Tips to help truck driver applicants

You have received this link because you sent your CV to us, and we have some feedback for you.
Or you are tired of sending CVs around the world, and you do not understand why you are not given a chance. We believe in helping drivers with positive feedback so that their future applications can stand a better chance... because no recruiter wastes time answering emails or messages with certain mistakes; they are filtered out. You only have one chance to make a first impression


1. We only recruit heavy articulated truck drivers. So if you are a light truck driver or a car driver, please do not send us your candidacy. You waste your time and ours. This is not a lottery; it is not about trying your luck, but about your skills matching a country's road culture and the role.  

 

 

 

2. We only recruit drivers with a certain type of experience from Europe, South Africa or America. This is our only market. And no other area in the world is our market. Every recruiter has a market that trusts and knows well. Also, it is about the documentation needed in order to convert the licences, as not every country can get the right documents.

So if you do not have verifiable experience in any of those countries, please do not contact us; we cannot do anything for you. 



1. The worst contact method: Never message a recruiting company on Facebook, Linkedin or TikTok to say "hi". This is not a dating app. You have to introduce yourself politely and enquire about the availability of a role. But check the website first, so you do not ask a question that the website has already answered, like, for example, whether we recruit light truck drivers or rigid truck drivers. We do not. 

2. Etiquette: The company has a website to receive applications from candidates. If there is no application form, then we are not taking on new applicants. Sending an email will not amount to anything. 

3. Never send messages through WhatsApp if the WhatsApp logo is not on the website.

4. Do not send a presentation letter or a CV with mistakes. Use a corrector; do not be lazy.

5. Do not send a Truck driver CV to Australia and tell us you are a CDL driver. That is a USA nomenclature and means nothing in other countries. In Australia, you hold an HC licence equivalent. Check your licence equivalent to the country you are targeting, or write: Heavy articulated truck driver.
 

6. Your CV should be called namesurnameTruckdriver.pdf, not doc9Ak9ojH7.pdf or any other name, unless you want to make it harder for the recruiter to find you easily.

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​7. Do not send an email with no title.

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8. The copy/paste presentation letter/email: 
We are a recruiting company, not a transport company, so do not send us your CV saying "I would like to work at your company" because we recruit for other companies, and we do not own trucks.
Also, we receive emails from people telling us, "I sent you my CV because I want to work in Europe",... but we only recruit for Australia. 

If you do not personalise for the country you target, you are just spamming. As we already receive hundreds of CVs a week, you are not doing yourself a favour in the selection process.

 

9. The mismatch between the presentation letter and the CV: Your CV lists many roles not related to truck driving, but in your presentation letter or email, you call yourself a "truck driver with experience". Straight to the bin. 

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10. If you cannot demonstrate certain types of experience, then it does not exist. We see CVs from countries with no snow or ice, and the CV states "experience driving in snow and ice". Others come from regions which are flat, and they have "experience driving in mountains".  It is common to say "able to adapt to drive in any country" when they have never immigrated before. Also, it is common to say "I can drive manual American trucks," but not be able to send a video showing it. 

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11. Do not lie. A good recruiter will find out. And we are good recruiters. If we catch you with one lie, you are not only out of the process, but also on our black list. Forever. 

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​A CV which does not explain the truck you are driving, the loads you carry, the roads you take, the shift you are on,  etc. It is useless. Do we have to email you back to ask you for details about your jobs? Emailing back to you and to another 25 more truck drivers a day who make the same mistake? Because that is what a CV is for: explaining the type of truck driver you are.

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The image shows a South African driver's CV that explained nothing about his truck driver experience, not even his years of experience. It turned out that he has 15 years of experience in heavy-duty truck driving in several countries, including long-haul. He has been driving 60-ton B-doubles and can drive American gearboxes. He is lucky our admin asked him for details instead of sending his CV to the bin, as it usually happens. He passed all our assessments, and he now belongs to our pool of drivers for Australia. Check our CV writing service specific to different countries.

 

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Life is not fair, you know that. We cannot give a chance to everybody. Many of you will face bigger hurdles than others. There are too many applicants, and companies have a profile which they prefer. Recruiters follow those instructions. 

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1. You are from an "unknown" country

If you are from a country whose truck driver qualities are unknown, you are facing extra hurdles. Let's say Azerbaijan, Iran, Nigeria, Tunisia, Cuba, Algeria etc.  Your chances are very slim if the country you target for migration has never had experience working with truck drivers from your nationality before.  Companies will prefer drivers from countries familiar to them and have worked satisfactorily with truck drivers from that country. You must understand your transferable skills to write a good CV and stand a chance.

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2. You are from an infamous country

You are from a country famous for its terrible driving, percentage of preventable accidents per day, road deaths per year, and careless driving. The official top of the list is: India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, the Dominican Republic, and South Sudan. Your chances are slim because, to be able to drive safely in Australia, you would need to be retrained, and despite having the will, not every driver can switch successfully to the new standard of driving. Companies know that.  

