Dubai Driver CV Format (UAE) + Free Template: Driver CV for UAE Jobs (Light and Heavy Vehicle) + Sample

A Dubai driver CV format starts with the card in your wallet, not with an adjective. The free template further down is two fictional samples, one light vehicle and one heavy vehicle, which you adapt. Recruiters hiring a driver in the UAE read the licence line before they read anything else. This is the private-sector version I would send in 2026. I am an AI specialist in Dubai, not a lawyer and not a fleet manager, so check the live page for your emirate before you rely on a category.

The UAE government portal sets minimum ages for a new driving licence: 18 for cars and light vehicles, 20 for heavy vehicles and tractors, and 21 for buses. A new licence is valid for one year if you are under 21, and for two years if you are 21 or older. Some expatriate residents can exchange a valid home-country licence, and that route still requires you to be at least 18. The page does not say every nationality can exchange.

Sources we used: UAE government portal: getting a driving licence

What should a driver CV for a UAE job include?

Use the same skeleton as any other UAE CV: city, nationality, visa route, and notice. Then add a licence line that a dispatcher can check without calling you. One or two pages is enough. Put the newest driving job first, with months on the dates. A US resume that hides the licence, or that says licensed driver with no class, makes the reader guess the one fact the job turns on.

• Header: name, target role (light vehicle, heavy vehicle, or bus), city, phone with country code, email.
• Licence: category or class, issuing emirate, held since, and whether a home-country licence has been exchanged.
• Visa and notice on their own lines. Immediately available is not a visa and not a substitute for the notice in the contract.
• Experience: employer, city, dates with months, and bullets a supervisor could ask you to walk through.
• Leave the licence number, passport number, and Emirates ID off the file you email widely. Those belong on a form.

The wider format notes, including what to leave out of the header, are on the UAE and Gulf CV hub

How to mention driving license in CV in UAE?

People type license. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) pages and the federal portal say licence. Same card. Write four facts, in this order, and stop. Category or class, as printed. Issuing emirate. The year you have held that UAE licence, or the issue date on the card. Then one clause on a home-country licence: already exchanged, not exchanged, or not held.

Do not write UAE licence and hope the class is obvious. Do not write GCC licence. Do not write convertible unless you have opened the current list for the emirate that would issue the card and your origin is on it. If you have not checked, write home licence, not exchanged. That sentence is allowed to be boring. A wrong yes is worse.

On the RTA page for a new Dubai licence, a light vehicle licence is issued after the tests once you turn 18. You can open a traffic file at 17 years and 6 months. A heavy vehicle licence, which the page says covers light and heavy vehicles, requires age 20. A light bus licence covers light vehicles and light buses with a maximum of 26 passengers without the driver, and requires age 21. A heavy bus licence covers light and heavy buses and light vehicles, and also requires age 21.

Sources we used: RTA Dubai: new driving licence, categories and ages

RTA's exchange service says you exchange a licence issued outside the UAE, or add a category, according to the list of countries eligible for exchange. The list is on that service. I am not copying it here, because it changes and a copied country would become a false rule. If your origin is not on the list you see today, do not write that the home licence is convertible in Dubai.

Sources we used: RTA Dubai: exchange a driving licence issued outside the UAE

In Abu Dhabi, the Integrated Transport Centre at Abu Dhabi Mobility issues and renews driving licences, changes categories, and exchanges foreign licences from GCC countries or from designated countries. Those services run through TAMM. The page says designated countries. It does not print the Dubai list, so do not assume a Dubai yes is an Abu Dhabi yes.

Sources we used: Abu Dhabi Mobility, Integrated Transport Centre: driver licensing

A line that matches those pages looks like this: Dubai, light vehicle, held since 2019. Home licence not exchanged. Or: Abu Dhabi, heavy vehicle, held since 2021. No bus category. If you are still on a learning permit, say learning permit, and name the category. Do not promote it to a full licence.

How does a light-vehicle licence differ from a heavy-vehicle licence?

They are different licences on the RTA page, with different ages, and the heavy vehicle licence is the one that page describes as covering light and heavy vehicles. A light vehicle card does not become a heavy card because the truck was only a little bigger, or because a supervisor once asked you to move it inside the yard. If the advert says heavy vehicle, the CV either shows that category or it says you do not hold it yet.

The federal age bands match that shape: 18 for light vehicles, 20 for heavy vehicles, 21 for buses. Abu Dhabi's licensing page does not repeat this table. If the card will be issued in Abu Dhabi, use the ITC service for the category names and the federal page for the minimum ages, and do not invent a Dubai-only rule as if it were federal.

What should a bus driver write on a UAE CV?

Write light bus or heavy bus, not bus. The RTA light-bus line is the one that states a maximum of 26 passengers without the driver. The heavy-bus line is the one that covers light and heavy buses. A school-run story on a light-vehicle card is a mismatch, even if you have driven colleagues to a site in a car. Passenger work belongs on the category that names passengers.

Bullets for a bus role are about the vehicle check before pull-out, the route you were assigned, and how you recorded a defect. They are not about a ridership number you cannot show. I am not giving a passenger target. If the roster had a figure you can point to, you may use it. If it did not, describe the route and the check.

What bullets fit a light-vehicle or delivery driver?

A light-vehicle job in Dubai is usually drops, collections, or a pool car. The reader wants to know you planned the day, checked the car, and kept a log. Write the area you actually covered. Write the check you actually did. A fuel-card reconciliation is a real task if you matched slips to the log. It is not a licence field, and it is not required by the RTA pages above. Leave it out when you never touched the card.

• Planned the day's drops from the warehouse sheet and called the store when a bay was closed.
• Walked around the car before the shift and wrote the defect in the book instead of mentioning it later.
• Kept a delivery log with time, location, and who signed.
• Matched fuel-card slips to that log when the company asked for it.

Those four lines are a pattern. The mall, the slip count, and the fuel card are not yours until they are. Salik, Dubai's toll, is the sort of thing a delivery log might mention only if you handled the trips. I am not making it a CV rule, and I am not telling you to add a toll line you cannot explain.

What bullets fit a heavy-vehicle driver?

A heavy-vehicle CV fails when it reads like the delivery CV with the noun swapped. The work is the pre-trip check on that vehicle, the load, and the route that the category allows. Say which depot, which kind of load, and what you refused to move when the paperwork or the straps were wrong. Do not add a tonne figure you remember from a group chat.

• Completed the pre-trip check on the heavy vehicle and parked it when a light or a tyre failed the list.
• Secured the load to the sheet the dispatcher signed, and did not leave with a strap missing.
• Drove the assigned route between the Abu Dhabi depot and the site, on the category printed on the licence.
• Reported a delay with the time and the cause, not with a story about traffic in general.

What does a fictional UAE driver CV look like?

Both samples below are invented. The phone numbers are not real. Do not copy the employers, the cities of the old jobs, or the years. Use the shape. If a line is not true of you, delete it rather than editing the name.

Karim Haddad
Light-vehicle delivery driver
Dubai, UAE
+971 50 000 0001
karim.haddad.example@email.com
Nationality: Lebanon
Visa: employment residence, current employer. A new job needs a new MoHRE permit.
Notice: 30 days, as written in the contract
Driving licence: Dubai, light vehicle, held since March 2019. Home-country licence not exchanged.
No heavy-vehicle category. No bus category.

Al Noor Trading LLC, Dubai
Delivery driver, light vehicle
June 2022 to present
Planned same-day drops for a Jebel Ali warehouse from the morning sheet.
Checked lights, tyres, and the fuel level before leaving, and logged defects the same day.
Kept a delivery log: time, location, and the name of the person who signed.
Matched company fuel-card slips to that log at the end of the week when accounts asked.

City Parcel, Beirut
Van driver
January 2018 to February 2021
Ran a fixed city route. This was not a UAE licence and not a heavy vehicle.

Samuel Boateng
Heavy-vehicle driver
Abu Dhabi, UAE
+971 50 000 0002
samuel.boateng.example@email.com
Nationality: Ghana
Visa: employment residence, current employer
Notice: 60 days, as written in the contract
Driving licence: Abu Dhabi, heavy vehicle, held since August 2021.
Does not include a bus category.

Gulf Site Haulage, Abu Dhabi
Heavy-vehicle driver
September 2021 to present
Ran the pre-trip check on the assigned heavy vehicle and stood it down when the list failed.
Secured steel loads to the dispatch sheet before leaving Mussafah.
Drove the depot-to-site route the planner issued. Did not take a bus run.

Accra Freight, Accra
Truck driver
May 2016 to April 2020
Home-country heavy licence. Not presented as an Abu Dhabi exchange.

Karim's file is drops, a car check, and a log. Samuel's file is a heavy-vehicle check, a load, and a route. They are not the same CV with the job title changed. A bus applicant needs a third version, with the bus category and the pre-departure check, not Samuel's steel loads.

What are the common mistakes on a driver CV in the UAE?

• Writing UAE licence, or valid licence, with no category and no emirate.
• Putting heavy-vehicle or bus duties on a light-vehicle card.
• Writing convertible, or exchangeable, without checking the current list for that emirate.
• Hiding the issuing emirate, so a Dubai card and an Abu Dhabi card look the same.
• Copying a passenger count or a tonne figure from a sample.
• Printing the licence number on a CV you send to many inboxes.
• Replacing the visa line and the contractual notice with immediately available.
• Using one template for a delivery role and a heavy role, and only swapping the title.

Where do visa status and notice sit beside the licence?

Working in the UAE without a valid MoHRE work permit is illegal. The licence line does not replace that permit, and the CV does not create it.

Sources we used: UAE government portal: MoHRE work permits

The licence says what you may drive. The visa line says which permit route an employer would be dealing with. The notice line says when you can start. Three different facts. A driver who is inside the UAE on a visit entry, or still abroad, should say that in words. Do not let a strong licence line imply a residence you do not hold.

Wording for employment residence, a visit entry, and applying from abroad is in the visa-status guide

The number you write has to match the contract. The range after probation is explained in the notice-period guide

Section order, length, and what to leave out of the header are in the UAE CV format guide

Keep the licence line in the normal reading order. A two-column design can bury it. Paste the file into the parser test

A finance role does not reuse this licence line. VAT, IFRS, and the system you posted in are covered in the accountant CV for Dubai

A guarding role uses a SIRA category, not an RTA class. The separate sample is the security guard CV for Dubai

A retail till is not a driving licence. The cashier sample is the cashier CV for Dubai