How To Become A Freight Unloader: What It Is and Career Path

What is a freight unloader and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a freight unloader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.25 an hour? That's $37,969 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 358,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFreight UnloaderUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $37,969

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.05%

Asian 5.67%

Black or African American 11.83%

Hispanic or Latino 20.55%

Unknown 5.10%

White 55.79%

Gender

female 13.10%

male 86.90%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a freight unloader

Explore freight unloader education requirements

Most common freight unloader degrees

High School Diploma

48.6 %

Bachelor's

18.5 %

Associate

13.0 %

Start to develop specific freight unloader skills

Skills	Percentages
Pallets	25.14%
Pallet Jack	21.32%
Sales Floor	14.66%
Customer Service	13.41%
Unload Trailers	9.31%

Complete relevant freight unloader training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New freight unloaders learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a freight unloader based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real freight unloader resumes.

Research freight unloader duties and responsibilities

Provide regular assistance to supervisors to assist in store profitability and cleanliness.
Identify and read vendor packing slips, carrier shipping documents, UPC labels and other receiving documents.

Prepare your freight unloader resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your freight unloader resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a freight unloader resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable freight unloader resume templates

Build a professional freight unloader resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your freight unloader resume.