Travel to work sites to perform installation, repair or maintenance work
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 | 9 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 9 occupations that perform it.
- Travel to customers' stores or offices to service machines or to provide emergency repair service.
- Make service calls to repair units in customers' homes, or return units to shops for major repairs.
- Estimate, order, pick up, deliver, and install materials and supplies needed to maintain equipment in good working condition.
- Respond to emergency calls for problems such as gas leaks.
- Travel in trucks, helicopters, and airplanes to inspect lines for freedom from obstruction and adequacy of insulation.
- Travel to customers' premises to install, maintain, or repair audio and visual electronic reception equipment or accessories.
- Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use.
- Make service calls to maintain and repair machines.
- Descend into water with the aid of diver helpers, using scuba gear or diving suits.
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
9 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers
- Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers
- Commercial Divers
- Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers
- Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers
- Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
- Home Appliance Repairers
- Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners
- Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers
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.