Excavators are used in a wide variety of industries and the job prospects for each industry is varied. Although the majority of operators tend to work in construction, there are other industries that also rely on competent operators. Some of the industries and their prospects include:

• Government – government, particularly local government can be reliable employers. The demand for heavy equipment operators can be in season. Prospects are still strong in this sector.
• Highway and Heavy Construction – prospects remain strong in this area.
• Mining – prospects fluctuate and although mining is a year round activity, vacancies can be seasonal.
• Logging – prospects are fairly weak in this industry. Excavators are not widely used and the competition for the few vacancies can be strong.
• Quarries – this is another industry where vacancies are few and competition strong.
• Water Management – vacancies in water management are moderate, however, employers in this sector tend to target operators with a lot of experience.

When you first look at that sort of scenario, you may feel that working as an excavator operator could be risky. However, it should be remembered that the two biggest users of excavator operators are the construction (including roads, bridges and highways) and government where almost 80% of all operators work. The mining industry uses excavator operators although they are often upskilled to more powerful and larger machinery.

Generally speaking, if you are looking at a career as a heavy equipment operator and the role of an excavator operator appeals, look to the general construction field first. Most other sectors demand operators with two or more years experience across a range of activities. Sectors like the logging industry also want operators that are highly proficient in the use of excavator attachments. It’s an interesting career working as an excavator operator, and one that can be well paid as well. Heavy equipment training is the key to opening the door to this career.

One of the major pushes in heavy equipment operations is that of safety and there is good reason for this – when heavy equipment is involved in an incident, it is normally something major; rarely is it a minor event. To achieve a safer workplace, heavy equipment safety training is becoming a mandatory factor when employing workers. If a prospective employee hasn’t had any workplace safety training, it is now up to the employer to ensure they receive it prior to commencing work – often at the employers expense.

For employers, the easy way around paying for workplace safety training is to only employ those individuals who have already completed some form of heavy equipment safety training. As a prospective heavy equipment student, the obvious course is to select a training organization that offers heavy equipment safety. Choose the right training organization, and your training should be to national standards. This means you don’t have to redo any training should you move interstate, or if you are coming from interstate to undertake training.

ATS has a number of training schools in a wide range of locations, each offering training in either truck driving, crane operations or heavy equipment operations – some of our schools will offer all three. Workplace safety is included in all training programs as part of the nationally accredited training program. It is not an expensive added extra – or expensive compulsory extra.

For heavy equipment, our training programs run for three weeks and includes both in-class and in-the-cab training. Heavy equipment training is not restricted to the classroom, it includes in-cab tuition and observations making the operator aware of everything that is happening around them. Heavy equipment training is designed to make the workplace safer for everyone, the operator included.

Bulldozers are large lumbering machines. In fact, they look fairly awkward traveling on large tracks rather than wheels. Despite all that, they are amongst the most powerful of heavy equipment when it comes to sheer strength. They can also be one of the easiest pieces of heavy equipment to use – if you get the right training to begin with.

When it comes to complexity, bulldozers don’t know the meaning of the word. One of the hardest parts to learning to operate a bulldozer is often the steering, get that right and the rest gets easier. In some ways, it’s not the operation of a bulldozer that is difficult, it is the knowledge of the terrain your on, what sort of soil structure it is, how easy it is to move and whether or not its likely to have hidden objects like rocks and tree stumps.

Much of this knowledge can be picked up in a classroom, but much of it needs to be on the job experience. We can tell you about sticky clay surfaces, but its not until you actually experience it that you come to understand the effect it has on a machine like a bulldozer. Every soil type can react differently – learn that and you will become a master.

In the meantime, before looking to become a master bulldozer operator, start from the beginning with a bulldozer training program that provides a good solid foundation of knowledge. That is where ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools can serve you well. As one of the nation’s top heavy equipment training companies, we know what employers want in new recruits and we know how to provide them with graduates that meet their needs. We also know what students want when it comes to training, and those needs are met as well. Become a master bulldozer operator by gaining the best possible basic training – you’ll never regret it.

Should you multi skill and become a backhoe operator? I guess I don’t have to remind everyone of the economy and the struggles that everyone has been through – if you didn’t see, feel or hear about it then you probably weren’t on the planet at the time. Times have been tough and many small businesses have been feeling the pinch – even in heavy equipment. As we start to shake off the problems of the past two/three years, businesses are starting to spend again, but very cautiously.

When it comes to heavy equipment purchases, prudence is the order of the day and cost reduction the number one factor. One of the easiest ways to cut costs is by using equipment that is versatile. The more versatile a unit of heavy equipment is, the more income that equipment can generate. I know, boring details on how to run a business – however, it does impact on all of us.

When it comes to heavy equipment, why buy a loader and an excavator when a backhoe can do the same work – in one unit. The only down side to buying a backhoe is that it can only be in one place at any one time – but it can certainly undertake a wide range of tasks while in that one place. During the recession, the last unit of heavy equipment to be mothballed was the backhoe. The first unit to be purchased was also a backhoe and, at present, the highest demand for operators is for backhoe operators.

Since it takes the skills of both a loader operator and an excavator operator, it makes sense to multi skill and take on the role of a backhoe operator. The path to multi skilling is made easier when a heavy equipment training program actually covers a wide range of equipment When the economy evens out, you can specialize in excavators, or loaders, or perhaps stay with backhoes, it’s your choice.

