A story this week from the Orange County Register is a timely reminder that even bulldozers face situations that are dangerous and require skilled operators. Bulldozers are often thought of as muscle machines that just get in and get a job done. They are strong and its their strength that is relied upon to complete jobs quickly, but this news story adds a high level of caution.

There are houses around the Anaheim Hills area that are threatening to slide down the hill and onto a busy freeway. As a home owner, I guess the last thing you want is to find your home on the freeway and the living room now the fast lane. Houses were bought, residents moved out and now it’s time for the bulldozers to move in and demolish them.

Being subject to landslides, heavy earth moving will be tricky. They may only be knocking down the homes, but that is not a simple task under these conditions. Bulldozer operators will need to be vigilant, not just in watching the ground around them, but also in ‘feeling’ the ground as they slowly pull these buildings down. These skills cannot be taught; they can only be gained through experience. However, if you read this blog often enough, one philosophy we always promote is that of your skills base. If you don’t have a good grounding in operating heavy equipment, you will never truly become a proficient operator.

A good skills base is a little like a building and its foundations. Weak foundations and the building will eventually fall. Good strong foundations and the building will be around for a long time. You can develop a good skills foundation by ensuring your heavy equipment training is delivered by accredited training organizations. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools is accredited and delivers training that has been accredited to national standards. If you are looking to become a bulldozer operator, contact us now to start developing your skills foundations.

So what do bulldozers and Agatha Christie have in common? Not a lot apart from the town of Luxor in Egypt. Now I know Luxor is a long way from here, but for some, it’s not that far. Agatha Christie found a lot inspiration for her books in Luxor and now the whole area is to be turned into a giant open-air museum based around the ancient city of Thebes. This is where the bulldozers come in – they are currently hard at work leveling much of the city of Luxor in order to reveal that ancient city.

Now I know what you are thinking. What does Luxor in Egypt have to do with heavy equipment training here at home apart from the association with bulldozers? At ATS Heavy Equipment Schools, we train our students in a range of equipment and prepare them for the workplace. Heavy equipment is one field of employment where your skills are valuable everywhere – and when I say everywhere I do mean worldwide.

The team of bulldozer operators clearing the way in Luxor is somewhat of an international effort with operators being employed from all parts of the world. There are several US citizens who are currently working as bulldozer operators in Luxor and several local operators owe their skills and knowledge to US operators who trained them.

One of the benefits of training on a range of heavy equipment is the multi-skilling that occurs. You walk away from your training with the skills to operate many different types of heavy equipment, not just a bulldozer. Naturally, you will specialize on one particular machine, but it you keep your skills updated across the board you will find employment opportunities everywhere, including overseas. For younger people just setting out in life, and perhaps wanting to see the world first, training as a heavy equipment operator is definitely an option. Who knows, you could end up in Luxor pulling down one of Agatha Christie’s old haunts.

Bulldozers – here is some trivia for you. How did a bulldozer get its name? According to About.com,

“Around 1880, the common usage of ‘bull-dose’ in the United States meant administering a large and efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment. If you ‘bull-dosed’ someone, you gave him a severe whipping or coerced or intimidated him in some other way, such as by holding a gun to his head… In 1886, with a slight variation in spelling, a ‘bulldozer’ had come to mean both a large-caliber pistol and the person who wielded it… By the late 1800s, ‘bulldozing’ came to mean using brawny force to push over, or through, any obstacle.”

Technically, the term “bulldozer” only refers to the blade, not the powerhouse that pushes it around. These days we refer to the whole vehicle as a bulldozer and when they say it uses “brawny force to push over, or through, any obstacle”, they are not wrong. Pound for pound, bulldozers are one of the most powerful units of heavy equipment used and they have to be given the work they are required to do.

Because of the power and brute force required, bulldozers have long been a favorite of men (and women) of all ages. Little children start with a bulldozer in their sand pits and grow into adults playing in adult sand pits (well construction sites anyway). If you enjoyed playing with your bulldozer as a child, perhaps you should consider a career as a bulldozer operator.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools can have you trained and ready for employment as a bulldozer operator in as little as three weeks. Bulldozers, they are big brutes that move mountains of earth and, just like the toys from our childhood, can be fun to work with. Contact us for more information on our heavy equipment training programs – you too could be a bulldozer operator.

