AI exposure: Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate transportation, storage, or distribution activities in accordance with organizational policies and applicable government laws or regulations. Includes logistics managers.
Reading this score
computed37.7% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers at the 66th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.5 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 30 tasks it averages 2.12 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Analyze the financial impact of proposed logistics changes, at 73.3%. The least is Monitor operations to ensure that staff members comply with administrative policies and..., at 8.3%. A gap of 65.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within management occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 41.4% across the group's 56 roles, with 40 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 30 tasks, 19 are currently banded exposed, 6 assisted and 5 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take cheaper ways to verify output, since the cost of checking is currently doing more to hold this work in place than the cost of producing it. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyze the financial impact of proposed logistics changes, such as routing, shipping modes, product volumes or mixes, or carriers. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Analyze expenditures and other financial information to develop plans, policies, or budgets for increasing profits or improving services. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.74 | exposed |
| Maintain metrics, reports, process documentation, customer service logs, or training or safety records. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Review invoices, work orders, consumption reports, or demand forecasts to estimate peak performance periods and to issue work assignments. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | – | exposed |
| Develop and document standard and emergency operating procedures for receiving, handling, storing, shipping, or salvaging products or materials. | 55.4% | 32.1% | 12.5% | 4.05 | exposed |
| Monitor inventory levels of products or materials in warehouses. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Prepare and manage departmental budgets. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.90 | exposed |
| Collaborate with other departments to integrate logistics with business systems or processes, such as customer sales, order management, accounting, or shipping. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.13 | exposed |
| Resolve problems concerning transportation, logistics systems, imports or exports, or customer issues. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Advise sales and billing departments of transportation charges for customers' accounts. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.76 | exposed |
| Confer with department heads to coordinate warehouse activities, such as production, sales, records control, or purchasing. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.71 | exposed |
| Prepare management recommendations, such as proposed fee and tariff increases or schedule changes. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.83 | exposed |
| Examine invoices and shipping manifests for conformity to tariff and customs regulations. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.68 | exposed |
| Monitor product import or export processes to ensure compliance with regulatory or legal requirements. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.83 | exposed |
| Analyze all aspects of corporate logistics to determine the most cost-effective or efficient means of transporting products or supplies. | 37.5% | 25.0% | 37.5% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Inspect physical conditions of warehouses, vehicle fleets, or equipment and order testing, maintenance, repairs, or replacements. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Establish or monitor specific supply chain-based performance measurement systems. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.93 | exposed |
| Plan or implement improvements to internal or external systems or processes. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | – | exposed |
| Recommend or authorize capital expenditures for acquisition of new equipment or property to increase efficiency and services. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | – | exposed |
| Plan, develop, or implement warehouse safety and security programs and activities. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.33 | assisted |
| Interview, select, and train warehouse and supervisory personnel. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.77 | assisted |
| Negotiate with carriers, warehouse operators, or insurance company representatives for services and preferential rates. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.57 | assisted |
| Develop or implement plans for facility modification or expansion, such as equipment purchase or changes in space allocation or structural design. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.55 | assisted |
| Direct inbound or outbound operations, such as transportation or warehouse activities, safety performance, and logistics quality management. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | – | assisted |
| Plan or implement energy saving changes to transportation services, such as reducing routes, optimizing capacities, employing alternate modes of transportation, or minimizing idling. | 21.3% | 20.4% | 58.3% | 3.68 | untouched |
| Evaluate contractors or business partners for operational efficiency or safety or environmental performance records. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.59 | assisted |
| Supervise the activities of workers engaged in receiving, storing, testing, and shipping products or materials. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Plan, organize, or manage the work of subordinate staff to ensure that the work is accomplished in a manner consistent with organizational requirements. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Implement specific customer requirements, such as internal reporting or customized transportation metrics. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.70 | untouched |
| Monitor operations to ensure that staff members comply with administrative policies and procedures, safety rules, union contracts, environmental policies, or government regulations. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.05 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 4 task(s) lacked a usable O*NET weight and are shown but excluded from the weighting.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.49 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.37 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.17 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.13 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.12 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.54 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.