to see it in your employment history, month by month, with no unexplained gaps. FMCSA requires them to check 3 years of driving history, so the dates need to match what your old employers will report.
• Safety record. Preventable accidents, moving violations, DOT inspection results and hours-of-service violations. Your PSP report and MVR will show these anyway, so state them honestly and give the good numbers up front ("zero preventable accidents in 620,000 miles").
• Equipment and freight type. Dry van, reefer, flatbed, tanker, doubles, intermodal, car hauler. A flatbed job wants tarping and securement; a reefer job wants temperature logs and grocery-warehouse experience. Name what you have actually pulled.

“I pull the MVR and PSP on every applicant, so a resume that hides a ticket just tells me the driver is not straight with me. The ones I call first say the license class, the endorsements and the accident count right at the top, then tell me what trailer they pulled and how long they stayed with each carrier.”

Three or four lines under your name. Lead with license class and years, name the trailer types, then give your safety numbers and endorsements. Use an objective (a one-line statement of the job you want) only if you just finished CDL school.

Most driver resumes list duties every driver has: "drove truck, delivered freight, completed logs." The recruiter knows the job. What they want is how many miles, what freight, how safely and with which systems. Here are eight rewrites.

Keep a skills list of 10 to 14 items. Put the license and endorsements first, then equipment, then systems and paperwork. Match the wording in the job posting; if it says "reefer" say reefer, if it says "refrigerated" say refrigerated.

Driving and equipment skills:

• Trailer types you have pulled: dry van, reefer, flatbed, step-deck, tanker, doubles/triples, intermodal chassis, car hauler
• Tractor types and transmissions: manual (10-speed, 13-speed) or automatic; note any manual experience, since some carriers still need it
• Backing and docking: blind-side backing, alley docks, tight urban docks
• Load securement: straps, chains, binders, load bars, tarping, weight distribution and axle sliding at scales
• Mountain and winter driving, tire chains, chain laws in CO, WA, OR and CA
• Lift gates, pallet jacks, hand trucks for P&D and route work

Compliance, systems and paperwork:

• FMCSA hours-of-service rules (11-hour driving, 14-hour window, 30-minute break, 70-hour/8-day)
• ELD platforms: Samsara, Omnitracs, PeopleNet, KeepTruckin/Motive, Geotab
• Pre-trip and post-trip inspections and DVIRs
• Bills of lading, proof of delivery, detention and lumper receipts
• Hazmat shipping papers, placarding and the Emergency Response Guidebook

Soft skills matter here too (reliability on appointment windows, calm communication with dispatch and receivers, patience at docks), but prove them in a bullet. "Dependable" means nothing; "98% on-time over 1,900 loads" does.

Trucking has more required paperwork than almost any other job, and recruiters look for it by name. Here is what to list, what is required and what is a bonus.

• CDL class and state (required). Class A covers combination vehicles with a gross combination weight rating over 26,001 pounds towing more than 10,000 pounds; Class B covers single vehicles over 26,001 pounds such as dump trucks, straight trucks and buses. Write "CDL Class A, Missouri, exp. 2029".
• Endorsements (job-specific). H for hazmat (needs a TSA Security Threat Assessment), N for tank vehicles, X for tank plus hazmat, T for doubles/triples, P for passenger, S for school bus. List each letter and what it covers.
• DOT Medical Examiner's Certificate (required). Usually valid for up to 24 months; some drivers get a shorter card for blood pressure or sleep apnea. Give the expiration date so the recruiter knows you can start.
• Entry-Level Driver Training (required for new drivers since February 2022). If you earned your CDL after that date, name your ELDT-registered school and hours. It tells the recruiter your training is already in the FMCSA Training Provider Registry.
• TWIC card (needed for ports and some refineries). List it with the year if you have it.
• Clean drug and alcohol record. You do not need to write this, but know that every carrier queries the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse before hiring.
• Nice to have: Smith System or other defensive driving course, forklift certification (for P&D and LTL), OSHA 10, MSHA Part 46 (quarry pickups), passport or FAST card for cross-border loads, doubles experience for LTL linehaul.

The hard part of a first driving job is not the resume; it is that most carriers' insurers want 6 to 12 months of verifiable experience. The way around it is a carrier with a paid finishing or trainee program, or a local Class B job. Your resume needs to show you will pass their hiring rules and not quit in month two.

1. 1Header: "CDL Class A Driver (recent graduate)" plus your license state, endorsements, medical card date and "clean MVR". This answers the recruiter's first four questions.
2. 2Objective (2 lines): the type of job you want (OTR company driver, regional, local) and that you are open to a finishing program with a trainer.
3. 3Training section near the top: school name, that it is ELDT-registered, hours behind the wheel, equipment trained on (10-speed manual, automatic, 53-foot van) and that you passed the skills test on the first try if you did.
4. 4Previous work, rewritten for driving: any job with early starts, attendance, physical work, equipment or customer deliveries. A warehouse job shows forklift and loading; a landscaping job shows towing trailers and working outdoors; a retail job shows attendance and dealing with the public.
5. 5One page, PDF, no photo. Apply to carriers with trainee programs and to local Class B route jobs (beverage, uniform, waste, propane) that take new licenses.

• One page for most drivers. Two pages only if you have 15+ years across several carriers and the posting asks for a full 10-year history.
• Order: header with license and endorsements, summary, certifications and licenses, experience, skills, education. Certifications go high because they are the screening criteria.
• Reverse chronological with month and year on every job. Carriers must verify 3 years of history for DOT and most check 10 years for safety-sensitive roles, so any gap over 30 days should have a one-line explanation ("Jan–Apr 2021: family caregiving").
• Include the carrier type and fleet size ("regional truckload carrier, about 400 tractors") if you are not naming the company. Recruiters use it to judge the kind of freight you ran.
• No photo, no date of birth, no Social Security number. City and state are enough; many carriers hire by home region, so the location matters.
• File type: PDF, unless the application portal asks for Word. Name it "Firstname-Lastname-CDL-A-Resume.pdf". Many drivers apply from their phone; a one-page PDF displays cleanly there.
• UK, Australia and South Africa: the job is called HGV, LGV or lorry driver and the document is a CV; swap CDL for your license category and the CPC card.

Most carriers take applications through Tenstreet, DriverReach or a similar driver-specific system, and recruiters search those databases by keyword. Use the exact terms below where they are true for you.

• License terms: CDL-A, Class A CDL, CDL Class B, hazmat endorsement, tanker endorsement, doubles/triples, TWIC
• Route type: OTR, over the road, regional, local, dedicated, P&D, linehaul, LTL, drayage, intermodal, home daily, home weekly
• Equipment: dry van, reefer, refrigerated, flatbed, step-deck, tanker, 53-foot, automatic, manual transmission
• Freight: no-touch freight, drop and hook, live unload, touch freight, hand unload, lift gate
• Safety and compliance: clean MVR, clean PSP, accident-free, DOT inspection, hours of service, ELD, FMCSA, DVIR, pre-trip