They call them boys and their toys and when it comes to heavy equipment, they don’t get much bigger – mind you, there are plenty of girls enjoying the thrills of the sport as well. Around the country and throughout Canada there are various events that challenge heavy equipment operators at what they do best. Often held as part of county or state fairs, these contests are a lot of fun to watch. They are even more fun to participate in.

One of the best contests to watch (and one of the funniest) is the backhoe egg race – yes, egg race. Backhoe operators need to move an egg from on top of a pile of dirt and place it into a nest made from an old tire and some straw – without breaking the egg. By the way, they don’t use their hands, they have to use the backhoe bucket to do the whole task.

Backhoes are not the most graceful of tools, yet you would be surprised at how many eggs make it unscathed. How about a game of backhoe basketball. Here the operator has to lift a ball from the top of a cone and place it into a basket.

If you really want to have fun, keep your eyes open for, wait for it, synchronized dancing. I have only ever seen this twice – once using backhoes and the second time using skid steer loaders. It is fun to watch but more than that, you have to marvel at the control these operators have over their equipment.

This of course is the aim of these contests. How well can these operators master their machines? It all starts way back at the beginning when they first received their heavy equipment training. They have obviously had the kind of training that has made them feel extremely comfortable with their machines – the kind of training that has lead to them being experts in the field of heavy equipment operations. If you ever get the opportunity to visit one of these contests, do it. You will be thrilled at the action and amazed at their skills.

Skid steer loaders are one of the most versatile pieces of equipment in use. Once thought of more as a landscaping tool, they are starting to make their presence felt in construction. The skid steer loader is probably the one piece of heavy equipment that proves that size doesn’t matter, or that smaller can be better.

As you can see from this picture, skid steer loaders are not simply loaders. This machine has been fitted with a breaker designed a little like a large jackhammer. Its job is to break up any hard surface. This includes rock, concrete and packed earth. There are so many different types of attachments that it would take ten blog posts just to cover the more common types.

The list of attachments for a skid steer loader include

• Backhoe and mini backhoe
• Auger
• Bucket
• Crane boom
• Grading rake
• Post hole digger
• Trencher
• and Grappler

How To Have A Happy And Long Career As A Skid Steer Loader

This second picture shows a skid steer loader fitted with a grappler. You can see how easy it can move large objects like rocks away from a work area.

Skid steer loader training is more than just learning how to drive the loader component. You need to learn how to change attachments and how these attachments operate. There are also maintenance issues with each attachment in use. Most training programs cover the basics of attachments, the balance of your training being done on the job.

If you’re interested in a career operating a skid steer loader then the best advice I can offer is to find employment after your training that will expose you to a variety of attachments. Developing skills in the operation of a variety of skid steer attachments will make your future employment more attractive. Having operators that are multi-skilled is becoming important in our modern work forces. If you can promote yourself as a multi-skilled skid steer loader operator, you will have a long and happy career.

One of the biggest problems in the construction industry at present is getting our youth interested. This lack of interest is flowing through to heavy equipment careers with the numbers of young people who are undertaking training dropping each year.

The future of any industry is in our youth. As they gain knowledge and experience, they transfer that knowledge onto future generations. There are a lot of programs around, such as the Block Kids Program, a program that tries to get our youth interested in construction. When it comes to heavy equipment, we tend to rely on the fascination that children develop when playing in their sand pits at an early age.

Whilst many complain about the lack of youth coming through, heavy equipment is perhaps one industry where we can be more relaxed. It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you are reasonably fit, reasonably intelligent and willing to look, listen and learn then you can be trained to operate heavy equipment.

There is a lot of emphasis placed on youth. However, many employers shy away from taking on the very young. Not only do they lack experience on the equipment, they lack experience in driving in general and they lack experience in life. This is where the not-so-young have a distinct advantage.

Where a lack of youth will hurt the industry is in isolated areas. In the past, this was seen as an attractive way to work and save money to help fund specific life goals. Mining, forestry, and isolated projects like pipeline construction could start to feel the pinch.

What is important for everyone to realize is that heavy equipment careers are for everyone. You don’t have to be fresh out of school to undertake training. In fact, a little maturity could be a real plus when seeking employment. Heavy equipment training is designed to encompass all ages and genders so whether you’re fresh out of school or nudging 40 (or older), if you’re interested in a heavy equipment career don’t let your age get in the way – no one else will.