Bulldozers are fairly straightforward units of heavy equipment and an operator can be effective with fairly basic skill levels. However, being a competent operator goes beyond knowing which levers to push or pull and when – there are many others factors that are required. If you undertake a heavy equipment training program through ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools, you can expect to learn how to operate:

• backhoes
• wheel loaders
• scrapers
• excavators
• bulldozers
• road graders
• rock trucks
• Skid Steers, and
• All-Terrain Forklifts

As you can see, bulldozers are included in the range of heavy equipment that you can learn to operate. This gives you more variety when it comes to employment opportunities in the future. Operating skills are only one part of what is needed to become an effective operator. Other skills required include:

• the ability to read and assess grades
• ability to use laser levels
• knowledge of different soils and soil structures
• understand and work to safety guidelines
• ability to read and understand site layouts
• knowledge and ability to carry out basic heavy equipment maintenance

These complementary skills are what separates average operators and good operators. This is particularly true of bulldozer operators who are often required to work on a construction site when it is still virgin bushland. Reading plans, understanding the soil, and working to a site plan are essential to achieving a finish ready for construction. Good operators will get the job done on time and leave a ‘clean’ building site. Cowboy operators will tear the area up but often leave it ‘dirty’ – by ‘dirty’ I mean an uneven finish with huge gouge marks and little piles of dirt everywhere.

If you want to be a bulldozer operator, or any type of heavy equipment operator, make sure you undertake your heavy equipment training through an accredited training body like ATS – you are then assured of quality training that prepares you for the workplace.

As the weather starts to clear you will see more and more bulldozers hard at work on many of our back roads. Over winter, snow, ice and water sit on these back roads and are generally only accessible using off-road vehicles. Off-road vehicles tend to have larger tires with large tread patterns so you can imagine the effect they have as they grind snow, ice and mud against the road surfaces.

Once the weather has cleared – and the snow, ice and water has gone – these back roads are almost impassable due to the large pot holes that have been gouged into the roads. Bulldozers are often called in to start the repair processes. They carve out the rough patches of road ready for either a repair crew to resurface the road or for gravel, which the bulldozer then spreads over the surface.

Bulldozer operators are always in high demand at this time of the year. They are normally the first heavy equipment operators called into any construction area as they prepare the way for new buildings or new roads. Because of this demand, it is also a great opportunity for those who are looking to start a career as bulldozer operators.

By undertaking your heavy equipment operator training through ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools you are giving yourself the best advantage possible in starting this career. Training only takes three weeks so you are ready to snap up any opportunities that arise. ATS has an excellent record when it comes to producing skilled operators. Future employers will often show preference for our graduates over those from other training schools. If you’re ready for a career operating bulldozers, give yourself the ATS advantage and contact us now for details on the next training course in your area.

For most people, the image of a bulldozer is that of a machine that pushes dirt around all day. In simple terms, they are right. However, in the hands of a skilled operator, bulldozers are land sculptors. Rather than just pushing dirt around, they carve areas ready for whatever the intended use is.

If you take a housing development, the land is cleared. This is the bulldozer at its beasty best. It uses brute strength to carve away the top of the area to be developed. However, once the initial work has been completed, the bulldozer then starts to carve out areas. Roads may be carved a little deeper than the surrounding home sites. Playgrounds or shopping precincts may be carved a little deeper still or at least cleared to a large flat surface. In the hands of a skilled operator, this work can be completed with precision in fairly quick time.

The operative words there are ‘skilled operator’. The bulldozer is going nowhere unless it has an operator. The more skilled the operator, the better the machine performs. Becoming a skilled operator takes two steps – training and practice. Training, of course, provides the skill and knowledge base that practice (or experience) builds on. Like any building, lay a faulty foundation and the chances are that building will collapse. Develop a poor skills base and no amount of practice will help – not if you are practicing poor work habits.

Quality training starts with a quality training organization like ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools. ATS deliver quality bulldozer training through their nationally accredited heavy equipment training program, a program that can have you work ready in as little as three weeks. If you fancy the challenge of operating a beast to carve out the landscape then consider bulldozer operator training.

Bulldozers in one form or another have been responsible for much of what we call home. From the woodlands that were cleared to make way for agriculture to the swamps and grasslands that have been cleared to make way for housing – all of it undertaken by bulldozers. Sure, in the early days it was more a case of a tractor with a blade attached to the front – that is not the case these days. Now we have purpose-built heavy equipment that makes those old tractors look like toys.

However, the principle is still the same. A strong motor pushes a blade across the top of the ground, carving away the unwanted top layer. What has changed in an attempt to make these machines more powerful is the adoption of tracks rather than wheels. Tracks spread the weight of the bulldozer thereby providing more traction – and with it more grunt.

