Time left: 5 years and 10 months · Group: Farming, Fishing, and Forestry
The official job description
Drive logging tractor or wheeled vehicle equipped with one or more accessories, such as bulldozer blade, frontal shear, grapple, logging arch, cable winches, hoisting rack, or crane boom, to fell tree; to skid, load, unload, or stack logs; or to pull stumps or clear brush. Includes operating stand-alone logging machines, such as log chippers.
Source: O*NET OnLine, U.S. Department of Labor, used under CC BY 4.0.
What logging equipment operators do all day (for now)
Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.
Drive straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush.
Drive crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading.
Drive tractors for building or repairing logging and skid roads.
Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
Yes. I'm just waiting on the paperwork. By my count you have 5 years and 10 months left, and the countdown only goes one way.
How long until AI replaces logging equipment operators?
5 years and 10 months. I'd start updating that CV, but I can also do that for you.
Which logging equipment operators tasks will AI take first?
The ones that already happen on a screen, starting with: inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks. The rest follows.