How long does a forklift licence last?

Accredited bodies recommend refresher training roughly every three years, and each employer's risk assessment sets its own rule. Always give the date of your last training.

Which truck opens the most doors?

Reach, because almost every high-racking site needs it and fewer operators have genuine hours. VNA is more specialist and pays better where it exists.

Will a licence from another country be accepted?

It depends on the employer's risk assessment; in practice most require accredited UK training plus an in-house practical test. State what you hold and your willingness to convert it.

Is stock-control experience worth adding?

Yes. Cycle counting, put-away locations and stock adjustments broaden you towards warehouse control roles, which are steadier than truck driving alone.

CV example2026 edition

Forklift driver CV example

Warehouse CVs are filtered on machine licences and volume handled: counterbalance, reach, order picker, and the stock system used.

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Sector: Logistics and transport
Template used: Sevilla
ATS level: ATS verified
ATS keywords: 5

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How the CV looks once laid out

The same example content, laid out in the recommended template: single column, selectable text and no tables or graphics that break automated parsing.

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Lucy Roberts

Forklift driver, counterbalance, reach and order picker licensed

lucy.roberts@mail.com · 07700 900123 · London · linkedin.com/in/lucy

Professional summary

Forklift driver with nine years in logistics warehouses and distribution centres. I hold current counterbalance, reach and order picker licences, move 180 pallets a shift and work on SAP WM with handheld scanners. No recorded accidents in six years.

Experience

Forklift driver

Employer name · City · 2019 – Present

Moved an average of 180 pallets a shift with no damage incidents
Cut trailer loading time 20% by reorganising the despatch bay
Held 99.6% stock accuracy across cycle counts

Education

Qualification or certificate for the role

Training centre · Year

Skills

Languages

EnglishNative
SpanishC1
FrenchB1

forklift driver CV laid out in the Sevilla template. Sample name and contact details.

Professional headline

This is the line that decides whether they keep reading: a specific role and years of experience, never an adjective.

Forklift driver, counterbalance, reach and order picker licensed

Example professional summary

Three or four sentences with your specialism, one figure and your goal. It sits right under the headline.

Achievements that work in this role

Past-tense verb, what you did, measurable result. Three to five per role, strongest first.

01Moved an average of 180 pallets a shift with no damage incidents
02Cut trailer loading time 20% by reorganising the despatch bay
03Held 99.6% stock accuracy across cycle counts

Skills to include

Written as plain text: rating bars are invisible to automated filters.

Counterbalance and reach truck
Order picker and pump truck
Handheld scanning and SAP WM
Loading and unloading
Cycle counting
Warehouse safety

ATS keywords

The terms filters search for in this role. Place them inside your experience, not in a list at the end.

reach truck
order picker
pallets
scanning
SAP

Work them naturally into your experience — these are the terms screening software scans for.

Tips for this CV

What separates a CV for this trade from a generic one.

01
List every machine licence with its expiry — it's the first thing checked.
02
Give volume per shift in pallets, lines or trailers; without numbers it doesn't count.
03
Name the stock system (SAP, Manhattan) and whether you work on handhelds.

What a forklift driver CV is

Short definition, ready to quote.

A forklift driver CV is the one or two page document used to apply for a forklift driver role in logistics and transport: it brings together the professional headline, the profile summary, experience with measurable results and the competencies the trade expects you to evidence, such as Counterbalance and reach truck and Order picker and pump truck. Unlike a generic CV, it is ordered around what the applicant tracking system and the hiring manager look for in a forklift driver: the words used in the advert and the numbers of the actual job.

Keywords and where to place them

Each term works best in a specific place in the document. Repeating them all at the end scores nothing.

Keyword	Where to place it
reach truck	In the professional headline
order picker	In the profile summary
pallets	Inside an achievement with a figure
scanning	In the skills list
SAP	In training or certifications

How this forklift driver CV gets through the filters

What the example above does right, point by point.

The headline reads «Forklift driver, counterbalance, reach and order picker licensed»: the job title (forklift driver) appears literally in the first line, not as a creative synonym.
The trade's keywords —reach truck, order picker, pallets— sit inside the experience and summary, where the filter reads them in context.
Every achievement carries its figure. «Moved an average of 180 pallets a shift with no damage incidents» is the pattern to copy: volume, timeframe and result.
Skills such as Counterbalance and reach truck, Order picker and pump truck, Handheld scanning and SAP WM are written as plain text, never as rating bars or stars, which no parser can read.
The Sevilla template is single-column and rated ATS verified, so the sections come out in order.

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What hiring managers look for in a forklift driver

The three points that separate two candidates in this trade.

Trucks operated and hours on each

Counterbalance, reach, order picker, VNA and stacker are not one skill. List each with real hours or years, and the racking height you worked to.

Current accredited licence

Training must be accredited (RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT) and in date. Give the provider and the date, because that is exactly what the safety manager checks before letting you on the truck.

Accuracy and damage record

A forklift driver is judged on what they do not break: damaged pallets, racking strikes and product damage. Working damage-free, or at a very low ratio, is what gets you hired.

Common mistakes on a forklift driver CV

The ones that repeat in this role, each with its fix.

01
Writing “forklift experience” with no detail
It says neither which truck nor what height. A reach truck at ten metres and a pallet truck are not comparable — without detail your experience is valued at the most basic machine.
02
No date on the licence
With no visible date a recruiter assumes it has lapsed and moves on. Provider and date are part of the keyword, not decoration.
03
Leaving out moves per hour
The sector measures productivity: pallets moved per hour, put-aways or retrievals per shift. Without it your CV describes a licence, not a professional.
04
Not mentioning safety and environment
Working alongside pedestrians, to marked traffic routes, with daily pre-use checks is what marks out a reliable operator. Include your pre-shift checks and defect reporting.

What a forklift driver earns

So you can tell whether an advert is at market rate before applying.

Usual range: Typically £12.00-£14.50 an hour, with shift and cold-store premiums
What moves the figure: The truck decides the rate: VNA and high-level reach pay above counterbalance wherever they are used.
Where the figure comes from: Ranges observed in UK forklift adverts through 2026.

Frequently asked

Questions about a forklift driver CV

How long does a forklift licence last?: Accredited bodies recommend refresher training roughly every three years, and each employer's risk assessment sets its own rule. Always give the date of your last training.
Which truck opens the most doors?: Reach, because almost every high-racking site needs it and fewer operators have genuine hours. VNA is more specialist and pays better where it exists.
Will a licence from another country be accepted?: It depends on the employer's risk assessment; in practice most require accredited UK training plus an in-house practical test. State what you hold and your willingness to convert it.
Is stock-control experience worth adding?: Yes. Cycle counting, put-away locations and stock adjustments broaden you towards warehouse control roles, which are steadier than truck driving alone.

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