Van Driver CV Examples & Writing Guide

This example is for a driver with about seven years in panel vans and Luton box vans: parcel delivery for a delivery partner of a large online retailer, route delivery for a medical supplier, and motor parts delivery. The name and employers are made up. Copy the structure and swap in your own drops, on-time rate and record.

Delivery companies hire drivers quickly, often in groups before peak season. The reader is usually a depot or transport manager, a fleet manager or the owner of a delivery partner, and they decide in under a minute on four things.

• Your driving record. "Zero at-fault accidents and no points in 7 years" is the strongest line on the page. If you have a few points, say nothing on the CV and be honest when they check your licence with a DVLA check code. They always check it.
• Volume. Drops and parcels per day. A residential multi-drop parcel driver does 120 to 220 drops; a route driver delivering to businesses does 30 to 60. Give the number that fits your route type so they know you can keep up.
• On-time and damage numbers. On-time delivery rate, failed deliveries, customer damage claims, and any scorecard your last employer used (many parcel delivery partners score drivers weekly on camera events and delivery quality).
• The vehicle and the tools. Short or long wheelbase panel van, high-roof Sprinter or Transit, Luton box van, 7.5-tonne lorry if you hold C1, tail lift, sack truck, handheld scanner, route app. A match with what they run means less training.

“I read the licence line first, then I look for a number of stops per day. A driver who tells me 200 stops with no damage claims has already earned the rest of the CV. "Delivered parcels safely" tells me nothing about whether that was 40 stops or 240.”

Three or four lines under your name: what you drive, how long, your record, and one delivery number. With no paid driving, use a short career objective naming your licence, record and availability instead.

Most van driver CVs copy duties from the advert: "delivered parcels, followed route." The manager knows the duties. They want how many, how safely and with what. Six common bullets rewritten with the numbers depots track:

If you do not know your numbers, ask your depot for your last scorecard or count one normal week. "About 200 drops a day" is fine; invented precise figures are not, because the interview will start there.

Keep the list to 10 to 14 items with the advert's words first. To "put driving skills on a CV", name the vehicle type and size, the equipment and the route type, not just the word "driving".

Driving and vehicle skills:

• Short or long wheelbase panel van, high-roof Sprinter or Transit, Luton box van (category B, up to 3.5 tonnes); 7.5-tonne lorry only if you hold C1
• Tail lift and ramp operation
• Reversing and parking on narrow residential streets and in loading bays
• Daily walk-round checks and defect reports
• Defensive driving (name the course if you took one, such as IAM RoadSmart)
• City, rural and motorway route driving; night and winter driving if relevant

Delivery and handling skills:

• Route sequencing and sat-nav re-routing
• Handheld scanners and proof-of-delivery apps (name the one you used if the advert names it)
• Loading in drop order, load security, sack truck and pallet truck
• Signature capture, photo proof, cash on delivery and returns
• Chilled or temperature-controlled deliveries with logs
• Lifting 25 to 30 kg repeatedly; two-person lifts for furniture and white goods

Soft skills that get checked (prove them in bullets rather than listing them alone):

• Reliability and early starts: attendance record, years on one route
• Working alone and keeping pace: drops per hour
• Calm with customers at the door: compliments, zero complaints

Van driving in the UK almost never needs an HGV licence. What employers do check is strict, so list it up front.

• Driving licence: a full UK category B licence covers vans up to 3.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass, which includes most panel vans, Sprinters and Luton box vans. Vehicles from 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes need category C1, which only comes automatically with car licences passed before 1997. Some heavier electric vans can be driven on a car licence; check the current rules on GOV.UK.
• Licence record: employers check it with a DVLA check code. Many parcel and courier firms accept only a few points and no drink-driving or drug-driving convictions, often because of their insurer. Write "clean licence" only if it is clean.
• Hours: van drivers on UK work normally follow the GB domestic drivers' hours rules (no more than 10 hours driving and 11 hours on duty a day) and do not need a tachograph. A 7.5-tonne lorry is different: it needs C1, Driver CPC, a digital tachograph card and a DVLA medical, and listing those, if you hold them, is a real advantage.
• Age: many parcel and courier firms require drivers to be 21 or over, sometimes 23 or 25, because of insurance. Do not put your age or date of birth on the CV; if the advert says 21+, write "meets the 21+ insurance requirement" in the personal statement.
• Forklift certificate (RTITB, ITSSAR or AITT accredited): useful if you also load at a depot. List it with the year.
• Defensive driving: IAM RoadSmart, RoSPA and insurer-backed fleet courses are real and recognised. List only courses you completed.

Delivery is one of the easier driving jobs to get into. Most parcel and courier adverts ask for a full UK licence, a clean or nearly clean record, age 21 or over and the ability to lift 25 kg. If you have a licence and a decent record, you are most of the way there.

1. 1Put "Delivery Driver" or "Van Driver" under your name, and your licence and record in the contact line ("Full UK licence (B), clean, 6 years").
2. 2Write a 3-line career objective: years licensed, clean record, availability (early starts, weekends, peak season), and that you can lift 25 kg.
3. 3Turn any paid driving into experience: private hire, food or grocery apps, pizza delivery, driving a company vehicle. Give completed orders, rating, years, miles.
4. 4Turn warehouse, retail or removals work into delivery-related bullets: parcels scanned per hour, boxes lifted, loading accuracy, attendance.
5. 5Add a skills block: vehicle types you have driven, sat-nav apps, scanners, sack truck, any forklift training.
6. 6Get a DVLA check code before you apply (free on GOV.UK, valid for 21 days) so the employer can check your licence straight away.
7. 7One page, PDF unless the application asks for Word.

• One page. A driver with 15 years of routes still fits; older jobs get one line each.
• Order: header with title, licence and record; personal statement; skills; experience; certificates and training; education. Skills go above experience because the vehicle match is checked early.
• Reverse chronological with months and years. Managers want to see how long you stayed on each route; label seasonal work as "peak season contract" where that is true.
• No photo, no date of birth, no full street address. Town or city is enough.
• PDF unless the application asks for Word or has its own form.
• In the US the same job is usually called delivery driver or van driver and the document is a resume; US drivers list a state licence class instead of UK categories (B, C1). The advice is the same.

The cvplex delivery-driver template used above keeps a single column with a skills block near the top and no graphics, which reads cleanly for a depot manager and for applicant tracking systems.

Large carriers and their delivery partners screen CVs with software that matches exact words from the advert. Copy the advert's phrasing into your skills and bullets, then run the file through a free ATS checker.

• Job titles: delivery driver, multi-drop driver, van driver, courier, route driver, driver's mate, last-mile driver, parcel delivery driver
• Vehicle words: panel van, Sprinter, Transit, Luton, 3.5 tonne, 7.5 tonne, tail lift
• Record words: clean licence, no points, DVLA check, DBS check (for some contracts), right to work, 21+
• Performance words: on-time delivery, drops per day, parcels per day, delivery scorecard, customer satisfaction, damage claims
• Tool words: handheld scanner, route optimisation app, sat-nav, telematics, in-cab camera, proof of delivery