If you are looking for a career in the heavy equipment industry then you have chosen the correct career path.

According to the Department of Labor’s employment statistics, employment in the heavy equipment field should grow by at least 8% – this is despite increased productivity levels being achieved using modern technology.

The department reported:

[source]More piledriver operators will be needed …
…More paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators will be needed ….
…Job opportunities for construction equipment operators are expected to be very good….

In addition, many job openings will arise from job growth and from the need to replace experienced construction equipment operators who transfer to other occupations, retire, or leave the job for other reasons. Construction equipment operators who can use a large variety of equipment will have the best prospects. Operators with pipeline experience will have especially good opportunities.

The department also feels it will it easier for willing workers to get heavy equipment operator jobs. What is required is for operators to have training relevant to the needs of employers with employers willing to continue on the job training.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can provide effective training to meet the needs of employers. We also have a job placement service to help freshly trained operators gain the experience required to move onto more demanding task.

The Department Of Labor has a good site that provides a lot of information for anyone looking to work in the construction industry. They have a special section for those looking to work with heavy equipment and the training and certification required.

Most of the information points to school leavers entering apprenticeships. However there is one section that deals with private training and it makes for interesting reading. One section is particularly important:

[source]Certification and other qualifications. Mechanical aptitude and experience operating related mobile equipment, such as farm tractors or heavy equipment, in the Armed Forces or elsewhere is an asset. Operators need to be in good physical condition and have a good sense of balance, the ability to judge distance, and eye-hand-foot coordination. Some operator positions require the ability to work at heights.

Certification or training in the right school will allow a worker to have opportunities across the country. While attending some vocational schools, operators are able to qualify for or attain various certifications. These certifications prove to potential employers that an operator is able to handle specific types of equipment. Certifications last from 3 to 5 years and must be renewed.

The article reiterates some of the information we passed on in earlier posts. One line stands out and relates to ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools – training in the right school will allow a worker to have opportunities across the country.

To receive certification the heavy equipment training school itself needs to be accredited. If you are looking for training, make sure the training organization has accreditation from an authorized body.

Most people, when they think of heavy equipment, they think of those large machines they see on construction sites. And generally speaking they are thinking yellow. Yellow of course is the traditional color for the Caterpillar breed of heavy equipment.

Over the years they were certainly one of the most popular machines and for a long time they were the leader when it came to capabilities.

These days Caterpillar are not the only manufacturer around – in fact they are probably no longer the leaders when it comes to new technology in heavy equipment.

One thing you can be assured of in this day and age, no matter how old or new these heavy equipment construction machines are, once you learn how to operate one of them competently, you can hop into any other with ease.

Heavy equipment operation is fairly standardized these days. Get the right training and you have a career for life. The right training – check out ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools for our quality no fuss heavy equipment training.

What sort of person are you? Do you like being the person to put the finishing touches on a job? Perhaps your the kind of person who is technical and works to measurements, angles and depths? Or are you the brute who rolls up their sleeves and uses brute force to get a job done? Whatever your style there is a bulldozer to suit.

Heavy equipment is not just about operating a big powerful brute. When it comes to bulldozers there are many different styles, classes and even attachments that can be used.

If your the finishing kind of person, there are smaller lighter quite nimble machines that are designed for putting those finishing touches to an area. They are the types of machines that can smooth over rough patches, help to spread sand and other materials ready for construction or road building.

Next in line are your general purpose machines. Designed to push a lot of earth around, shape the ground in both depth and to certain angles or slopes. These are the machines you see on most construction jobs.

Finally their is the brute. These are the large machines often used in mines or in waste dumps. They push huge amounts of dirt, garbage or raw materials in quick time. Despite their size they are quite nimble.

What is your preference – light on your feet or the big brute? ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can you started on your career in bulldozer operations.

Yesterday’s post looked at tractors so it would be logical to assume that a tractor trailer was a trailer that was towed by a tractor. This is actually far from the truth. Tractor trailers are actually trucks and require truck licenses to drive them.

The term tractor trailer is given to a combination of a trailer and a truck. These are two entirely separate units. The truck can be hooked to other trailers and the trailer can be hooked to other trucks. They are connected by hardware,electronics and often compressed air, used to control brakes and lights.

The trailer component can come in many configurations, generally boxed, flat bed or tanker. Boxed is used to transport items such as bulk groceries; tankers are used to transport liquids and bulk dry goods such as grain; flat beds are used to transport a variety of products such as timber and heavy equipment like earth moving machines.

The truck or tractor component can also come in a range of configurations, some large enough to include a small sleeping chamber for long journeys.

