If you’re looking for a career that has plenty of variety, doesn’t keep you stuck in the one place all the time, and pays well, then a career as a mobile crane operator could be just the answer. As the name implies, a mobile crane operator is mobile. They are constantly on the move doing tasks as and where required. You could spend a week on a construct site moving heavy construction material, and the next week out on a pipe line helping to put pipes into place.

Mobile crane operators can also spend their days hopping from task to task. You could be helping to lift a roof air conditioner into place in the morning and helping to pull a car out of a river in the afternoon. If you can think of a task where a crane could make the job easier, then a mobile crane will most likely be involved.

Like most heavy equipment, mobile cranes come in a range of sizes. There are the small babies that are often used around construction sites and where pipe laying requires their services, and there are huge mobile cranes that are large enough to lift an overturned tanker back onto its wheels. Mobile crane operators are required to hold a commercial drivers license and to be certified as a crane operator.

Crane operator training can be completed in as little as three weeks. During that three week training period, students will learn how to safely set up their crane, operate their crane, and to prepare their crane for travel. Safety is a key component for any crane operator training and is one of the driving forces behind the requirement for certification. A career as a mobile crane operator is varied and well paid, and the demand is there for new drivers.

If you’re under 30 and dreamed of one day operating a bulldozer, excavator or any other heavy equipment, then listen up – your country is calling. At least, employers are. We have a rapidly aging heavy equipment operator work force, many of whom will be retiring in the next five years. The average age of operators is now well into the mid-40s and the number of younger operators coming through is dropping each year.

Heavy equipment operations is best suited to mature and steady minds. However, that doesn’t mean that younger minds cannot succeed. In fact, by starting young, by the time you get to your mid-40s, you will be an expert at your trade, if not running your own heavy equipment business. While unemployment may be high, there is still plenty of demand for heavy equipment operators and this trend is expected to continue for at least the next ten years – unless of course we can recruit a lot of younger people to the industry.

If you’re interested in a heavy equipment career, then acting now will have you perfectly placed to take advantage of this demand. You can undertake heavy equipment training that will have you work ready in as little as three weeks – and this is across a range of equipment. You can also receive assistance to help you find your first job as a heavy equipment operator.

Being a heavy equipment operator may not be as flashy as some jobs sound, however, as a career it’s rewarding. You are not repeating the same job over and over again, and there’s plenty of room for growth.

Are you ready to step into the shoes of those about to retire? If so, find out more about your heavy equipment training options. Don’t dream the job – experience it.

There are many professions that rely on a range of senses. Cooks are the most obvious – they rely on eyes, ears, their noses, a sense of touch and, ultimately, their sense of taste. Heavy equipment operators also rely on a range of senses and it can be a difficult area to train novices in. When it comes to road grader operators, the best way to learn to use these senses is through hands-on-training, and by ongoing experience. So which senses play a major role in operating a road grader?

• Eyes – Eyes are an obvious area and while spectacles are not really a problem, keeping them up-to-date with your eyesight is. Road grader operators need to be able to precisely follow a range of signs or signals to ensure they are grading at the right angle and height.
• Touch – If you are an experienced car driver, then you’ll know what I mean when I say you can ‘feel’ so much through your vehicle’s controls. The same is true for a road grader operator. That sense of touch can tell when a grader is cutting too deeply, or meeting more resistance than expected.
• Ears – Like the sense of touch, your ears can tell you what is happening with the motor. You experience the same with a manual shift car, changing gears when you hear the motor reaching the right revs. With a road grader, a change in revs can mean the grader is starting to struggle, or is operating smoothly.
• Nose – While not as important as the other senses, the nose will warn you of any problems related to your road grader. A sudden smell of smoke, oil, or fuel can be an early warning to a major problem.

While computers are starting to play an important role in the operation of a road grader, there’s no denying that those senses becomes an operators best friend. Learn to develop those senses while operating a road grader and you’ll quickly rise to become a fine grader, these are the finishing operators that work to very fine measurements – and the operators that draw the best pay checks. It all starts by learning to operate a road grader – from there, you’ll quickly develop those senses to become an effective operator.

Have you stepped into the cab of a long distance truck lately? Known as a tractor in the business, modern cabs can be real eye openers. You can often get to see inside some of these rigs at truck driver training school open days, or through industry field days, or through regional trade shows. If you get the chance, I suggest you take a closer look.

