How to become Transportation Inspector in 2024

Transportation Inspector Inspect equipment or goods in connection with the safe transport of cargo or people. Includes rail transportation inspectors, such as freight inspectors, rail inspectors, and other inspectors of transportation vehicles not elsewhere classified.

Transportation Inspector is Also Know as

In different settings, Transportation Inspector is titled as

  • Cargo Surveyor
  • Inspector
  • Marine Cargo Surveyor
  • Marine Surveyor
  • Petroleum Inspector
  • Surveyor

Education and Training of Transportation Inspector

Transportation Inspector is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Transportation Inspector

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Transportation Inspector

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Transportation Inspector

Training Required for Transportation Inspector

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Transportation Inspector in different industries are

What Do Transportation Inspector do?

  • Prepare and submit reports after completion of freight shipments.
  • Inspect shipments to ensure that freight is securely braced and blocked.
  • Record details about freight conditions, handling of freight, and any problems encountered.
  • Advise crews in techniques of stowing dangerous and heavy cargo.
  • Observe loading of freight to ensure that crews comply with procedures.
  • Recommend remedial procedures to correct any violations found during inspections.
  • Inspect loaded cargo, cargo lashed to decks or in storage facilities, and cargo handling devices to determine compliance with health and safety regulations and need for maintenance.
  • Notify workers of any special treatment required for shipments.
  • Direct crews to reload freight or to insert additional bracing or packing as necessary.
  • Check temperatures and humidities of shipping and storage areas to ensure that they are at appropriate levels to protect cargo.
  • Determine cargo transportation capabilities by reading documents that set forth cargo loading and securing procedures, capacities, and stability factors.
  • Read draft markings to determine depths of vessels in water.
  • Issue certificates of compliance for vessels without violations.
  • Write certificates of admeasurement that list details such as designs, lengths, depths, and breadths of vessels, and methods of propulsion.
  • Post warning signs on vehicles containing explosives or flammable or radioactive materials.
  • Measure heights and widths of loads to ensure they will pass over bridges or through tunnels on scheduled routes.
  • Time rolls of ships, using stopwatches.
  • Determine types of licenses and safety equipment required, and compute applicable fees such as tolls and wharfage fees.
  • Calculate gross and net tonnage, hold capacities, volumes of stored fuel and water, cargo weights, and vessel stability factors, using mathematical formulas.
  • Measure vessels' holds and depths of fuel and water in tanks, using sounding lines and tape measures.
  • Visually inspect cargo for damage upon arrival or discharge.

Qualities of Good Transportation Inspector

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.

Tools Used by Transportation Inspector

  • Automatic samplers
  • Bottom samplers
  • Calibrated measuring tapes
  • Calipers
  • Cargo scales
  • Centrifugal testers
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital cameras
  • Grease guns
  • Hand magnifying lenses
  • Handheld computers
  • Hydrometers
  • Laptop computers
  • Measuring rods
  • Oilcans
  • Personal computers
  • Portable electronic thermometers
  • Programmable calculators
  • Sample containers
  • Sounding lines
  • Ullage tapes
  • X ray scanners

Technology Skills required for Transportation Inspector

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Email software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Word
  • Web browser software