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What does a Packer do?

Updated January 8, 2025
6 min read
What does a Packer do

Packers are employees in the warehouse who are responsible for managing company products and ensuring that the products are ready for transporting or delivering. Packers should have in-depth knowledge of the layout of the company warehouse and the products stored in specific areas of the warehouse. Once purchase orders are received, packers check the inventory and ensure that the orders can be fulfilled. They then get the requested products, check if they are working well, and then proceed to pack them securely. Once the products are securely packed, packers give them to delivery personnel.

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Packer responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real packer resumes:

  • Pack ice cream at the Unilever company
  • Follow customers and ISO guidelines when inspecting and packing parts.
  • Execute all quality procedures to ensure that they are ISO compliant.
  • Process orders in FedEx and USPS data base, maintain clean work area.
  • Price match on FedEx, OnTrac, and USPS for location on invoice.
  • Work at Unilever for a temporary service call spherion before making full time at Unilever.
  • Encourage others to wear their lab coats when working in the freezers or ntree rooms.
  • Assure that machine properly count products, machine run smoothly and auto set ran correctly.
  • Inspect coats and pack them, put snaps on coats by useing a snap machine, organize paper work/ order sheets
  • Package products and place on pallets accordingly
  • Administer daily packaging documentation using RF scanners and data entry.
  • Forecast manpower requirements base on daily workload and company targets.
  • Train new employees in packing, inspection, and feeding cartons through machines.
  • Operate automatic packing machine to pack product in shipping cartons to ensure continuous line production.
  • Attach burners on the top castings with clips.

Packer skills and personality traits

We calculated that 20% of Packers are proficient in Pallets, Defective Products, and Assembly Line. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Hand-eye coordination, and Listening skills.

We break down the percentage of Packers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Pallets, 20%

    Scanned labels and printed labels for pallets of product, drove pallet jack and forklift, kept work area clean.

  • Defective Products, 17%

    Removed completed or defective products and placed them in specified areas to ensure safety regulations.

  • Assembly Line, 7%

    Rotated positions in assembly line process to assure employee understood every aspect of operation.

  • Electric Pallet Jack, 6%

    Pack garbage bags into boxes also place boxes onto pallets and use electric pallet jack to move pallets around.

  • Safety Regulations, 6%

    Processed product according to health and safety regulations.

  • Machine Operators, 5%

    Prepare merchandise for warehouse delivery and assist machine operators with maintaining the production line

Most packers use their skills in "pallets," "defective products," and "assembly line" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential packer responsibilities here:

Customer-service skills. The most essential soft skill for a packer to carry out their responsibilities is customer-service skills. This skill is important for the role because "hand laborers and material movers who work with the public, such as grocery baggers or carwash attendants, must be pleasant and courteous to customers." Additionally, a packer resume shows how their duties depend on customer-service skills: "pack boxes with product being shipped to customer, change air pack and tape machines when needed. "

Hand-eye coordination. Another essential skill to perform packer duties is hand-eye coordination. Packers responsibilities require that "most hand laborers and material movers use their arms and hands to manipulate objects or move objects into specific positions." Packers also use hand-eye coordination in their role according to a real resume snippet: "ensured hand and eye coordination at all times in facility. "

Listening skills. packers are also known for listening skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to packer responsibilities, because "hand laborers and material movers follow instructions that a supervisor gives them." A packer resume example shows how listening skills is used in the workplace: "processed packed product audits and ccommunicated defective products. "

Physical strength. For certain packer responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "physical strength." The day-to-day duties of a packer rely on this skill, as "some hand laborers and material movers must be able to lift and carry heavy objects." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what packers do: "set up tape machine physically moved product from one conveyer belt to another. "

See the full list of packer skills

The three companies that hire the most packers are:

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Compare different packers

Packer vs. Line up worker

The Responsibilities of a Line-Up Worker varies upon the organization or industry. Still, most of the tasks revolve around doing manual work such as loading and unloading heavy shipments, operating various devices and machines of different sizes, assist in maintenance and assembling, and coordinating with teammates and reporting to supervisors. Furthermore, the duties of a Line-Up Worker may involve climbing up and working at high platforms, monitoring inventory of items, and maintaining a well-organized and neat working environment.

We looked at the average packer salary and compared it with the wages of a line up worker. Generally speaking, line up workers are paid $2,250 lower than packers per year.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between packers and line up workers are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like safety regulations, quality standards, and safety rules.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, packer responsibilities require skills like "pallets," "defective products," "assembly line," and "electric pallet jack." Meanwhile a typical line up worker has skills in areas such as "line assembly," "pallet jack," "perform routine maintenance," and "production process." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

Line up workers earn the highest salaries when working in the automotive industry, with an average yearly salary of $44,764. On the other hand, packers are paid more in the technology industry with an average salary of $33,075.line up workers tend to reach similar levels of education than packers. In fact, line up workers are 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Packer vs. Grocery bagger

On average, grocery baggers earn a $5,014 higher salary than packers a year.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that packer responsibilities requires skills like "pallets," "defective products," "assembly line," and "electric pallet jack." But a grocery bagger might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "groceries," "customer service," "credit card," and "customer vehicles."

Grocery baggers earn similar levels of education than packers in general. They're 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Packer vs. Boxer

An average boxer eans a lower salary compared to the average salary of packers. The difference in salaries amounts to boxers earning a $1,364 lower average salary than packers.By looking over several packers and boxers resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "pallets," "assembly line," and "package processing equipment." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a packer is likely to be skilled in "defective products," "electric pallet jack," "safety regulations," and "machine operators," while a typical boxer is skilled in "basic math," "print labels," "production sheets," and "rf."

Boxers typically earn similar educational levels compared to packers. Specifically, they're 0.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Packer vs. Packing associate

Packing associates tend to earn a higher pay than packers by an average of $2,022 per year.While both packers and packing associates complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like pallets, defective products, and assembly line, the two careers vary in some skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap between packers and packing associates, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a packer might have more use for skills like "electric pallet jack," "machine operators," "gmp," and "safety policies." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of packing associates require skills like "basic math," "pallet jack," "label packages," and "part numbers. "

In general, packing associates earn the most working in the transportation industry, with an average salary of $35,553. The highest-paying industry for a packer is the technology industry.The average resume of packing associates showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to packers. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 0.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.1%.

Types of packer

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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