Dump truck drivers often have the best of all worlds. The work is relatively easy, the paychecks are good and you normally get to go home at the end of each day. In most cases, dump truck drivers operate in their own area working on a wide variety of projects ranging from highway building to home constructions. Building a successful career as a dump truck driver can be a lot easier than trying to break into the long distance driving segment of the industry.

Like all careers, your success will depend to a large degree on how well trained you are. It is also important to receive training from a school that has a good reputation within the industry. Armed with these two, your chances of gaining a start are significantly improved. Demonstrating your abilities on the job will then determine how successful you career is going to be.

Associated Training Services has a network of truck driving schools all with well earned reputations for providing well trained drivers. It also helps that ATS is one of the nation’s oldest truck driver training schools – a factor that will soon be highlighted when we celebrate fifty years in the industry – there are not many truck driver training schools that can boast a fiftieth birthday.

We can provide the training, and our reputation may well help you open doors to gain a start. However, your career will still be based on how well you perform as an operator. Dedication, reliability and attention to details such as safety are all important. Most importantly is your commitment to wanting a career as a dump truck driver. If you are committed, and you can display dedication, reliability and attention to detail, then contact us for more information on how we can help you get started on the road to a successful career as a dump truck driver.

Three heavy equipment vehicles that can often be seen working together are loaders, bulldozers and dump trucks. They do make for a perfect team with the bulldozer’s sheer grunt giving it the ability to move a lot of dirt around fairly quickly. Loaders then transfer those piles of dirt to dump trucks to be carted away. You will often see bulldozers, loaders and dump trucks working together in areas such as pre-construction of buildings and roads.

Bulldozers do one thing – they move dirt and they do it well. With plenty of grunt in the engine, and a good strong blade at the front, they can carve out a new road or building site fairly quickly. It is interesting to watch the bulldozer take an area of land that is lightly vegetated and transform it into a flat clean area of land ready for whatever project is intended. The only sign of the bulldozer’s presence being the piles of dirt and rubble scattered around the edges of the site.

Bring in the loader and those piles of dirt and rubble are soon gone, all transferred to waiting dump trucks for removal. Loaders don’t rely on brute forward strength. Their power revolves around their ability to quickly maneuver around a site and to lift large loads, particularly overhead and into dump trucks. Where bulldozers rely on tracks for mobility, loaders are generally wheeled and often articulated, giving them even more mobility.

Dump trucks complete the picture. With open top bodies, they can be quickly and easily filled with dirt and rubble. Being trucks, they can take that load to any destination, including driving on the open roads. Dump trucks get their name from the action of dumping, or tipping the body upwards to ‘dump’ out their load.

These three vehicles work independently yet each relies on the other to complete its job. For those looking at a career in heavy equipment, standard training at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools introduces students to all three vehicles (and many others). If you are looking for hands on training that prepares you for the workforce, check out your heavy equipment training options – perhaps a career as a dump truck driver, bulldozer operator or loader operator is right for you.

If I was asked which careers offered the best long term opportunities I would have to point to the transport sector. No matter how tough times are, we still eat and we still consume and that requires transport. The alternative is that we all learn to grow our own food – and, realistically, most people wouldn’t know where to start so we have farmers do it for us. With transport comes the second requirement – road and rail. So where do dump trucks come in?

Although roads are one of the mainstays of the transport system, when times are really tough, new construction slows a little. Instead, we repair what’s already in place. If you take the time to watch repair crews, they always consist of one or more dump trucks, even if it’s just to carry the mix used to repair roads. In fact, if you look around you, dump trucks always seem to be on our roads either carting material away or bringing in materials.

Dump truck training is a little more specialized than just truck driver training. Reversing a large dump truck can be difficult, especially if you have a pit or pit face that you have to tip your load over. A foot too far and the whole truck’s in the pit – a foot too far away and you’re dumping the load on the edge and not over the edge. Dump truck drivers also have to learn the art of slowly dumping material while driving – this helps to spread the load rather than dumping it all in the one spot and relying on another vehicle to do the spreading.

