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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8331

Bus and tram drivers

Bus and tram drivers drive and tend buses or street tramcars to transport passengers, mail or goods. Tasks include - (a) driving and tending motor buses, trolley buses or motor coaches to transport local or long-distance passengers, mail or goods; (b) driving and tending street tramcars transporting passengers; (c) opening and closing doors before or after passengers board or alight; (d) assisting passengers with luggage; (e) controlling lighting, heating and ventilation on buses and trams; (f) observing traffic to ensure safe progress; (g) collecting fares or verifying that passengers have the necessary ticket. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Bus driver - Motor coach driver - Tram driver

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 114 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • tram driver
  • bus driver

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

82.1
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 17.9 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17.9 = 82.1

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

59.1
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 6 US jobs

31.8
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 33.9 · hand skill 35.9 · cramped spaces 25.6 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

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 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 59.1 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 25, while the average is 17.9. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 25

    Controlling lighting, heating and ventilation on buses and trams

    Low
  2. 25

    Collecting fares or verifying passenger has necessary ticket.

    Low
  3. 22.5

    Observing traffic to ensure safe progress

    Very Low
  4. 16.5

    Driving and tending motor buses, trolley buses or motor coaches to transport local or long-distance passengers, mail or goods

    Very Low
  5. 15

    Assisting passengers with luggage

    Very Low
  6. 12.5

    Driving and tending street tramcars transporting passengers

    Very Low
  7. 8.5

    Opening and closing doors before or after passengers board or alight

    Very Low

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

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

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

AI helps you
52
AI does it for you
38.5

Helping wins by 13.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7312, 7313

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.1. This one is above that.