Truck Driver resume examples & templates

There are different reasons why truck driving attracts many job applicants for the long haul. It’s an occupation that doesn’t require a college degree or years of training to jump into. What it does require are some specialized skills—like parallel parking an 18-wheeler—and an exceptional truck driver resume to land the best jobs.

Your truck driver resume must display your driving expertise, knowledge of transportation and logistics, and ability to keep a cool head in challenging situations. Get on the road to your next job with a resume that seals the deal. 

Resume guide for a truck driver resume

Resume.io is here with the right tools to help you create that kind of resume. Our job-winning resources include more than 500 occupation-specific resume guides with corresponding resume examples and a resume builder. 

This guide, together with a truck driver resume sample, provides a roadmap to a bulletproof truck driver resume. We’ll cover the following:

• How to write a truck driver resume
• Choosing the right resume format for truck driver jobs
• How to add your contact information
• Using summaries
• Adding your truck driver experience
• Listing education and relevant experience
• Picking the right resume design/layout
• What the truck driver market looks like and what sort of salary you can expect

How to write a truck driver resume

The first step in writing your truck driver resume is understanding the necessary sections to include. Your resume should contain the following elements:

• The resume header
• The resume summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The resume skills section
• The education section

A resume is like a map of your experience. No truck driver sets out without knowing the way, and your resume similarly provides a path to the hiring manager’s understanding of your expertise. 

To do this well, identify the company’s needs and display how you’re exactly the truck driver to meet them. Think of this as your unique selling proposition.

• Highlight accomplishments, not just your day-to-day duties. Anyone can assume the basics of what a truck driver does; you should go a step further and call out your specific achievements.
• Tailor your resume to each job and specific employer. This means adjusting the style and tone to that of the company, making sure you show how easily you’d step in.
• Use a professional and polished resume template that isn’t overly stuffy, especially since truck drivers aren’t the most formal group.
• If you submit your resume online, make sure you use as many appropriate keywords as you can so it won’t be skimmed over by a recruiter or filtered out by ATS screening software.

Choosing the right resume format for a truck driver

For most jobs, the best resume format is reverse chronological, wherein you list your experience in reverse chronological order. Each position includes bulleted highlights of your achievements and successes.

If you’re new to the workforce or have an atypical employment background—perhaps including self-employment—you might want to look at alternatives such as a functional format or hybrid resume format.

When perusing the resume templates in our resume builder, select whichever format best suits your needs. There are several versions of each format available as resume examples.

Include your contact information

A great way to draw favorable attention to your truck driver job application is with a distinctive header design. For twice the impact, make your cover letter match with the same header and other design elements.

More important than the design, however, is whether your contact information is easily accessible. Be sure to include the following:

• Full name & title. List your first and last name and the title of the role you are pursuing.
• Professional email address. Use a simple and professional format like firstname.lastname@gmail.com—not a quirky or unprofessional email address.
• Phone number. List a number where you can be readily contacted, with a professional voicemail greeting and an inbox that isn’t full.
• Location. List only your city and state; there’s no need to include zip code or country. Listing your full street address can be unsafe, so it’s best avoided. Note ' Willing to Relocate' here if applicable.
• LinkedIn. A LinkedIn profile is not likely to be very important for a truck driver, but if yours is active and relevant, it doesn’t hurt to include it here.

Don’t include:

• Date of birth: This isn’t necessary and could potentially lead to age discrimination.
• Other personal details: Leave off your marital status, social security number, passport number, etc.
• Photo Headshot: Photos take up unnecessary space and can lead to bias, so don’t include a headshot. 

Make use of a summary: eyes on the road

Every resume needs a resume summary—sometimes called a profile or personal statement—where job applicants describe themselves in their own words. Use this as your “elevator pitch” to prospective employers (imagine “selling” your professional image favorably in about 30-45 seconds to a stranger), using confident and assertive language to describe your qualifications and aptitudes. 

This should be a well-written description of all the reasons you would be a great hire. It does not need to be in complete sentences—for example, you can omit words like “I am” or “I have.” 

Don’t just rephrase the rest of your resume. Instead, use action verbs to present the overarching narrative of your career and what sets you apart from other truck drivers. For instance, you might include a line like, “Consistently achieved 100% clean driving record and compliance with all regulations.” 

You can find adaptable truck driver resume example summaries below:\

Outline your truck driver work experience: the long and winding road

If you have a long, solid history of truck-driving experience, you have a huge advantage. But even if your work experience is a bit thin, there are work-arounds. List the relevant jobs you’ve held in reverse chronological order, naming the company, its location, and the dates you worked there. Only go back about 10-15 years, as anything older than that is not going to be as relevant. 

Under each employer, use strong action verbs to describe your accomplishments as specifically as possible. Don’t just list vague job duties. For instance, you have probably seen a resume that reads something like this:

• "Drove on interstate routes to transport goods.”
• “Provided excellent customer service.”
• “Stayed on or ahead of schedule.”

There’s a way to make your resume even more impactful. Truck drivers usually keep detailed logs of all their deliveries and the number of miles driven for each one. If possible, scour this information, compile totals, and report them on your resume. If you can say how many deliveries you made, how many miles you drove, and/or how many tons of cargo you delivered, all the better. The geographical range of your driving experience (“from Maine to Mexico”) may also be a plus. 

Check out these rewritten versions of the bullet points above:

• "Drove on average 5,200 miles per week, 40% on interstate routes.”
• “Provided top-of-the-line customer service and strong working relationships, credited with an 18% increase in return customers.”
• “Increased orders delivered by 12% through a proven track record of remaining on or ahead of schedule.”

Take a look at the truck driver employment history resume sample below:

How to write a truck driver resume with no experience 

If you’re early in your career or making a professional pivot, your relevant job history may be a bit lean. Even if that’s the case, you can find creative ways to highlight how past jobs have shaped you for this one. To do this, focus on your transferable skills. 

For example, a job as a security guard may have trained you to be vigilant by night, a warehouse job may have honed your skills in loading and unloading heavy objects, or any number of jobs may have equipped you with excellent skills in customer service.

Include the relevant key skills that make you a great truck driver

Your resume should include a list of hard and soft skills that make you a great truck driver. Hard skills are those like your ability to navigate a large vehicle in challenging conditions and terrains, understanding of vehicle maintenance, and a talent for planning efficient routes.

On the other hand, soft skills are those that pertain more to who you are and how you work with others. For example, a truck driver needs to be adept at customer service and have the ability to work well under pressure.

Our resume builder offers several pre-written key skills, as well as the option to add your own. 

Here’s what the skills box looks like in our truck driver resume template. 

The skills section is not the only place to show off your skills, however. Instead, include them throughout your resume and show them in action by providing specific examples and accomplishments. 

For example, in your summary and work experience sections, you can highlight your:

• Driving knowledge by detailing your clean driving record, navigation skills, and knowledge of the rules of the road
• Organizational skills by showing how you are meticulous about updating logbooks, skilled at planning routes, and professional in your contact with shippers and receivers.
• Ability to work under pressure by demonstrating your stamina and alertness to remain attentive for many hours at a time on the road.
• Mechanical skills by displaying how you check your vehicle to ensure mechanical and safety equipment is in good order

Look to the job description as a guide for what key skills to include.

Detail your education & relevant truck driver certifications: on the road already

A truck driver resume has a fairly straightforward education section. While a truck driving career doesn’t require advanced education—you can succeed with simply a high-school diploma and just a few months of specialized training—you can use this section to show off any educational credentials you’ve earned in reverse chronological order.

If you have a college degree, list it here. If not, include your high school diploma or equivalent. Then, think about other training or certifications you’ve earned:

• Job-related training. Truck drivers need three to six months of classes at a private truck-driving school or a program at a community college, so be sure to show that you’ve achieved this, as well as any on-the-job training you’ve undergone.
• Relevant licensure. Truck drivers must earn a commercial driver’s license (CDL).
• Additional training or courses. Have you taken classes or webinars about transporting hazardous materials or maintenance of a certain type of vehicle? Add that here.

Pick the right resume layout and design for a truck driver resume

Just like the truck you drive, your truck driver resume should be clean and professional-looking (and not too tricked-out or gimmicky). Use a simple, easy to read modern layout or simple layout. 

Keep it to one or two pages, avoid large blocks of text, and include an appropriate amount of white space to make it easy on the eye. Don’t go overboard with color or fonts; keeping it simple is best. 

Your best bet is to use one of our road-tested resume templates, where you can save yourself time and energy while still customizing your resume with your own pertinent information. 

Truck driver text-only resume example

Truck driver job market and outlook

Truck drivers are a rare breed, capable of spending long days and nights in total isolation, alternating between alert at the wheel or asleep in the bunk behind the front seat. Then they wake up and do it all over again. The people doing it are usually tough, resilient, and, therefore, in demand. 

The employment outlook for truck drivers remains good, with a projected job growth of 4% from 2022 to 2032, which is about as fast as average. Trucking is key to keeping global supply chains moving, so as demand for goods rises, so will the need for truck drivers.

Trucking companies report challenges in hiring and retention and many older drivers are retiring, creating openings for new drivers. While some sectors of the economy are in decline because of online buying, goods still need to get to consumers, and that largely happens by truck.

What type of salary you can expect as a truck driver

Truck drivers are usually paid by miles driven plus bonuses, and the per-mile rate varies by employer. Pay for truck drivers also varies depending on experience and sometimes by the type of cargo. Self-employed owner-operators may also receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the goods they ship. 

Median pay for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the U.S. is $54,320. The lowest 10 percent make under $37,440 and the top 10 percent earn over $76,780. The takeaway here is that targeting high-paying, stable employers is key to land in that top 10%. A great resume is a key tool for that goal! 

Key takeaways for building a truck driver resume

Truck drivers are an essential component of the global economy, and steady job growth is expected. A well-written, well-designed resume is the key to promoting yourself as the professional that employers are seeking. Be confident and assertive in writing your profile and describing your skills and experience, using strong action verbs throughout. Study your target and tailor each resume to each job application.

Kickstart your truck driver job search with our online resume builder, then supercharge it with Career.io. 

Unlock 18 powerful tools to search for jobs, track your progress, ace your interviews, and negotiate the best salary—all within our comprehensive career toolkit.