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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8332

Heavy truck and lorry drivers

AI can plan the route. Reversing an artic into a tight loading bay is still a driver's job.

Driving, loading and strapping down the load are all well out of AI software's reach. Planning the route is the one task it could take a fair chunk of. Self-driving trucks are a robot question, and this score doesn't measure robots.

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

Heavy truck and lorry drivers drive and tend heavy motor vehicles to transport goods, liquids and heavy materials over short or long distances. Tasks include - (a) driving and tending a heavy motor vehicle, such as a lorry with or without trailer or a dump-truck, to transport goods, liquids or heavy materials over short or long distances; (b) determining the most appropriate routes; (c) ensuring that goods are stowed and securely covered to prevent loss and damage; (d) assisting with or carrying out loading or unloading operations, using various lifting or tipping devices; (e) carrying out minor maintenance to vehicles, and arranging major maintenance and repairs; (f) estimating weights to comply with load limitations, and ensuring the safe distribution of weights. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Concrete mixer driver - Garbage truck driver - Heavy truck driver - Road train driver Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Van driver - 8322

  • refuse vehicle driver
  • concrete pump operator
  • live animal transporter
  • cargo vehicle driver
  • fire service vehicle operator
  • aircraft fuel system operator
  • dangerous goods driver
  • moving truck driver

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

76 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

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: Minimal Exposure

192 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 24.5 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 24.5 = 75.5.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Minimal Exposure”: A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't.

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

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 62 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Heavy truck and lorry drivers 76

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.

  • Route planning.
  • Delivery scheduling and tracking.
  • Compliance and driving hours records.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Driving safely in all conditions.
  • Loading, securing and checking loads.
  • Handling problems on the road.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Supervising automated trucks on motorways.
  • Electric lorries and charging stops.
  • Hub-to-hub driving roles.

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: Low

21 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 56 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

62 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

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.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 34 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

62 How
hands-on
34 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, less fiddly work

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, averaged across 3 US jobs .

finger skill 35.7 · hand skill 38 · cramped spaces 27.7 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4

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 70, against an average of 25. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 70

    Determining the most appropriate routes

    Medium
  2. 20

    Carrying out minor maintenance to vehicles, and arranging major maintenance and repairs

    Very Low
  3. 18

    Ensuring goods are stowed and securely covered, to prevent loss and damage

    Very Low
  4. 14

    Estimating weights to comply with load limitations, and ensuring the safe distribution of weights.

    Very Low
  5. 14

    Driving and tending a heavy motor vehicle, such as a lorry with or without trailer or a dump-truck, to transport goods, liquids or heavy materials over short or long distances

    Very Low
  6. 11

    Assisting with or carrying out loading or unloading operations, using various lifting or tipping devices

    Very 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
56
AI does it for you
21

Sidekick wins, by 35 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. 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 7331

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Tiny sample alert This job makes up 0.03% of all the conversations: a tiny slice, mostly the paperwork rather than the work. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

37
63

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 3 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should lorry drivers be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Not about AI tools, which can take the route planning, the one Medium task. Loading, securing and driving rate Very Low. The real question is self-driving trucks, which this score doesn't measure; motorway stretches are easier to automate than depots, towns and loading.

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 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” family, averaging 80. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →

A closer look

There is a written profile for a job in this group.