Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
In short: today's best AI models could do about 20% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 80% of the time, stays with people.
Load and unload chemicals and bulk solids, such as coal, sand, and grain, into or from tank cars, trucks, or ships, using material moving equipment. May perform a variety of other tasks relating to shipment of products. May gauge or sample shipping tanks and test them for leaks.
10,700 people do this job in the US. $58,870 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on8 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people32 h
Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 8 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 32 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow (about 6 h); Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers (about 2 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 20%
- 0%
- 80%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 19%. Today's estimate: 20%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 19 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 78% of this job's working time as physical work. For 78% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 44% in a purpose-built cell, 34% in a structured facility. 1.11 of 3, the 77th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 23%
- In a purpose-built cell 44%
- In a structured facility 34%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 19 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow.Done daily by most who do it. | 15% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Operate ship loading and unloading equipment, conveyors, hoists, and other specialized material handling equipment such as railroad tank car unloading equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Autoload® Automatic Loading Arm (Carbis Loadtec Group) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 13% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Test vessels for leaks, damage, and defects, and repair or replace defective parts as necessary.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, RAYHAWK autonomous railcar lid handling system (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Check conditions and weights of vessels to ensure cleanliness and compliance with loading procedures.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ScanTank mobile cleanliness inspection system (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| 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.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, FoxBot Autonomous Trailer Loader/Unloader (ATL) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Operate conveyors and equipment to transfer grain or other materials from transportation vehicles.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, CHS Herman automated ('lights-out') grain elevator (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Start pumps and adjust valves or cables to regulate the flow of products to vessels, using knowledge of loading procedures.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Emerson DL8000 Preset Controller (load rack batch control) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 21 min13 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 29 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Observe positions of cars passing loading spouts, and swing spouts into the correct positions at the appropriate times.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, LOCOTROL Tower Control (Wabtec/GE Transportation) train load-out at Roy Hill (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Unload cars containing liquids by connecting hoses to outlet plugs and pumping compressed air into cars to force liquids into storage tanks.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ROBOFUEL (Scott Automation) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Perform general warehouse activities, such as opening containers and crates, filling warehouse orders, assisting in taking inventory, and weighing and checking materials.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Stretch (Boston Dynamics / DHL Supply Chain) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Remove and replace tank car dome caps, or direct other workers in their removal and replacement.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, RAYHAWK autonomous railcar lid handling system (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 29 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators1% now, 1% by 2028
- Conveyor Operators and Tenders9% now, 9% by 2028
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand9% now, 9% by 2028
- Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers29% now, 29% by 2028
- Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining5% now, 5% by 2028
- Hoist and Winch Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 20% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 20% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow (100% of the task's time now); and Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Operate ship loading and unloading equipment, conveyors, hoists, and other specialized material handling equipment such as railroad tank car unloading equipment; Test vessels for leaks, damage, and defects, and repair or replace defective parts as necessary; and Check conditions and weights of vessels to ensure cleanliness and compliance with loading procedures. Together such tasks are about 80% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 78% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 78% of the working time, 34% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.11 of 3. One example: FoxBot Autonomous Trailer Loader/Unloader (ATL) for "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". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 19 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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