Start engines of hoists or winches and use levers and pedals to wind or unwind cable on drums.

“Start engines of hoists or winches and use levers and pedals to wind or unwind cable on drums.” is a core task performed by Hoist and Winch Operators. Among the occupation's 13 rated tasks, workers place it 11th by importance (#3 most important). About 88% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Operate lifting or moving equipment. in Controlling Machines and Processes

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Move levers, pedals, and throttles to stop, start, and regulate speeds of hoist or winch drums in response to hand, bell, buzzer, telephone, loud-speaker, or whistle signals, or by observing dial indicators or cable marks. · importance 4.6
• Apply hand or foot brakes and move levers to lock hoists or winches. · importance 4.5
• Observe equipment gauges and indicators and hand signals of other workers to verify load positions or depths. · importance 4.4
• Operate compressed air, diesel, electric, gasoline, or steam-driven hoists or winches to control movement of cableways, cages, derricks, draglines, loaders, railcars, or skips. · importance 4.3
• Oil winch drums so that cables will wind smoothly. · importance 4.3
• Move or reposition hoists, winches, loads and materials, manually or using equipment and machines such as trucks, cars, and hand trucks. · importance 4.1
• Climb ladders to position and set up vehicle-mounted derricks. · importance 4.1
• Select loads or materials according to weight and size specifications. · importance 4.1
• Repair, maintain, and adjust equipment, using hand tools. · importance 4.0
• Signal and assist other workers loading or unloading materials. · importance 3.9
• Tend auxiliary equipment, such as jacks, slings, cables, or stop blocks, to facilitate moving items or materials for further processing. · importance 3.9
• Attach, fasten, and disconnect cables or lines to loads, materials, and equipment, using hand tools. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Hoist and Winch Operators page.

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-task-4980,
  title  = {Start engines of hoists or winches and use levers and pedals to wind or unwind cable on drums.},
  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/tasks/task-4980}
}