To operate a tractor trailer you require a special license. To obtain this license you will require training – training by qualified people who can teach you not only how to drive a tractor trailer, but also some of the trickier maneuvers such as reversing. If truck driving is in your career plans then consider ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

Operating heavy equipment requires certain skills that can be difficult to teach. Skills such as coordination – particularly hand-eye-feet – are formed during our early years of life. Other skills include a natural affinity with all things mechanical. Being able to check oil, water and perhaps bleeding a diesel line can be very handy skills – if you have that natural mechanical affinity then these skills will come to you quickly.

If you don’t have these skills, it is not too late. You will just need to work a little harder. Sometime the best starting point is learning to operate something a little smaller such as fork-lift truck or, better yet, a tractor.

Tractors are thought of as farm equipment and that is where a great proportion of them live, however modern tractors can have so many attachments you sometimes wonder if they are ‘just a tractor’. If you can develop skills such as mechanical aptitude and hand-foot-eye coordination by driving a tractor, you can then move up to larger heavy equipment machines.

To learn how to operate a tractor or any other heavy equipment, visit ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools – your career starts with that first move.

Not all heavy equipment is actually – heavy, but they can be mean looking little critters. Look at the mouth on this one.

It may be on the small side but a piece of heavy equipment like this can still pack some grunt and get the job done. This one can be used for loading awkward items like rock, timber and piping. The front is detachable and can be replaced with a bucket amongst other attachments.

What many people don’t realize is that it can take just as much training to learn how to operate one of these as it does one of those huge monsters that you see in the mines. In this case, you have a variety of attachments that an operator needs experience in using.

Heavy equipment comes in many different shapes and sizes. The small machines a perfect for those that want to establish their own business. If you are successful you can start to add other pieces of heavy equipment to your fleet. This of course helps to bring in new work. If your successful you will end up being the employer rather than an employee.

Whether it is a small machine like the one in the photo or a large piece of heavy equipment like a bulldozer or grader, you need to start somewhere and that start is in gaining the skills to operate a machine. A heavy equipment training schools specialize in training individuals on a range of equipment. Get the training and there is plenty of demand for your skills.

If you are looking for a career in constructions then perhaps some of these facts may appeal to you:

• Construction is one of the nation’s largest industries

• There are 6.9 million Americans in construction

• By 2012, there will be one million new jobs available in construction

• The construction industry is among the economy’s top 10 largest sources of growth

• There are 240,000 jobs available each year in construction

• Opportunities to own your own firm is better in construction than any other industry

The construction industry is part of our everyday lives. Construction workers build the roads, bridges, shopping malls, schools, homes, skyscrapers, stadiums, airports, and gas stations. In fact the list is endless.

Remember, nearly all construction starts with the use of heavy equipment. For a job in this thriving industry, visit our parent site, ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

Being part of team can be a lot of fun. It also takes quite a bit of coordination and control. Knowing exactly where your fellow workers are is so important – if only for safety sake.

These guys are working together on a large site – you can see how close they are. Another foot either way for the one in the middle and they are likely to become a tangled mess of metal and dirt. If you fancy yourself as a top gun dozer operator then perhaps you should look into some training.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools we can get your career off to a great start through professional training and post training job placement services. Once you have completed your training and got a little bit of experience – you too could be working as part of a close knit team like they these guys.

Road graders are not just dirt moving machines. Road graders are used mainly for leveling and planing a surface. They are also used to ‘fine grade’ surfaces; this means to level and shape a surface to very fine measurements.

Graders have a blade that can be set and held at a precise angles and elevations. Road graders can be used to perform maintenance on unpaved roads and to also create a wide, flat surface in preparation to lay asphalt on paved roads. The graders ability to perform ‘fine’ grading means the road is shaped for both camber, used to keep cars on the road around bends, and fine slope to facilitate water run off during wet weather.

Operators of road graders are able to finely adjust the machine’s blade, either raising, lowering, turning and/or tilting it, to produce smooth, consistent surfaces.

Road graders are used in many different situations. Apart from the construction of roads, they are also used to finish railway beds, level and finely finish airport runways and to prepare commercial building sites.

Graders are also used to move snow from roads, airport runways and other important access areas. They uniquely able to not only push snow, but due to the angle of the blades they are able to direct snow to the verges in a single pass.

There are so many different types and brands of road grader in today’s market. Manufacturers like Caterpillar, Volvo, Case and John Deere are amongst the biggest and their modern machines lead the way in both safety and modern technology. Some graders now come equipped with GPS and laser technology to enable the finest and most accurate grading possible.

Operating equipment like this starts with basic training and to receive that training you should visit ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.