When you do have a closer look, check out what’s behind the drivers seat. You’ll find a comfortable bunk bed, perhaps a microwave oven and even a television set. I have even seen rigs with a toilet and shower cubicle. These trucks are designed to look after the comfort of a driver when they are forced to take time away from the wheel. For drivers, these rigs are their home away from home – in fact, for some drivers, they are their home.

Long distance truck driving is a career like no other. You spend hours each day on the highway, sometimes traveling from one side of the country to the other – perhaps even across international borders. Truck drivers soon learn the best places to stop and eat, stop and sleep, and even to stop and socialize – and they are a tight-knit community, always ready to help each other.

Does that sound like a career that would interest you? The trucking industry is always in need of new drivers and one of the greatest needs is in long distance driving. Your first step to a successful career as a long distance truck driver is to undertake training that is well respected by the trucking community – and that’s where ATS can help you. Contact us for details on your truck driver training options.

There are a lot of workplaces that require operators of heavy equipment and cranes to have specific skills to that industry, or to a specific job. The same can be said for those employing truck drivers, riggers or signal persons. For some businesses, they are moving into areas that are relatively new, having secured contracts they have tended for.

Being able to train your employees to do specific tasks with heavy equipment can be time consuming, and not very cost effective if you do it yourself. Associated Training Services (ATS) have been delivering customized training in areas such as heavy equipment operations, crane operations, truck driving (including CDL training) and rigger/signal person for almost half a century.

We are able to walk into a workplace, assess the training needs of that workplace, then deliver cost-effective training based on those needs. Where appropriate, ATS can undertake assessments of those individuals to ensure they receive the right documentation – for example, certification of crane operators.

ATS work with employers to ensure the training outcomes meet all the demands that operating their equipment may deliver, including safety aspects of their equipment. Training can be delivered at the workplace or in one of our facilities. Workplace training is often effective because the operators are learning using the equipment they are going to be operating.

Is it cost effective? In the majority of cases, most definitely. By engaging a professional training organization like ATS, your employees receive quality training that is focused on the employer’s needs. Skilled trainers are able to identify weaknesses quickly and to work those showing a weakness to ensure maximum productivity with lower down time due to accident or poor performance.

If you’re an employer with specific training needs when it comes to heavy equipment – cranes, truck driving or rigging/signal persons – then contact ATS for a no-obligation discussion on how we can assist you to obtain the best out of your employees.

If you visit a number of construction sites, there is one thing they may have in common – they all use a different language when it comes to hand signals. This often occurs when a team has worked together for a long period of time. Informal hands signals start to creep in, often because they are thought to be easier than the industry standard signals.

Industry standards are important. To begin with, they are portable so a worker can work on any site and they will be using the same language as everyone else. In fact, your English skills may be barely adequate, but your hand signals will be clearly understood by everyone. Industry standards are also important as they are generally deemed to be the clearest and easiest to learn by all.

If you employ riggers and signal persons, do they use the industry standard hand signals? It is now compulsory for workers in these areas to hold an OSHA qualification for their positions. This qualification is a way of recognizing the skills that each employee has in their field, and that they meet national minimal standards. Hand signals are an important component of a rigger’s and signal person’s working life.

For employers who have workers in either one (or both) of these fields, you need to ensure they all hold an OSHA qualification for riggers or signal persons. If they don’t, you may be subject to legal action resulting in quite large fines. Associated Training Services has a number of programs designed to qualify riggers and signal persons. These programs can be delivered either at your workplace or in our training schools. Upon completion of the programs, your employees will be eligible for compliance cards, thus meeting the new labor law requirements.

There are a lot of factors to consider when undertaking training for a new career. There’s the matter of funding to pay for your training, the loss of income while attending training, and for some students, finding accommodation as well. Fortunately, ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools have thought of these problems and we have solutions to help students overcome them.

When it comes to funding your training, we have some sound advice on this blog (see posts on financial aid here) and on our website. You can even apply for financial assistance online through us. When it comes to loss of income, we have developed our training programs in such a way that students can be trained and ready for employment in the shortest time possible.

Housing assistance is always a difficult option. Do you stay at home and travel each day, or do you try and find accommodation closer to the training school? With gas prices the way they are, travel can be expensive, not to mention a time-hogging option. ATS has resolved that problem as well. For students wishing to train at our Sun Prairie training school, we can arrange finance for the ATS dormitory. This is a very comfortable establishment that is only four miles from the training school and within easy walking distance of restaurants, grocery stores, and shopping centers. We even offer financial assistance to help cover the costs of your accommodation.