Dump trucks are often forgotten about when people talk about truck driving careers. For many people they are just another truck on the road; for others, a vehicle to be avoided. If you have ever driven behind one that doesn’t have a covered load, you will know why. Dump truck driving isn’t your standard truck driving career. While most trucks drive point to point and rely on others to load and unload the vehicle, dump trucks are very different and so too the skills required to operate them.

When it comes to operating a dump truck, the emphasis, and one of the major skills, is on the ‘dump’ part of the name. Sure, loaders, excavators and backhoes often fill a dump a truck, but it is the dump truck driver that has to empty the load. While you may think this is an easy task – press a button and the tray lifts to empty the contents – the reality is often very different.

Dump truck drivers are often required to reverse to the edge of steep slopes, a foot or two too far and it’s not the load that gets dumped, it’s the whole dump truck. In other situations, the driver may need to spread the load rather than dump it all into one area. This involves the coordination of several factors – the width the tailgate is open, the rate the tray is rising and the speed of the vehicle. This requires real skill and real timing to have everything come together to lay an even spread of material. You can often see this in action as new roads are being built – a dump truck slowly moving down the new road leaving a trail of gravel spread evenly.

One of the areas that ATS Truck Driving Schools specialize in is the training of dump truck drivers. If you are considering a career as a dump truck driver then why not start by undertaking your training through one of the nation’s oldest and most reliable truck driver training establishments?

Certification is slowly becoming an issue for many operators in the heavy equipment industry. This is particularly so of crane operators as more and more states adopt the concept of employers being only permitted to employ certified crane operators. From July this year, new standards will start to come in effect on a national level that will make it compulsory for all crane operators to be certified.

ATS Crane Operator Schools have been supporters of crane operator certification for several years now. We have been accredited to deliver both the training and the certification assessments, a situation which makes life far easier for those looking at a crane operator career. The process is fairly straightforward as well.

As a new student, you will spend three weeks of in-class and in-cab training. This is designed to give you the actual skills required to work effectively in the industry. At the same time, you will be given training in areas such as maintenance and the all-important safety aspects of crane operations. Crane safety is one of the driving forces behind the requirement for crane operators to become certified. In theory, if all operators are certified they should all have the same set of basic operational skills along with the same safety training knowledge. The end results should be a far safer workplace.

If you are looking at a career as a crane operator, check with your crane operator trainer regarding certification. If they don’t train to a national standard then they will not be preparing you for the inevitable certification process – this will see you spending a lot of money on training that could be useless. Select a training provider that not only provides training that is accredited, select a training provider that can prove both the crane operator training and the crane operator certification assessments. Your money will be well spent and you will have a qualification that will be accepted throughout the country – that’s invaluable.

Graders – they’re weird looking beasts yet they perform a role that is vital to the success of any road building program. If you were to closely examine a grader its design would probably confound you. They are long and narrow and at times their front wheel bend at such an angle you would swear they were about to snap off. The design of a grader, like most heavy equipment, is one built from need.

Before graders, roads were built by hand with hundreds of laborers working long hours in the hot blazing sun to lay roads that were not quite level, but for their time, good enough. If you wanted a smoother or flatter finish to the road, you brought in heavy rollers like the old fashioned steam rollers. Now, although rollers are still used, they perform a different role.

The advent of graders has meant that work gangs are no longer needed in such high numbers. In fact, these days most workers on road crews are qualified in some field – we certainly don’t need the scores of laborers we once did. The role of a grader is fairly straightforward although the job itself is certainly not ‘straightforward’. The grader ‘grades’ the surface. In other words it carves and shapes the road much like a knife cutting through butter. The very slight slope that all roads have owes itself to the precise skills of a grader operator – skills that can be developed in as short as three weeks yet take a lifetime to really master.

You can start that journey to becoming a master grader operator by completing a three week heavy equipment training program that provides you with the skills to operate equipment like graders. If you’re ready for the journey, we are ready to help you through those first few weeks – you just need to take those first few steps.

Is truck driver training difficult? It can be but it shouldn’t be. If you can drive a car then taking the next step to driving a truck is really no big deal. There are certainly a few more road rules you need to learn and some driving techniques do require a little practice. However, truck driver training should be and is easy when you have experts training you.

I once overheard a truck driver telling a student that the hardest part of driving a truck was getting into the rig. Once in, the rest became easy. For some people it’s true too. If you enjoy driving and enjoy being on the road then you’re halfway there. If you can maintain a high level of concentration then you’re almost there. All you need are the skills themselves and they come with practice. Apart from getting into the truck, the hardest part of driving a truck it realizing its size. You can’t perform the same zippy movements that you can in a car, and the bigger the truck the more important size becomes.

If you take a big rig traveling at sixty miles per hour down the highway, how quickly could it stop in an emergency? You would be surprised but, invariably, it’s never enough and you always run the risk of jack-knifing if you’re driving a tractor-trailer setup. Yet these are all basic skills that can be taught, and learned, in only three weeks. Truck driver training that puts you behind the wheel for as many hours as possible is the key to becoming a good truck driver. Practicing reversing, practicing turning tight corners, and practicing driving in traffic are the only way to develop skills – so long as there is a skilled trainer alongside you correcting mistakes and offering tips and sound advice.

If you are looking to become a truck driver, undertake your training with skilled professionals through a business that has over 40 years experience in truck driver training. Let’s face it, to survive that long means they must be doing something right – and they are, they are producing skilled drivers ready to walk into a career as a professional truck driver. Are you ready for truck driver training that’s been made easy?