Transportation and material moving
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.
Median pay
$58,870
Growth to 2035
+3%
about as fast as average
Openings a year
1,300
Time to qualify*
1 month
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Tank car, truck, and ship loaders
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- No formal educational credential
- On-the-job training
- Short-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Outdoors in all weather
Hazardous conditions
Tank car, truck, and ship loaders: 82% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core 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.
- 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.
- Operate ship loading and unloading equipment, conveyors, hoists, and other specialized material handling equipment such as railroad tank car unloading equipment.
- Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, gauge readings, and operating times, manually or using computers.
Also called: Load Out Person · Loader · Loader Operator · Loading Operator · Oil Movements Operator · PVC Loader (Polyvinyl Chloride Loader) · Rail Car Loader · Tank Car Loader
Outlook and AI
Tank car, truck, and ship loaders held 12,800 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 13,200 by 2035 (+3%, about as fast as average; all jobs: +3.5%).
Compare with
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Industrial truck and tractor operators
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Conveyor operators and tenders
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Pump operators, except wellhead pumpers
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Loading and moving machine operators, underground mining
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Hoist and winch operators
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Machine feeders and offbearers
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Crane and tower operators
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining
- Tank car, truck, and ship loaders vs. Mobile heavy equipment mechanics, except engines