If you’re after a career that is always in demand, consider a career as a dump truck driver. You will always be busy – and the pay checks are not too bad either.

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?

If you are looking for a career that is non stop then consider a career as a dump truck driver. One thing I can guarantee is that you will be kept busy. These days, heavy equipment like excavators and loaders can fill a dump truck very quickly and have it on its way again in no time. As a dump truck operator, you could be spending your day carting excess dirt away from a construction area, carting truck loads of building material to a site, or a lot of both.

Dump trucks take a little more skill than standard trucks. Sure, the driving is pretty much the same, however, when it comes to emptying a load, dump trucks don’t need to rely on other machinery. As the name implies, they simply dump their load and leave. It’s the dumping that requires the extra skills of course and in years past, has been the cause of most accidents involving dump truck drivers.

Simple safety aspects like looking up before operating the dumper is essential these days – the last thing you want is make contact with any overhead cabling. Dumping safely is important and so to is learning to dump while on the move. This can be a fairly technical task with the rear hopper only opened an inch or two. With the hopper slightly opened, the dumper is slowly raised and as the material is emptied, the truck moves forward. Good operators can spread an inch or so of gravel evenly over a stretch of new road – a job most people would find difficult doing by hand.

Becoming a dump truck driver is as 1-2-3. 1 – call us to find out when and where our next truck driver training program is. 2 – enroll in a truck driver training program that suits and 3 – give us three weeks to train you (that’s all it takes) ready for work. Driving a dump truck brings to life the dreams over many childhoods.

Dump trucks are one of the busiest vehicles on any construction site. If they are not bringing in truck loads of building materials they are carting truck loads out. At times, they will do both, bringing in, say, a load of sand and then filling up with a load debris that needs to be removed.

The role of a dump truck driver is never boring. In fact, you are on the go almost all day. The only time you get to pause is when your truck is being filled. These days, that doesn’t take very long at all. There are many areas that utilize hoppers – you simply drive your truck under the hopper, the hopper is opened and within a minute you have a full load. At the construction site, loaders. backhoes and excavators can quickly fill a dump truck with material that needs carting away.

Career prospects for dump trucks are good with demand for drivers fairly steady all year round. The peak in demand around the middle to the end of spring as construction companies take on new drivers to help meet contract deadlines. Now is one of the best times to gain one’s qualifications as a dump truck driver since that recruitment drive for drivers will soon start in earnest.

ATS Truck Driver Schools can have you trained and ready for work in as little as three weeks. Dump truck driver training is undertaken using both in class and behind the wheel training sessions. Behind the wheel sessions involve you doing the driving, not watching someone else doing the driving. Every kid wants to be a dump truck driver when playing in their sand pit, but is the big kid in you still wanting to drive a dump truck in a real life sand pit?

There has been a growth in dump trucks in recent years although you may be surprised at where this growth is. Mention dump trucks and you are probably imagining a truck with a large bin on its back that can be tipped to empty. That’s the traditional dump truck also known as a rigid dump truck. However, the growth has been in what are known as articulated dump trucks.

As the name suggests, articulated dump trucks are in two parts with tray or bin separate to the tractor or drive component. Driving an articulated dump truck is similar to driving with a trailer, this means reversing can be tricky if you are not skilled in the art. Does one form of dump truck offer any benefits over the other? Generally speaking, no. However, where an articulated truck is superior is in off-road capabilities, particularly on slopes and in muddy conditions.

Since an articulated dump truck does not act in the same manner as a rigid dump truck, you would think that specialist training may be in order. If you are trained only in a rigid dump truck then extra training could be required. If you undertake your training through ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools then further training shouldn’t be required.

ATS train truck drivers in both rigid and articulated vehicles. This provides students with skills to drive either a rigid truck like a dump truck, or articulated vehicles such as tractor-trailers and, of course, articulated dump trucks. Driving an articulated dump truck can be a challenging and rewarding job. If you’re interested in learning how to drive a dump truck – call us to discuss your dump truck training options.

Driving trucks can be a job that takes you away from your family for two or three nights each week. Driving dump trucks generally means you’re home for dinner each night and you get to sleep in your own bed. It’s not the only benefit, but for many people, it’s an important benefit.

Other benefits include:

• good wage rates compared to other workers
• regular working hours
• job security
• variety in your work
• not physically demanding
• climate controlled cab
• skills that are recognized nationally
• excellent work conditions

Dump trucks play an important role in our construction industries. They help to remove tons of rubble, waste and unwanted dirt from construction sites. They do the reverse when it comes to road building, bringing in tons of gravel and road base that goes into laying the foundations of our roads and highways.

With those benefits and the type of work required, don’t think that dump truck training is difficult or that a career as a driver is hard to get into. The opposite is actually the case. You can develop the necessary skills in as little as three weeks – this means you can be working within a month of commencing training if everything falls into place.

There is always a strong demand for dump truck drivers, especially with construction gaining such a boost over the last 12 months. We have also got an aging workforce so many of the older drivers are now looking at retirement or careers where they can work part time. This has all produced a strong demand for new drivers. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools has been training truck drivers for over 25 years and we are recognized as one of the premier truck driver training schools in the country. If you want a career as a dump truck driver, contact us today to find out when our next training courses start.

Driving a dump truck can be a hot and dusty job – although at this time of the year it could also be a cold, damp and muddy job. It’s not all hard work, however. There are times when the dump trucks and their drivers relax a little and have some fun. Christmas is one such occasion, especially when they help out Santa.

I am sure you have seen Christmas parades, or perhaps had Santa visit a workplace Christmas party that has been put together for the families. We don’t see them quite as often as we used to. Thirty or forty years ago every workplace had a family Christmas function of some description. The star of the function was always the arrival of Santa.

For many workplaces, Santa arrived in a dressed up dump truck. He still does today. The dump truck is cleaned out, lined with all the Christmas trappings that befits a Santa. A large chair is placed on a few pallets to give him some height, and the dump truck is ready for Santa.

It’s not just Christmas. There are many street parades each year that feature characters dressed up to please the children. They drive down the street on the back of a dump truck. For other characters, the back of a flat bed truck is used.

What shouldn’t surprise you is that despite all the fun and pageantry that accompanies these events, the dump truck driver’s responsibility still revolves around safety – probably more so given the number of children pressing in trying to get a closer look. It takes a lot of skill and concentration to drive a truck at such slow speeds, skills that have been picked up through dump truck driver training and through practical hands on experience. Of course, our kids don’t care – they just want to see Santa.

I bet you didn’t know that dump trucks built roads. In a way, they do. Sure, they don’t smooth out the road base and they don’t lay the seal, but they do play a big role in building our roads. In fact, if you care to stop and watch a team as they build a new road, you will be amazed at how involved a dump truck is.

Without getting too technical in how a new road is built, there are steps which are pretty obvious. The stretch of land where a new road is to be built has to be cleared of vegetation. A road crew will often remove the top foot or so of soil – sometimes much more. This is generally the role of a bulldozer and a front end loader. The loader of course dumps the cleared waste into – a dump truck.

From there, graders get to work leveling the new road. Once they have a smooth platform to build a road on, the assembly of a new road begins. And that is what it is – an assembly project. Dump trucks bring in road base, a material used to make the foundations of the road. This could be a gravel and cement mixture, for example. The dump trucks don’t just dump and run. If you watch them you will see they start the tipper action and as the base starts to flow out, they drive slowly down the new road evenly spreading the road base. This makes life easier for the grader who follows and smooths out the material.

There are several other processes such as driving rollers over this area, which compact and level out the road base. It is then ready for the final seal. This could be cement or a hot mix. Either way, a special machine is used to lay the seal. Once again, dump trucks are used to carry the mix – they dump it in to the machine laying the new road. Wave after wave of trucks come in and they are able to empty their contents without the machine stopping. This enable a completely smooth road to be laid without any seams.

Dump trucks are involved in some way in every step of road making. You can work as a dump truck driver once you complete a truck driver training program. The pay is good, the hours are great, and the job never boring. At the end of the day, you can look back on a piece of road that you have helped build – a permanent record of your hard work.