75101 Material handlers

What this occupation covers

Material handlers handle, move, load and unload materials by hand or using a variety of material handling equipment. They are employed by transportation, storage and moving companies, and by a variety of manufacturing and processing companies and retail and wholesale warehouses.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 9 main duties for this code.

• Load, unload and move products and materials by hand or using basic material handling equipment
• Move household appliances and furniture onto and off moving trucks or vans
• Perform other material handling activities such as counting, weighing, sorting, packing and unpacking.
• Operate winches and other loading devices to load and unload materials onto and off trucks, railway cars and loading docks of warehouses and industrial establishments
• Operate industrial trucks, tractors, loaders and other equipment to transport materials to and from transportation vehicles and loading docks and to store and retrieve materials in warehouses
• Connect hoses or pipes and operate equipment to load and unload liquid petroleum, chemical or other products into or from tank cars, tank trucks or storage tanks
• Operate equipment to dump materials such as coal, ore and grain into or to remove materials from railway cars, trucks or other vehicles
• Operate conveyors and equipment to transfer grain or other materials from transportation vehicles to elevators, bins or other storage areas
• May perform other activities, such as opening containers and crates, filling warehouse orders, assisting in taking inventory and weighing and checking materials.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 2 of its 9 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 72021 Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews
• 74202 Air transport ramp attendants
• 73400 Heavy equipment operators
• 75100 Longshore workers
• 75211 Railway and motor transport labourers
• 14401 Storekeepers and partspersons
• 12013 Supervisors, supply chain, tracking and scheduling coordination occupations

Excluded from this code

• Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews (See 72021 Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews)
• Freight attendant - air transport (See 74202 Air transport ramp attendants)
• Heavy equipment operators (See 73400 Heavy equipment operators)
• Longshore workers (See 75100 Longshore workers)
• Mover helper (See 75211 Railway and motor transport labourers)
• Storekeepers and partspersons (See 14401 Storekeepers and partspersons)
• Warehouse distribution supervisor (See 12013 Supervisors, supply chain, tracking and scheduling coordination occupations)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

ash handler · automated storage and retrieval system operator · automatic pallet equipment operator · bandoleer packer - explosives manufacturing · belt conveyor attendant · beltman/woman · bin attendant · bin filler · binman/woman · box bander · box filler · boxcar loader · bucket elevator operator · bulk materials carrier operator · bulk materials loader operator · bulk materials unloader · cement loader and sacker · coal conveyor operator · coal conveyor operator - surface mining · coal dumper · coal handler · coal loader-unloader · coal wheeler · coal-moving equipment operator

Employment requirements

• Some secondary school education may be required.
• Physical strength is required for manual material handlers who work with heavy materials.