Winter brings many difficulties, especially in areas that receive heavy frosts and icy overnight conditions. The ground can freeze, water can freeze and rupture water tanks, and equipment can be damaged, making it dangerous. Before starting work each day, a heavy equipment operator’s first task is to give his equipment a full inspection, especially in areas where icy temperatures may cause damages.

We’re pretty smart these days. We put antifreeze in products that may be affected by cold temperatures, however, it is the hoses and pipes that often suffer the most. Start a vehicle and send hot liquids through hoses or pipes that are still very cold and you run the risk of having them rupture. Icy temperatures also cause materials to shrink. This constant shrinking and expanding over winter can create stress fractures in some materials, again causing problems during operations.

While heavy equipment safety is centered on the equipment’s safe use, maintenance does also play a serious role. Start-up and shut-down inspections are important at all times of the year, however, winter does bring its own hazards. Many years ago, operators learned their craft by watching their father or a friend operate their equipment. If they were lucky, they also got to ‘have a play’ during lunch breaks or at the end of the day. That taught people how to operate their equipment, but it failed to teach many of the important safety aspects.

Today, if you want to work as a heavy equipment operator, you require professional training that includes heavy equipment safety training. Heavy equipment in the wrong hands can be very dangerous and we have seen over the years a lot of accidents that have caused serious harm. If you are looking for a career as a heavy equipment operator, make sure your training has the proper focus on heavy equipment safety.

Scenes coming out of the UK and Europe do not bode well for a pleasant winter for us. It was mildly amusing to watch the various equipment that had been modified as snow plows. Old tractors with dozer blades, bulldozers themselves, graders, and what looked like a modified beetle with a blade attached to the front – how that generated the horsepower required has got me. What it has done is remind me of how many operators are required when heavy snow falls do set in.

One news story showed a small village almost lost in seven or eight feet of snow. There were at least six units of machinery working to try and clear the roads of snow, and that, like I said, was one small village. I don’t know if we are better organized here, although that was unusually heavy and early snow. However, we do organize operators and equipment early with most areas already equipped and ready to roll.

The most popular heavy equipment used to clear snow, apart from dedicated snow plows, are bulldozers, graders, and loaders (either wheel loaders of backhoes). The only real requirement to operate this heavy equipment to clear snow is experience. If you have had a lot of experience working with various soils and terrains, it is a simple transition to clearing snow.

To gain experience as a heavy equipment operator, you need to gain employment and, in today’s working environment, that means being trained by respected trainers. One of the most respected training organizations around today is ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training. While operators are busy clearing snow, that means there are opportunities elsewhere for new operators. Opportunities that will give you the experience that will one day enable you to work in areas where the community relies on you to clear the snow.

What are some of the most common reasons for a person to choose a particular profession? Interest is normally the starting point; that’s why you study in particular areas as you go through high school and college. Other factors include stability, income, community standing and family expectations. The latter is one of the most common reasons, and one that have so many people making career changes in their mid to late twenties – they finally break away from those family expectations. Here are eight good reasons to consider training for a Class A commercial drivers license (CDL):

• Well paid – truck drivers are well paid in comparison to many other jobs.
• In Demand – trucks are the life blood of our economy. For this reason, good drivers are always in demand.
• Stable employment – because good drivers are in demand, employers are not going to let you go.
• There are drivers around that have spent 30-40 years working for one employer.
• Work location – you can elect to just drive locally or you can elect to drive the big interstate rigs. The choice is up to you.
• Flexibility – one of the forgotten components to holding a CDL is that you’re not restricted to driving trucks. The CDL may make you employable as a heavy equipment operator, for example, (if you’re trained) simply because your license means you can cart the equipment out to a job yourself.
• Training – it only takes three weeks to learn to drive a truck. Pass your test and you’re ready to start.
• Variety – you never know what you’re going to cart from one day to the next. You may also find you are driving to different locations every day.
• Freedom – the biggest bonus of them all when it comes to truck driving. There’s nothing like the freedom of the open road.

A commercial drivers license opens a door to a career that’s busy and never boring. There are few careers that offer as many options as truck driving does so if you’re interested, contact ATS, the nation’s most experienced truck driver training organization in the country.