AI exposure: Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
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.
Reading this score
computedAt 21.1% of weighted task load, Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders sits at the 38th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 68.1% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 19 tasks it averages 2.47 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Verify tank car, barge, or truck load numbers to ensure car placement accuracy based on written..., at 73.3%. The least is Clean interiors of tank cars or tank trucks, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within transportation and material moving occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 24.3% across the group's 52 roles, with 30 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 19 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 15 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.13 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.47 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.37 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.74 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.97 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.26 | 0-3 |
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verify tank car, barge, or truck load numbers to ensure car placement accuracy based on written or verbal instructions. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.60 | exposed |
| Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.26 | exposed |
| Observe positions of cars passing loading spouts, and swing spouts into the correct positions at the appropriate times. | 38.3% | 11.7% | 50.0% | 4.47 | exposed |
| Start pumps and adjust valves or cables to regulate the flow of products to vessels, using knowledge of loading procedures. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.48 | exposed |
| Perform general warehouse activities, such as opening containers and crates, filling warehouse orders, assisting in taking inventory, and weighing and checking materials. | 25.0% | 12.5% | 62.5% | 3.53 | untouched |
| Lower gauge rods into tanks or read meters to verify contents, temperatures, and volumes of liquid loads. | 20.0% | 5.0% | 75.0% | 3.88 | untouched |
| Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow. | 17.5% | 20.0% | 62.5% | 4.45 | untouched |
| Operate conveyors and equipment to transfer grain or other materials from transportation vehicles. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Check conditions and weights of vessels to ensure cleanliness and compliance with loading procedures. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Test samples for specific gravity, using hydrometers, or send samples to laboratories for testing. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.33 | untouched |
| 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. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Remove and replace tank car dome caps, or direct other workers in their removal and replacement. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Test vessels for leaks, damage, and defects, and repair or replace defective parts as necessary. | 5.8% | 6.7% | 87.5% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Seal outlet valves on tank cars, barges, and trucks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.72 | untouched |
| Operate ship loading and unloading equipment, conveyors, hoists, and other specialized material handling equipment such as railroad tank car unloading equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Connect ground cables to carry off static electricity when unloading tanker cars. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.60 | untouched |
| Copy and attach load specifications to loaded tanks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.43 | untouched |
| Unload cars containing liquids by connecting hoses to outlet plugs and pumping compressed air into cars to force liquids into storage tanks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Clean interiors of tank cars or tank trucks, using mechanical spray nozzles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.