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Elementary occupations · code 9623

Meter readers and vending-machine collectors

Meter readers and vending-machine collectors stock vending machines and collect money from them or from parking meters and other coinboxes, or read electricity, gas or water meters. Tasks include - (a) filling storage areas of vending machines and collecting money from their containers; (b) collecting money from parking meters and similar coinboxes; (c) reading electricity, gas or water meters and recording consumption; (d) keeping records of merchandise distributed and money collected; (e) proceeding along established routes to take readings of meter dials; (f) verifying readings in cases where consumption appears to be abnormal, and recording possible reasons for fluctuations; (g) inspecting meters for unauthorized connections, defects and damage such as broken seals. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Meter reader - Vending-machine collector

The mildest of the ILO’s four “exposed” groups. It ranks 308 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • vending machine operator
  • meter reader

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

62.3
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 1

AI could take on 37.7 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 37.7 = 62.3

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

52.5
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

39.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 39.3 · hand skill 39.3 · cramped spaces 39.7 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

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

What this number leaves out This job rates 52.5 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, and for work like this robots are the bigger question.

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 75, while the average is 37.7. 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. 75

    Reading electricity, gas or water meters and recording consumption

    High
  2. 58

    Keeping records of merchandise distributed and money collected

    Medium
  3. 35

    Verifying readings in cases where consumption appears to be abnormal, and record possible reasons for fluctuations

    Low
  4. 31.5

    Proceeding along established routes to take readings of meter dials

    Low
  5. 27.3

    Inspecting meters for unauthorized connections, defects and damage such as broken seals.

    Low
  6. 19

    Collecting money from parking meters and similar coinboxes

    Very Low
  7. 18

    Filling storage areas of vending machines and collecting money from their containers

    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
54.5
AI does it for you
37.5

Helping wins by 17 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 5619, 8997

Compared with similar jobs

There are 33 jobs in the “Elementary occupations” group, averaging 85.7. This one is below that.