With your accommodation taken care of, you can start to concentrate on the more important issues – studying to become a heavy equipment operator – and we’ll be there with you.

It’s rather sad to read online newspapers sometimes, especially when you work in the field of heavy equipment training. One of the core areas of heavy equipment training is safety, and it’s easy to see why given some of these stories. To see these headlines, you would think that backhoe operations were extremely dangerous, yet in reality, operating a backhoe should be a very safe occupation. Some of the headlines from the past month include:

• Man Killed After His Backhoe Tips Over
• Orangeville Man Killed By Backhoe
• 6-Year-Old Girl Injured While Playing With Backhoe
• Gas Line Explosion In Lake Worth After Backhoe Incident
• Backhoe Gets Stuck In Mass. Ave. Tunnel

With the exception of the last news article, taking a little more care may have prevented these accidents. When a child is injured, the first question raised is related to how secure the operator had left his equipment while unattended. Severing a gas line is a team problem – someone should have had maps of the services to they could avoid any underground problems. The last point, while not a problem caused by the backhoe operator, is still an example of what can go wrong.

Undertaking heavy equipment training can help you to avoid many of these incidents, simply through the safety training that is now incorporated in that training. Safety should always be on the mind of a heavy equipment operator. Working safely in the work place demands attention to everything both in the cab and on the ground around you. Backhoes are generally very safe vehicles to operate, however, if you don’t have that safety training, you won’t know how to stay safe.

Bulldozer operators are employed in a wide range of industries. While construction, particularly road building, is the major industry for bulldozer operators, experienced operators can also find work in areas as diverse as a state’s fire department. A news article from September last year really highlights the benefits many fire departments receive through employing bulldozer operators.

I should modify that – the real beneficiaries are those who have homes under threat of fire. The news story relates to the Cal Fire Department and the work the bulldozer operators did during the 2003 wildfires that threatened to burn the historic town of Julian. Working at night, with almost zero vision, bulldozer operators were able to clear the ground around many of the houses, thus preventing the fire from reaching them. To quote from the news article:

“These guys were on some really steep slopes getting in and around houses — I mean right up against the houses, clearing the vegetation back. We didn’t have the resources for fire trucks at the time and they were able to ring these houses, remove all the vegetation so the fire couldn’t get to these houses and saved a lot of them.”

It’s dangerous work. In fact, bulldozer operators have lost their lives while out fighting fires, yet their work is essential in saving homes, businesses, and sometimes the lives of others. It’s work that often goes unheralded as well so it’s great to see a news article that champions their existence within these fire departments.

Fire departments have to be selective when employing bulldozer operators. They require operators that are skilled, well versed in safety issues, and able to keep a level head when all around them is in chaos. While new operators would struggle to find employment in this area, undertaking a thorough bulldozer training program is the first step that could see you joining a fire department at some time in the future.

If you can see yourself one day working as a bulldozer operator for a fire department, do yourself a big favor – make sure your bulldozer operator training is delivered by the best in the business. With a good grounding, you’re ready to start work to gain the experience required to fulfill that ambition.

There’s no denying we are living in an era where our population is rapidly aging. The baby boomers (those aged over 55) are rapidly reaching retirement age and this is starting to leave skill shortages across a wide range of industries. The truck driving workforce has an average age of 44 years with over 50% of all drivers aged 35 plus. With a high proportion of those drivers being from the baby boomer era, their retirement from the workplace is starting to create a truck driver vacuum.

Statistically, the trucking industry is only recruiting at a rate of around 1.2%. Meanwhile, the rate of those leaving the industry is around 2.5% – this is leaving an annual shortfall of at least 1.3% – while percentages may mean little, with over a million people employed as truck drivers, that’s an annual shortfall of 13,000 new drivers. As demand for more goods rises, this shortfall will only become worse.

The trucking industry has reached a point where younger drivers are needed. It has not quite reached desperate status yet, however, in some regions it’s not far off it. Trucking has struggled to lure younger people, with most new recruits being in the 30-plus age group.

For those in the 21-30 year age group, now is a great time to seriously consider truck driving careers. Wages and conditions are good and new drivers are assured of long careers with relatively stable employment. During the recent recession, few drivers lost their jobs and those that did were able to find new employment fairly quickly.

If you’re considering a career change, then look a little closer at the trucking industry. It only takes a few weeks of truck driver training and you’re ready to start your new career.