Some of us don’t think much about it until we start to build a new building near our home or work.  Then, we usually just complain about how the construction affects traffic and slows everything down.

But stop to think about it: what would life be without construction; without heavy equipment? Before heavy equipment, everything was done by hand. Picks and shovels; wheelbarrows; and long hours of hard work.

Heavy Equipment Development

Through the early 1900s, the horse-driven and steam-powered heavy equipment revolutionized the construction industry, increasing productivity and shortening the length of time construction projects took to complete. With the invention of the internal combustion engine, the industry began to change even more.

The Interstate Highway System construction during the 1960s was the boom time for the construction and heavy equipment industries.  This type of work called for high-horsepower equipment and new types of equipment.

The high horsepower scrapers were developed to move the massive amounts of materials produced by the highway system construction.  There were hundreds of scrapers at work on these projects.

The 1960s was also the “monster machine” decade.  Machines grew in size and horsepower; the surface mining industry called for machines that are still the largest, even today, including the 360-ton haul truck, which has grown to a 400-ton haul truck, becoming more productive and efficient, but not much bigger.

The 1970s faced the Arab oil embargo.  This produced an increased need for coal, which increased the demand for heavy equipment.  The demand was so great, that ordering a large machine found a 2 to 3-year waiting list.

In the 1980s, a recession transformed the industry, with a lot of companies failing.  The recession also changed the future of the four major heavy equipment manufacturers: International Harvester,  Euclid, Caterpillar, and Allis Chalmers.

By the 1990s, only Caterpillar remained with its original name.  In the mid-’90s, a wave of environmental laws forced manufacturers to begin making cleaner and more efficient diesel engines.

The most recent recession in 2008 caused the focus to change from ownership to leasing of heavy equipment. Currently, over 40% of all equipment is bought by rental companies.  The pressure on manufacturers continues, to produce more energy-efficient heavy equipment.  Continued development of electrification of major engine components and more energy-efficient alternatives to conventional powertrain systems are the expected future of heavy equipment.

Even with all of the changes, the global heavy equipment market is estimated to be around 192 billion U.S. dollars in 2017. During 2017, it is expected that around 809,000 construction machines will be sold worldwide, with approximately 186,000 delivered to customers in North America.

No matter what you think about construction and heavy equipment: no roads, no buildings, no houses; nothing in our lives could be constructed without heavy equipment and the construction industry, and the people who run the heavy equipment.  Together with the trucking industry, everything in our lives, from our homes to where we shop, depends on the construction, heavy equipment, and trucking industries.

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Construction Equipment Operators are predicted to see an increase of 19% in their job outlook — that’s more than the average (11%), and this prediction goes from 2012 to 2022. Why such a difference?

Heavy Equipment Jobs Stay In The Area

You can’t import a ditch already dug or a pipeline already laid. It’s impossible to outsource road or home construction because these things have to be done on the site. Somebody working in a call center might see their job go overseas — somebody needing a crane or backhoe has to find a person to operate that equipment where the job site is located, right here in this country.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of opportunities for heavy equipment operators to find work in other countries if they want it. It does mean the operator goes where the work is and the work is tied to the location.

The More Equipment You Can Run, The More Jobs You Can Do

The ATS Advantage is that students and graduates get more than exposure to a variety of equipment that enables flexibility on the job. That flexibility is good, but the great news is that the training is the best and it comes with financial assistance, housing, and lifetime employment assistance.

Since ATS has successfully trained thousands of graduates in heavy equipment operation, mobile crane operation, and Class-A CDL driving, there is an abundance of experience to share. There are many types of equipment that students are exposed to because in real life you will encounter that variety.

The lifetime assistance in employment gives flexibility too — if the job market dries up where you are at, you always have help finding something new in our comprehensive job database.

If you go to one of the antique tractor shows popular in rural areas, you will see many things. There may be a tractor pull, where operators compete to get increasingly heavy loads across the ground. It’s likely there will be some kind of food, probably a local favorite, and certainly tasty. There may be categories of equipment, grouped by type or by the manufacturer.

And you probably will see many pieces of heavy equipment that once were the latest and greatest and now are curiosities.

So if you are thinking that heavy equipment will be obsolete someday, you are right in one way. It’s certain that a particular type of machinery will become outdated as technology changes. But if you are thinking that heavy equipment will be obsolete someday as a category of machinery, you couldn’t be more wrong.

There Will Always Be A Need For Heavy Equipment

There are always jobs that require large machinery to accomplish. A heavy equipment operator may have to learn how to operate the new machine, but a good operator can easily figure it out. It’s just like the difference in driving when you get behind the wheel of a brand new car.