Learning to operate a bulldozer is really a breeze. They look complicated but in reality the bulldozer is one of the least complicated of all heavy earth moving equipment. As I have alluded to, a bulldozer is nothing more than a powerful engine mounted on tracks that pushes a blade around. Sure, the blade can be raised and lowered and even tilted forward and back a little. Otherwise, it’s a simple machine.

Being a simple machine, the controls are likewise quite simple. Learning to operate a bulldozer is easy. Learning to be a bulldozer operator, now that is another story. Most of us could operate a bulldozer with a couple of hours training. However, like all jobs, operating a piece of machinery and being a skilled operator are two different things. Knowing the soil and how it will react to being pushed around; knowing your machine and how to maintain it; and knowledge of workplace safety are some of the components that come together to make a skilled operator.

If you would like to become a skilled bulldozer operator or a skilled heavy equipment operator then you will need to undertake a training program from a skilled group of trainers. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools are the people you need to talk to. With over 45 years of training experience, they know what skills employers want and they deliver. Join the next wave of skilled bulldozer operators who gained their skills through ATS. Call today for more information on the next available training program.

It is fairly early in the year, but I am starting to see bulldozers out and about. In some areas, the weather is such that bulldozer operators can grab an early start to the year. Their tasks at present are limited to preparing land for projects. Some are road projects where everything is taken out. Others are working on housing projects where many trees and some vegetation is left behind.

The other thing I am noticing is the growing demand for bulldozer operators. At this time of the year it is often to handle snow plows and the like, however, this year there are increasing requests for general land clearing bulldozer operators. This could be the perfect opportunity for anyone considering a career change.

It only takes three weeks. That’s all. Put yourself into the hands of a qualified instructor at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator school and they will have trained you and have you ready to accept your first job. The only effort you need is to commit yourself to the training. We have decades of experience training heavy equipment operators and we also know the labor market and what skills and attributes they require of their workers.

If a job as a bulldozer operator sounds attractive, give us a call to discuss your training options. We can also provide assistance with finance and finance applications and, once successfully through the training program, job placement assistance to find that first job. We offer a one stop solution for all your heavy equipment training needs. Employers are looking for bulldozer operators – are you our next success story?

Although many areas are covered in snow, there is still a lot of work going on that utilizes the power of bulldozers. Land clearing in preparation for spring and summer building programs are high on the agenda. It can be difficult building houses when the weather is unpredictable, but you can certainly clear the land and prepare areas like roads and home sites.

Construction is not the only area where bulldozers are being kept busy. Winter is a good time to commence land restoration programs. The bulldozers work to remove old unwanted vegetation. The land is worked, often with composted material so that when spring starts to warm the air, vegetation native to that area can be planted. The soil is rich and ready to take the new vegetation whilst competition is low having been shaved off by the bulldozers.

These two jobs have several things in common apart from being winter jobs. They both involve land clearing to a purpose, to a design or plan. They can both have bulldozers working at precarious angles (at least they seem to be precarious) as they clear away the sides of hills. For new housing developments, the bulldozer may also need to carve out embankments for new roads, bridges and waterways.

Training operate a bulldozer is not that difficult given the modern equipment in use. Most freshly trained operators could work on either of these projects if close supervision is available. They are certainly good for developing skills and gaining valuable hours in the operator’s seat. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools can get the ball rolling with hands on training in bulldozers. Before you know it, you could be out there helping to clear the next major housing development.

Bulldozers, they really are one of the muscle machines when it comes to construction and land clearing. Their job is not to dig so much as to carve and push huge quantities of dirt. These days though, a bulldozer is also built to include a touch of finesse to its work. Watch a bulldozer spreading gravel or road base; they come pretty close to achieving what the older road graders used to achieve.

Modern bulldozers have all sorts of mod cons. Some come equipped with GPS, others with laser, many with both. Computer systems are becoming the norm in new heavy equipment and bulldozers haven’t been spared the technology. At this rate, it won’t be long and you will need control room training rather bulldozer operator training.

Maybe it won’t quite get to that point. I still think that knowing what the dirt is doing is half the job. A machine will never be able to replicate fully what we can do with our hands and eyes. Even so, bulldozer training is becoming more involved all the time. The need for training on fairly modern equipment is also becoming important. I know of some training firms that are using equipment that is 20-30 years old – they should be in museums rather than on training grounds.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have a proud record of providing industry with skilled bulldozer operators – operators that are ready to work the day they finish their training. Not only are our operators highly skilled, they have a good working knowledge of technology and how it affects their day to day operations. If you have ever considered a career as a bulldozer operator, now is a great time to act. Complete your training now and be ready for an expected jump in demand as winter ends and spring sees the start of hundreds of construction projects. Contact ATS for more information on bulldozer operator training.