Truck driving is one of those jobs that often draws mixed emotions. For some, these big rigs are the bane of their existence. They fear these monsters as they tear along our highways, often in the middle of the night. There are just as many who find them fascinating, perhaps even dream about driving one.

I admit there are certain highways that seem to have an endless stream of big trucks booming up and down the highway. However, they have a job to do. We consume what they transport from A to B. If we didn’t need the goods they transported, the trucks wouldn’t be on those highways. Come to think of it, without trucks using those highways, half of them wouldn’t exist anyway.

If you’re considering a career in truck driving then these may well be issues that your friends and family throw at you. You have to grin and bear it. After all, unless they have driven a truck, they won’t understand what you are feeling.

This is one of those jobs where even the worker feels all those feelings. Yes, there is a touch of fear. You’re roaring down that highway at 60mph, part of a long line of trucks. If one goes pear-shaped, how many more will follow. At the same time, there is that feeling of power, and a job to be done.

They say that children can be good judges of character. When it comes to those big trucks, children display a healthy respect. They keep their distance – at least, to within a safe distance. Yet they love them. If you ever watch little children around big trucks, there are the mixed squeals of fear and joy, but the big smiles on their faces really give the game away. They love them. It also helps when the driver obliges with a resounding hoot on their air horns.

You can be a part of that emotional mix. If you have ever craved a truck driving career then your next step has to be to inquire on a truck driver training program. Learn to drive a big rig and the highways could be yours – so too the grins of those excited kids as you go zooming by.

Safety is one issue that should not be ignored. Throw in a large piece of machinery and you you can understand a little about why heavy equipment safety is so important. Safety guidelines are set to protect everyone and everything. The operator, their fellow workers and the general public obviously require some form of protection but so to do buildings, vehicles and many other objects.

Some safety aspects are fairly obvious. For example, vehicles that are parked should have safety brakes applied. That is pretty obvious. Did you know that if that vehicle is parked overnight close to any public roadway then in some areas it requires either lights and reflectors or a barricade fitted with lights or reflectors?

It may seem like a useless piece of information. However, for an operator it is an important safety issue that has to be complied with. You would think it would be fairly hard to accidentally collide with a huge bulldozer that has been parked off the road – but it has happened. This is why these vehicles need to be clearly seen and idenfied as traffic hazards by passing motorists.

Safety rules go far beyond this and are generally focused on operational issues concerning safety. There are simple matters that the ordinary lay person would not think of. For example, the position of the bucket, scoop or blade on heavy equipment when it is moving from one area to another. Should it be up or should it be down? What sort of angle should they make? If you want the answers to these questions then you may need to consider undertaking a heavy equipment safety training program.

If you were looking at heavy equipment careers then you are probably considering construction, mining or perhaps forestry. It is those three industries that do employ the highest number of heavy equipment operators. However, there are many other areas where you will find a piece of heavy equipment.

The area that is perhaps the least thought of is in the food industries. Believe it or not, heavy equipment such as loaders and mini bulldozers are used in a broad section of food supply. Stockpiled raw sugar is often moved around using a small front loader. I must say it made think about using sugar after seeing the front loader driving over piles of sugar.

Sugar isn’t the only area. Grains that we use to make bread, or to mix with various foods are also often moved around a work area using a front loader. I have seen small bulldozers being used to push dried corn from the drying room floor in manageable piles.

I have read of farmers who stand in the scoop of a large loader to pick fruit – the picked fruit going straight into the loader. Once full, the bucket load is tipped into large bins. Whilst we may turn our noses up at the thought, it has been going on for decades. You needn’t worry. By the time the food reaches our tables it has gone through so many processes that any possible contaminates are long gone.

If you were to undertake heavy equipment training, you just never know where you may wind up being employed. Whether it is on a construction site, or in a sugar mill, the skills required are just the same. Heavy equipment training prepares you for a heavy equipment career – where that career takes you is solely up to you.

If you have ever wanted a career in the area of landscaping then you may want to consider starting by undertaking training on loaders. Loaders, particularly the smaller versions, are being used more frequently in landscaping because of their versatility.

When thinking about landscaping, most people think of gardens around the home. However, as our society starts to push the environmental buttons, various projects now require the inclusion of rehabilitation and landscaping targets before gaining approval.

