Climb ladders or vehicles to perform duties.

Climb ladders or vehicles to perform duties. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 6 occupations and seen in 6 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Climb equipment or structures. in Performing General Physical Activities .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 6 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 0 (0%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Climb ladders to tops of cars to set brakes. · Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers · importance 4.4 · no direct exposure
• Ride on moving cars by holding onto grab irons and standing on ladder steps. · Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Climb ladders to position and set up vehicle-mounted derricks. · Hoist and Winch Operators · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Climb trees, using climbing hooks and belts, or climb ladders to gain access to work areas. · Tree Trimmers and Pruners · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Dismount garbage trucks to collect garbage and remount trucks to ride to the next collection point. · Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• Climb ladders to reach aircraft surfaces to be cleaned. · Aircraft Service Attendants · no direct exposure

Occupations that perform this

• Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers
• Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers
• Hoist and Winch Operators
• Tree Trimmers and Pruners
• Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
• Aircraft Service Attendants

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-climb-ladders-or-vehicles-to-perform-duties,
  title  = {Climb ladders or vehicles to perform duties.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/climb-ladders-or-vehicles-to-perform-duties}
}