Particular models of heavy equipment will certainly eventually be obsolete, but the need for some type of heavy equipment will always be there. That’s why ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School makes sure students get experience in as many types of big machines as possible. When you are a little familiar with different kinds of equipment, you can figure it out if you have to operate something new the boss just bought.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, fire, flood, and more, are all disasters that leave piles of wreckage in their wake. No matter what the disaster is, it usually takes a heavy equipment operator to clean it up successfully. But doing this important service is a dangerous task for those who go into the chaos to bring order and restore normal life. Disaster recovery workers are exposed to many hazards on this kind of job site.

OSHA has an excellent resource for disaster recovery workers who are operating heavy equipment in their Hurricane eMatrix guide. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with what happens in cleanup because the rules can change drastically. All the normal work site procedures may no longer be in place because this kind of work site is unpredictable. As recovery workers slowly bring restoration safety measures are established, but the first guys into the scene have to be able to respond to whatever they find.

The more experienced a heavy equipment operator is, the better that operator can do the job in disaster recovery since the site is the only thing that’s unfamiliar. All kinds of machinery is used in cleanup, and the need for experienced operators is always there. If you think you are interested in helping after the next disaster, the best way to prepare is by getting good at your job and familiar with the OSHA guidelines. That way you are ready to go.

Training is the foundation for your experience in operating heavy equipment. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School provides that training with expert, professional standards that include time in the classroom and time in the seat of many kinds of heavy equipment. You get the certification and the training to start a career as a heavy equipment operator anywhere, even a disaster site.

Good heavy equipment operators are in short supply in some areas and this is forcing businesses to look at other options. In Canada they are taking their training programs into the high schools training 17- and 18-year-old students for a career as heavy equipment operators. For the youngsters, it’s a great program. The moment they leave school they are ready to start work earning good money, and as one student suggested:

This is a giant Tonka toy ….. This is my dream come true. I just love it.

There are numerous programs across the country that help unemployed and/or ex-military persons retrain as heavy equipment operators. Is there really that big a shortage of skilled heavy equipment operators? The construction industry is one that has aged over the last twenty years. Becoming a heavy equipment operator hasn’t been high on the agenda of young adults as they graduate from high school and college. With the lack of youth coming through, and a very high proportion of baby-boomers working in the industry, there is a prediction that operator numbers will plummet over the next ten years if we don’t recruit new operators to the industry.

Will moving into the schools help alleviate this problem? Every program that develops new entrants will help. However, the approach in Canada has been to only accept 15 students each year into their program. That is really only a drop in the ocean when we are going to need thousands over the next decade.

For those considering a career change, you could do worse than consider a career as a heavy equipment operator. The wages are good, and once experienced, there will be plenty of work available over the next ten to fifteen years. Don’t leave it to the kids; jump in now and grab your chance for a new career.

While many construction sites slow down their activities over winter, other industries ramp up their activities. Landscape gardening is one area that is not thought of as a user of heavy equipment, yet in many cases, heavy equipment is the only machinery suited to a job. Frozen ground is no fun to dig in by hand, yet excavators and backhoes can often work with little effort.

So what sort of jobs would heavy equipment be used in landscape gardening. One of the more frequent tasks is the movement of whole trees. Winter, or the dormant season, is the best time to move a tree. Excavators and backhoes are perfectly designed for this type of work, including cutting through excess root systems. Mobile cranes are often used to lift the tree, root ball and all, into a truck ready for transport.

Before trees are transplanted, an excavator or backhoe will dig a large hole. A mobile crane is then used to lower the root ball into the hole, and to hold the tree upright while the soil is then back-filled into the hole. Backhoes are a handy tool for this job – the shovel can dig the hole while the loader can be used as a bulldozer to push the soil. In some cases, one of those nimble little skid-steer loaders is used to back-fill and compress the soil.

Whether you’re operating a mobile crane, excavator, backhoe or skid-steer loader, precision and caution is most important. For a large tree to be transplanted successfully, the tree needs to be moved quickly and with as little damage as possible. The skill of landscape gardeners and heavy equipment operators manage this on an almost daily basis – and those trees, some of them giants, survive the experience. If you’re interested in landscape gardening and heavy equipment operations, the two do go hand-in-hand – moving trees is just one of many jobs. For landscape gardeners, undertaking heavy equipment training could be what you need to further progress in the industry.

