About This Career

Tends, controls, or operates power-driven, stationary, or portable pumps and manifold systems to transfer gases, oil, other liquids, slurries, or powdered materials to and from various vessels and processes.

This career is part of the Energy cluster.

A person in this career:

• Monitors gauges and flowmeters and inspects equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary.
• Records operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times.
• Plans movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage.
• Turns valves and starts pumps to start or regulate flows of substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials.
• Communicates with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances.
• Connects hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools.
• Tends vessels that store substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials, checking levels of substances by using calibrated rods or by reading mercury gauges and tank charts.
• Cleans, lubricates, and repairs pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment.
• Reads operating schedules or instructions or receives verbal orders to determine amounts to be pumped.
• Tests materials and solutions, using testing equipment.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 10 lbs., sometimes up to 20 lbs. You might do a lot of walking or standing, or you might sit but use your arms and legs to control machines, equipment or tools.
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Judging how far away an object is, or which of several objects is closer or farther away
• Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
• Seeing clearly at a distance
• Detecting sounds and hearing the differences between sounds of different pitch and loudness
• Seeing clearly up close
• Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Rotating shift work