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Clerical support workers · code 4323

Transport clerks

Software schedules the drivers. When a train breaks down, it's still a person.

AI could take a fair chunk of four of the six tasks, led by keeping road transport records and writing reports for the bosses. Directing trains and freight around rail yards is mostly out of its reach.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Transport clerks keep records of operational aspects and coordinate the timing of train, road and air passenger and freight transport, and prepare reports for management. Tasks include - (a) keeping records of operational aspects and coordinating the timing of passenger and freight transport; (b) directing train routings within a division or zone of a railway system and keeping related records; (c) directing, controlling and keeping records of freight handling at a railway yard; (d) coordinating and keeping records of operational activities concerning road transport, such as allocation and scheduling of vehicles and drivers, loading and unloading of vehicles, and storage of goods in transit; (e) coordinating and keeping records of operational activities concerning air transport of passengers and freight, such as passenger lists and freight manifests; (f) preparing reports for management. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Clerical controller (transport service) - Clerical dispatcher (transport service)

  • port coordinator
  • tram controller
  • dangerous goods safety adviser
  • ship pilot dispatcher
  • aircraft cargo operations coordinator
  • rail logistics coordinator
  • ship planner
  • gas scheduling representative
  • road transport maintenance scheduler
  • move coordinator
  • gas transmission system operator
  • taxi controller
  • baggage flow supervisor
  • vessel operations coordinator
  • water traffic coordinator
  • bus route supervisor
  • rail traffic controller
  • freight transport dispatcher
  • aircraft dispatcher
  • pipeline route manager

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

51 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 3

377 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 6 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 49.5 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 49.5 = 50.5.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 3”: Most of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 27.7 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Transport clerks 51

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Scheduling vehicles and drivers.
  • Reports.
  • Passenger and freight records.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Handling disruptions.
  • Directing train movements.
  • Coordinating freight yards.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • AI scheduling.
  • Real-time tracking.
  • Autonomous vehicles in depots.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

57 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 71 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

28 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 21 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

28 How
hands-on
21 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 30.3 · hand skill 19.7 · cramped spaces 11.5 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 59, against an average of 50. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 59

    Coordinating and keeping records of operational activities concerning road transport, such as allocation and scheduling of vehicles and drivers, loading and unloading of vehicles and storage of goods in transit

    Medium
  2. 57

    Preparing reports for management.

    Medium
  3. 55

    Coordinating and keeping records of operational activities concerning air transport of passengers and freight, such as passenger lists and freight manifests

    Medium
  4. 50

    Keeping records of operational aspects and coordinating the timing of passenger and freight transport

    Medium
  5. 42

    Directing train routings within a division or zone of a railway system and keeping related records

    Low
  6. 35

    Directing, controlling and keeping records of freight handling at a railway yard

    Low

6 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
71
AI does it for you
57

Sidekick wins, by 14 points.

How good a match is this?

3 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 5912, 5995, 5999

So, should transport clerks be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Much of this is exposed. Road and air transport records, reports and timing are rated Medium; directing train routings and freight handling are Low. Scheduling software takes on routine work; disruptions stay human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 29 jobs in the “Clerical support workers” family, averaging 46. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →