Operate vehicles or material-moving equipment
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 18 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment (4.A.3.a.4) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 18 occupations that perform it.
- Operate, drive, or explain the use of mechanical equipment in amusement parks, cruise ships, or other recreational facilities.
- Deliver artwork on courier trips.
- Open and close school bus doors for students.
- Route received goods to first available flight or to appropriate storage areas or departments, using forklifts, hand trucks, or other equipment.
- Walk, ride bicycles, drive vehicles, or use public conveyances to reach destinations to deliver messages or materials.
- Operate and maintain mobile dispatch vehicles and equipment.
- Walk or drive vehicles along established routes to take readings of meter dials.
- Travel to post offices to pick up the mail for routes or pick up mail from postal relay boxes.
- Move containers of mail, using equipment, such as forklifts and automated "trains".
- Drive loaded shuttle cars to ramps and move controls to discharge loads into mine cars or onto conveyors.
- Operate fork lifts, skid loaders, or trucks to move or store recyclable materials.
- Drive vehicles or operate machines or equipment to complete work assignments or to assist workers.
- Drive trucks to deliver such items as food, medical supplies, or newspapers.
- Maneuver trucks into loading or unloading positions, following signals from loading crew and checking that vehicle and loading equipment are properly positioned.
- Drive vehicles with capacities under three tons to transport materials to and from specified destinations, such as railroad stations, plants, residences, offices, or within industrial yards.
- Move controls to drive gasoline- or electric-powered trucks, cars, or tractors and transport materials between loading, processing, and storage areas.
- Drive trucks, following established routes, through residential streets or alleys or through business or industrial areas.
- Operate industrial trucks, tractors, loaders, and other equipment to transport materials to and from transportation vehicles and loading docks, and to store and retrieve materials in warehouses.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
18 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Cargo and Freight Agents
- Couriers and Messengers
- Driver/Sales Workers
- Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling
- First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators
- Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
- Light Truck Drivers
- Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
- Meter Readers, Utilities
- Museum Technicians and Conservators
- Postal Service Mail Carriers
- Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
- Public Safety Telecommunicators
- Recycling Coordinators
- Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
- School Bus Monitors
- Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate transportation equipment or vehicles”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.