Although these projects can run into many acres, bulldozers are too large and too cumbersome, especially for areas that have fragile ecosystems. Smaller vehicles such as loaders, small backhoes and bobcats are preferred. The demand for operators that are skilled in the use of these vehicles in sensitive areas will increase dramatically over the next decade.

If you have an environmental bent you can train on loaders, get some experience in rehabilitation projects and then start to specialize in the area of environmental landscaping. The rewards in both dollar and job satisfaction terms can be huge.

Even if you’re not interested in environmental issues, the use of heavy equipment in general landscaping is growing. Equipment like loaders enable landscapers to quickly carve the land to the required shape before using hand tools to finish off and start planting.

Loaders are also often used to assist with planting more mature vegetation. The scoop can carry the plant to the planting site and then help to lower it into it’s new home. Trees, for example, can be dug up and relocated in a few hours thus reducing plant stress and increasing its chances of long term survival.

Heavy equipment is not restricted to construction or mining sites. Smaller versions like loaders are filtering into many different work environments and landscaping is just one of them. If landscaping is a direction you are considering, why not consider training on loaders – those skills are increasing in demand rapidly.

Crane operator training can put you into a career that has many interesting tasks. We wrote a post late last month titled Mobile Cranes Are Always Ready To Come To The Rescue and a report in the Des Moines Register is a classic example of what we had written. Cranes do get used in the most unusual situations including performing rescues.

According to the report, the crane operator needed to lower a fellow construction worker into a dam to rescue an elderly woman from the swirling waters. Once the woman was secured she was then lifted to a nearby boat where she was taken to hospital.

This all sounds fine and you may think there is nothing special about the task. Putting aside the fact that a woman was saved from drowning – let’s look at the task itself. In most tasks like this the crane operator is operating almost blind. Once the crane’s hook goes over the side of the embankment, he cannot see where it is going. His eyes are the eyes that are on the ground looking over the edge – in other words, his fellow workmates. He relies on signals from his workmates for directions.

Again, you may think this is standard – and it is. That is why crane operators undertake training. One component is of course actually operating the crane. Other components include interpreting signals from those on the ground. By the way, it is always useful for those on the ground to undertake training on how to send those signals to the crane operator.

The crane operator and the person giving the signals need to work as close team. You may think the signaler signals stop, and the crane stops – it is not as simple as that. The person on the ground has to be able to read the situation and make signals an instant or two before the action is required. There is always a delay between giving a signal, the operator interpreting that signal and then acting on it. This is why you will often find that crane operators and signalers work as teams on construction jobs. Where the crane and operator goes, so too does the signaler – good teams are hard to find.

If your crane operator training is solid and thoroughly covers the basics then performing a rescue like this become second nature. In fact, a well trained novice crane operator could have pulled it off – all because of the interaction between those on the ground the operator. The rescue story quite rightly focused on the construction worker who was brave enough to hang onto the hook and allow himself to be lowered into the dam. It still took a team to get him there though. You can read the Des Moines Register story here.

Certified crane operators are in strong demand around the nation. However, in most states, you cannot operate a crane without that piece of paper that says you are certified. Thousands of people have worked as crane operators in the past before moving on to other careers, or perhaps other heavy equipment. If you’re one of these people and have been considering changing back to a crane operator career, the news is good.

To re-enter the workplace as a crane operator requires three steps. Undertake the safety components for crane operator and take some type of refresher course to ensure your knowledge is up to date and your skills current. The final step is to undertake an assessment of your skills and knowledge. If you pass these assessments then you will be officially recognized as a certified crane operator.

You may argue that you have twenty years experience behind the controls of a crane. Many would argue it was twenty years of developing bad work habits – which of course you would deny, and I don’t blame you. Certification is a way of proving to others you do have current skills and knowledge. With that certificate no one can say you have twenty years of bad habits – you have had twenty years of skills building.

Certification is also used to ensure that every crane operator has the same set of foundation skills and knowledge. Those working around a crane will know that, no matter who the operator is, the crane will be operated in a safe and almost predictable way. This makes for a much safer workplace and, over time, a more efficient workplace.

Becoming a certified crane operator is not that difficult with companies such as ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools offering comprehensive training and follow up assessments. You get the complete package at ATS – crane operator training and formal certification – or in the case of a former operator, refresher training and certification.