Heavy equipment; bulldozers, graders, excavators; all lumbering giants with a reputation for destroying all that lays before it, right? Wrong. Heavy equipment operators have been at the forefront of greening projects for decades. In fact, since way before ‘greening’ became so important.

Whether building roads or clearing land for farming, heavy equipment operators have had a reputation for mindlessly destroying everything in sight. Many in fact had the opposite view. If they were clearing land for a road, they only cleared what was needed for that road. The same has been true for general construction and farming.

These days, heavy equipment is actively involved in rehabilitation projects and this is set to jump markedly as President Obama’s aim to create 5 million new green construction jobs over the next ten years comes to fruition. This will be achieved through an investment of $150 billion in construction, most of it in heavy construction.

For individuals who care for the environment, gaining skills as heavy equipment operators can set them up for life in careers that will help them achieve their environmental aims. Training heavy equipment operators for green projects is part of ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools aim with training programs designed to pass on some of the knowledge required to work in this area.

Are you interested in greening America? Are you interested in a career as a heavy equipment operator? If you answer yes to both questions, check out what ATS has to offer in the way of training for future green heavy equipment operators.

Over the last couple of weeks we have outlined the expenditure that some of the states have allocated to road, bridge and rail projects and the effect this will have on demand for heavy equipment operators. The Federal government has now joined the party with $27.5 billion being allocated for federal highways and bridges.

That’s a lot of money and equates to a lot of mileage and bridges, all requiring heavy equipment operators, truck drivers and crane operators at some stage to complete the projects. In fact, the total amount spent on transport infrastructure will approach $200 billion.

If you examine the aims of these packages you will realize the effect they will have on employment in the construction industry in general. The main aim of course is to get money into the economy. This is done through employment and wages received along with spending on new equipment, training and raw materials. Construction industry training includes training to provide heavy equipment operators.

As a nation, we are on the brink of one of the biggest transport infrastructure building programs ever undertaken. Every state, along with the federal government, have plans in place to repair or build roads, bridges and rail networks (particularly hi-speed rail). The demand for construction workers will be huge since so many projects will come on line at the same time.

For individuals looking to enter the workforce in the construction industry, including heavy equipment operations, truck driving and crane operations, now is the time to act. Gaining qualifications in any one of these areas now will enable those who graduate to take advantage of the opportunities from day one.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have ten training centers throughout the country primed and ready to train the next generation of heavy equipment operators, truck drivers or crane operators. With the federal and state governments ready to commence work on these projects, now is definitely the time to act.

Winter can be slow going for many heavy equipment operators. Now it’s February and while officially it is the last month of winter, some places it feels like it has just started. The end of winter of course heralds the start of spring and for many construction companies and land developers, the time to start preparing for major building developments. In some areas, ice, snow and rain make construction a difficult task.

Heavy equipment, particularly those that run on tracks as opposed to wheels, can start preparing sites even if they are still a little slushy under foot. Tracks enable these beasts to operate over slushy ground where wheels will often sink and trap a vehicle.

For operators affected by winter slowdowns, now is the time to get your maintenance over and done with. Time to make sure everything is working and in good shape. Heavy equipment, particularly when used in very conditions, often requires extra maintenance and inspection to check on possible damage done due to the temperature extremes. Even steel can crack and become brittle due to cold weather.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools late winter and early spring is when heavy equipment owners and businesses come looking for new recruits to their workplaces. ATS has such a good reputation amongst industry that rather than using traditional advertising outlets for operators, they contact us first.

If you have a desire to work in the heavy equipment industry then now is the time to commence your training so that when spring arrives, and with it employers with vacancies, you are trained and ready to fill those vacancies.

With record snow falls being recorded across the nation, many of the interstates have been closed. Snow is up to three or four feet deep in many places; in some places it is even deeper. In times like these, once the snow stops falling, every spare piece of heavy equipment gets a call up – come clear the highways.

Whether it’s a snow plow, a grader or a front end loader, they all have their uses. The interstates are the nations life lines. Under normal circumstances, trucks would be traveling up and down the highways, often in their hundreds. With snow falling and roads blocked, these trucks become idle, often laden with perishables.

Heavy equipment operators will often work ten or twelve hours shifts clearing the highways of snow and trying to open them up as quickly as possible all the while hoping there is no more snow. On icy roads it takes a high level of skill and patience to move the blockage and get the traffic going again.

Many of these operators gained their qualification and skills through ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools. You could be one of those operators in years to come once you have completed your training. There are only days left in our special Christmas promotion. Enroll today and you could be entitled to a discount off the training fees. See our website for the full details.