Warehouse operatives
Warehouse operatives load, unload and convey a variety of goods, equipment or other items in warehouses and depots, prepare requisitions or despatch documents of stocks held, and perform other elementary goods handling and storage related tasks.
- Employees (UK)
- 449k
- Median annual pay
- £26,574
- Exposure score ?
- 0.7/10 Minimal 0.7/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 0.7/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.7/10
- Wage exposure
- £835m £835m
Higher exposure than 43% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Seal outlet valves on tank cars, barges, and trucks.
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Verify tank car, barge, or truck load numbers to ensure car placement accuracy based on written or verbal instructions.
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Connect ground cables to carry off static electricity when unloading tanker cars.
For this role the labels do not surface obvious candidates, so the work would start with the highest-stakes tasks below and find the AI angle in conversation.
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Seal outlet valves on tank cars, barges, and trucks.
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Verify tank car, barge, or truck load numbers to ensure car placement accuracy based on written or verbal instructions.
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Connect ground cables to carry off static electricity when unloading tanker cars.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders" (53-7121.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 19 tasks, unaided
Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers.
What still needs a person
18 of 19 tasks
Seal outlet valves on tank cars, barges, and trucks.
Verify tank car, barge, or truck load numbers to ensure car placement accuracy based on written or verbal instructions.
Connect ground cables to carry off static electricity when unloading tanker cars.
Start pumps and adjust valves or cables to regulate the flow of products to vessels, using knowledge of loading procedures.
Check conditions and weights of vessels to ensure cleanliness and compliance with loading procedures.
Observe positions of cars passing loading spouts, and swing spouts into the correct positions at the appropriate times.
Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow.
Copy and attach load specifications to loaded tanks.
Remove and replace tank car dome caps, or direct other workers in their removal and replacement.
Operate ship loading and unloading equipment, conveyors, hoists, and other specialized material handling equipment such as railroad tank car unloading equipment.
Test samples for specific gravity, using hydrometers, or send samples to laboratories for testing.
Test vessels for leaks, damage, and defects, and repair or replace defective parts as necessary.
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.
Unload cars containing liquids by connecting hoses to outlet plugs and pumping compressed air into cars to force liquids into storage tanks.
Clean interiors of tank cars or tank trucks, using mechanical spray nozzles.
Lower gauge rods into tanks or read meters to verify contents, temperatures, and volumes of liquid loads.
Operate conveyors and equipment to transfer grain or other materials from transportation vehicles.
Perform general warehouse activities, such as opening containers and crates, filling warehouse orders, assisting in taking inventory, and weighing and checking materials.
Tasks via O*NET "Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders" (53-7121.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 19 tasks, with tools
Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers.
What still needs a person
18 of 19 tasks
Seal outlet valves on tank cars, barges, and trucks.
Verify tank car, barge, or truck load numbers to ensure car placement accuracy based on written or verbal instructions.
Connect ground cables to carry off static electricity when unloading tanker cars.
Start pumps and adjust valves or cables to regulate the flow of products to vessels, using knowledge of loading procedures.
Check conditions and weights of vessels to ensure cleanliness and compliance with loading procedures.
Observe positions of cars passing loading spouts, and swing spouts into the correct positions at the appropriate times.
Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow.
Copy and attach load specifications to loaded tanks.
Remove and replace tank car dome caps, or direct other workers in their removal and replacement.
Operate ship loading and unloading equipment, conveyors, hoists, and other specialized material handling equipment such as railroad tank car unloading equipment.
Test samples for specific gravity, using hydrometers, or send samples to laboratories for testing.
Test vessels for leaks, damage, and defects, and repair or replace defective parts as necessary.
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.
Unload cars containing liquids by connecting hoses to outlet plugs and pumping compressed air into cars to force liquids into storage tanks.
Clean interiors of tank cars or tank trucks, using mechanical spray nozzles.
Lower gauge rods into tanks or read meters to verify contents, temperatures, and volumes of liquid loads.
Operate conveyors and equipment to transfer grain or other materials from transportation vehicles.
Perform general warehouse activities, such as opening containers and crates, filling warehouse orders, assisting in taking inventory, and weighing and checking materials.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Elementary occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons