How To Become A Rail Car Loader: What It Is and Career Path

What is a rail car loader 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 rail car loader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.78 an hour? That's $32,823 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 358,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreRail Car LoaderUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $32,823

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.1

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.57%

Asian 4.12%

Black or African American 11.94%

Hispanic or Latino 19.84%

Unknown 3.81%

White 58.73%

Gender

female 7.59%

male 92.41%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

8.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a rail car loader

Explore rail car loader education requirements

Most common rail car loader degrees

High School Diploma

53.1 %

Associate

15.6 %

Certificate

12.5 %

Start to develop specific rail car loader skills

Skills	Percentages
PPE	90.17%
DOT	5.20%
PVC	4.63%

Complete relevant rail car loader training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New rail car loaders 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 rail car loader based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real rail car loader resumes.

Research rail car loader duties and responsibilities

Transport customer vehicles onto trains with extreme care.achieve production standards daily while using AAR safety standards.operate buck ramp.
Transport customer vehicles onto trains with extreme care.achieve production standards daily while using AAR safety standards.operate buck ramp.

Prepare your rail car loader resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your rail car loader 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 rail car loader resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable rail car loader resume templates

Build a professional rail car loader 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 rail car loader resume.