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3. You are from a corrupt country 

You are from a country which is famous for falsifying certificates, diplomas or driving licences. Or you are from a country where you get a truck licence without having to prove any high standard of driving, or a country where it is common to bribe the test officer. Your chances are slim because companies distrust licences from countries famous for corruption. There have been too many cases of fake licences, or people with real licences and zero skill. 

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4. You speak broken English. English Speakers tend to be monolingual. They care very much about communication being easy with you. A worker with broken English will be rejected early in the process, despite having a 5.5 IELTS result, which is the minimum result for the visa. They do not care if you speak 5 other languages. Your level of English will impact your selection; no company wants to send a driver who speaks English badly (grammar- or pronunciation-related) to their client because it does not look good for their brand. It is their culture, their rules, period. Improve your English now, every day, and also once you immigrate, you have to improve it every day to make notable use of the language and have all the opportunities in Australia for your future. Skill and being a hard worker are not enough.   

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Western nations are looking for foreign truck drivers, but despite the shortage, millions of candidates from non-Western cultures get overlooked.  Far from a racist point of view, this is a question of cultural alignment: Road culture, common sense and safety training are cultural tools, and they are taught differently in each part of the world. Also, certain nationalities have shown their value, so they are chosen first. ​

 

1. Have the language level they want. Do not wait until you are selected to improve your English, German or whatever language they want. If you aim for Norway, start learning Norwegian now. If you aim for Australia, improve your English as much as you can. ​

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2. Have the skill they want. They want specialised drivers who need no training. Build at least one year of experience in your country with the skill they want.

If you want to be sponsored by a rural company, build your experience with stock trucks, log trucks, moving machinery on trailers, or with harvesting seasons. 

If you want to be sponsored by a long-haul European or North American company, you need to build experience with multilane motorways, entry and exit ramps, and double-lane roundabouts. 

If you want to be a delivery driver, build experience ​delivering in a big city. 

Applying for a delivery driver position when you have been a linehaul driver all your life will not work. 

Applying for a role with a logging truck when you have been a car carrier driver will not work. 

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3. Understand the context and the mindset. There is no excuse for an applicant not to know the road rules, traffic signs, laws, pre-trip inspections, hooking and unhooking procedures, etc before applying to the country he is targeting. 

You can buy online or get for free US CDL books, the New Zealand Heavy Vehicle Road Code book, ​Canadian MELT courses, the UK road code, etc. 

You can see thousands of videos of USA local truckers, Australian local truckies, European truck drivers, UK lorry drivers... they are all local folk who will show you what the normal behaviour is in a cab and on the road. And it is not like in your country. You need to learn this BEFORE you even apply for a role there. 

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​Companies want a certain type of worker, so recruiters choose a certain type of worker. You cannot convince a recruiter to take you on their pool because you will never be chosen over other candidates if you do not have what they are looking for. Unless there is corruption in the process, which means the company just wants slaves.

Good, reputable companies are not NGOs, the Red Cross or the United Nations UNHCR. They do not have to give opportunities to everyone, and they cannot either. They have a few vacancies, and they will choose the best driver, with proven skill, experience and language skills. They are businesses investing a lot of money in a worker, and it takes around a year for the visa to be issued. They want the closest worker to what they need. The one with all the skills and experience they need, so that he has to learn very little new information once he arrives.

Not the one who promises to be a fast learner and to work hard despite not having the skills and experience. They want the one who has all they need and is a fast learner and a hard worker. 

If you cannot meet the language level, the skills, and the experience they want, do not bother to apply; you waste your time. You will end up frustrated from sending thousands of CVs and receiving no answer. No company has enough admins to answer all the emails, so they ignore the ones that do not match what they are looking for. Where is the shortage? you think. The shortage is of a certain type of driver, with certain skills and experience. The rest of the drivers without those skills and experience are not considered. 

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Sometimes companies look for a linehaul driver, and you have that experience, and still they ignore you. Let's say you are an Indian or a Nigerian driver with linehaul driving experience; you may be discarded because your experience is not relevant. Why? The way they overtake in India or Central Africa, the driving style, the following distance, the defensive driving style, the average speed on motorways... is nothing similar to what Europe, the UK, the USA or Australia needs from you. They would rather choose another driver with experience in a country with similar driving behaviour. 

Sometimes they need drivers with experience delivering to mines, but they discard you when you have experience delivering to mines in the Andes or Rwanda. But those mines are local, not multinational companies with the same standards as their mines in the West. They will choose a driver with experience delivering to mines that have Western standards of driving behaviour because they know you have been working in a similar environment.

There are millions of truck drivers from all four corners trying to emigrate to the same countries. The companies interested in sponsoring foreign drivers can choose what they think is best for them. They only understand that your experience is relevant if it has occurred under similar working conditions. Otherwise, they will value others more. They do not discard you because they do not want you; they discard you because there are others who fit better.

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​Not​ everyone can get the PROVEN experience and the PROVEN skills asked for by the recruiters you target. Be aware of scammers. If they ask for money to look at your candidacy, it is a scam. If they promise you a job if you pay X amount of money, it is a scam.