Some of the best paid heavy equipment operators are those that work in the mining industry. One reason is the sheer isolation of many of these workplaces and, of course, for many there is the inherent danger that comes with mine work. While the equipment used in mines is often huge in comparison to those used on a construction site, often the operational principles are still the same.

The giant excavators used in open cut mines, often referred to as shovels, are still just a giant excavator. The basic operations are still the same, just on a much larger scale. The same could be said for the dump trucks – on some of the big units, one wheel is the same size as a small regular dump truck. Again, the basic operations are very similar.

Because mines use similar equipment, learning to operate regular construction size vehicles can still open doors to work in the mining industry. What is important is the initial training provided, and the experience an operator can gain in the workplace. Once you have had a reasonable amount of experience, you could find that many of the mines are willing to employ you.

Training is the key to any job – more so when it comes to heavy equipment. Employers are expecting you to be productive from day one – they don’t have time to teach what is required on the job. The general assumption is, since you have completed your training, you’re ready to go to work – not enter into more training.

At ATS, we believe in a similar principle. Having the skills and knowledge that makes you immediately employable is our main goal. Safety is also included and since it is set to national standards, the employer knows you are already compliant with safety standards knowledge. As for the mines, do your heavy equipment training, gain a little experience in the workplace, then start applying to those mining companies – you never know until you try.

I doubt there will ever come a time when the brute force of a large bulldozer, or the finesse of a grader, or an excavator’s precision is no longer required. However, there is no doubt that mini heavy equipment is gaining in popularity. There are plenty of reasons for this – they are cheaper to buy so trained operators can become owner-operators quickly and with ease, and the smaller-sized equipment can squeeze into areas that the larger heavy equipment can’t.

While smaller equipment like bobcats and mini excavators have been popular with landscapers for many years, we are now seeing large construction companies including them in their workforce. Mini heavy equipment vehicles can be easily loaded and transported quickly, they can get in and get a job done reasonably quickly, and the amount of work they can do often belies their size. A mini excavator can have a rather large bucket fitted and lift a fair amount of dirt out of a trench for its size.

Mini loaders, while much smaller that their bigger relatives, can fill a truck quickly because of their nimble abilities. They can zip around quite quickly and still lift a fair amount of dirt with each load. So when it comes to a work-load-to-size comparison, mini heavy equipment is starting to come out in front, or at least give a bold showing.

This leaves new recruits to the industry in a quandary – do they specialize in mini heavy equipment or head towards the larger, more traditional vehicles? That’s a personal choice that is up to you. What is important is that you give yourself that choice. By undertaking your training through an accredited well respected heavy equipment training school, you will receive instruction and experience on a range of equipment. This will prepare you for the workplace and put you in a position to make a choice. If you attend a training school that only provides instruction and experience on a piece of machinery, your options will be limited to that piece of machinery.

When seeking a heavy equipment training school, make your first question count – ask them what equipment you are going to be trained on. If they don’t offer you are good range, walk away and find another heavy equipment training school.

You can go and learn to be a backhoe operator, or you can go and learn how to be a bulldozer operator, but what if I told you could learn to be both in one training program? In today’s world, being multi-skilled is a must. When it comes to heavy equipment, if you can operate a front end loader and an excavator, then you can most likely operate a backhoe as well.

What’s more important is that today’s world is changing quite quickly. Today, there may be a high demand for grader operators; next month, it could be excavator operators; in winter, the demand could be for bulldozer operators that can also handle a snow plow. What we do know is that demand for heavy equipment operators is growing – the demand for each type of machinery will depend largely on what direction new operators take. If you are a multi-skilled heavy equipment operator – you can follow the winds of change to what best suits you.

Rather than undertaking equipment-specific training, finding a training organization that delivers training across a range of heavy equipment makes logical long term sense. Your training provides the platform for you to become a general heavy equipment operator rather than the narrow single equipment operator.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools provide training on a range of equipment such as backhoes, graders, loaders, bulldozers, and excavators (just to name a few). Training includes both in-class theory and safety aspects along with in-the-cab actual operator experience of a range of equipment. This prepares you to either specialize in one area, if that’s your decision, or to become a general operator across a range of heavy equipment.

A sad fact in today’s employment market is that employers are always looking for ways to cut costs. That can work to your advantage if you are prepared to take a few extra steps. Combining several related skills can make an individual a far more attractive employment option compared to someone with only the one skill. If you were to combine heavy equipment operations with a commercial drivers license, you are in effect opening options up for your employer.

An example of this a small business that only has a handful of equipment. They may have been asked to perform a task that will only take an hour or two to complete. Rather than sending out the heavy equipment with an operator and a truck with a driver, an operator with a CDL can take the equipment out, complete the job, and bring the equipment back (or on to the next job), thus saving the employer from paying for two people for the one job.

We live in an era where companies are forever competing with each other for work. This is often done via quotation or tendering process. If an employer knows he can reduce employee costs, then they can submit a lower tender or quote, and increase their chances of securing the work. The more work they can acquire, the bigger they will grow, and the more machinery and operators they will require.

ATS conducts both heavy equipment training programs and truck driver training programs. It is quite easy to complete one training program and to then move on to the second so that, within six weeks or so, you will have graduated from both training programs with skill sets that will make you far more employable. Provide employers with that complete package, and you will be surprised at how much easier it is to build a sustainable career.

We constantly focus on what ATS has to offer anyone looking at heavy equipment operations as a career. On the other side of the equation are the employers, so today I want to focus on the services that we offer you. ATS has a long and successful history of training heavy equipment operators, crane operators, and truck drivers. We have also built a strong network of employers who have successfully employed our graduates and helped them to achieve their goal of being successful operators or drivers.

For employers, we offer a number of services. As a training organization, our aim is to see our graduates successfully employed. To help us achieve that goal, we have a dedicated web site designed to connect employers with graduates from our schools. The-Job-Site.com is a website that lists all of our graduates since 1995. Graduates seeking employment have put together pre-application resumes that list their work history, experience and contact details. Employers can search through this database to find potential employees for their business. Businesses can also list job vacancies that graduates can apply for.

Our services to employers doesn’t end there. We also offer training programs that are customized to meet your needs. This training can be delivered in one of our schools or in the workplace using either our equipment or your own. There are many benefits to being trained on the equipment you are going to use, especially in situations where specialized skills are required.

ATS has a long and proud history when it comes to training truck drivers, crane operators, and heavy equipment operators. We have a steady stream of new graduates available for hire, all trained and eager to find the right employer. If you are looking for skilled operators, then feel free to check out what we have to offer for employers.

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.

If you’re a heavy equipment operator then you may be starting to notice that employers are now preferring to employ operators that have their commercial drivers license. In today’s tight markets, employers are looking to cut costs and if they can have operators that can also take their equipment out to a work site then they have saved the cost of a dedicated truck driver. This is especially true of business owners that only have a handful of equipment in use at any one time. A dedicated truck driver would most likely sit idle for several hours a day, and that’s wasted money in today’s economic climate.

For heavy equipment operators, it makes sense. Armed with the right training and a CDL, you can truck your equipment to a work site, perform the tasks required, then truck your equipment onto the next job. There is no waiting around for a truck to arrive and transport your equipment – you are in complete control of your work space. For businesses, as we mentioned, the cost factor is of utmost importance.

If you are a heavy equipment operator looking to add a commercial drivers license to your range of skills, you only require three weeks of truck driver training and to then pass the necessary tests to be licensed. That three weeks is a sound investment in your future as it not only provides you with a skill and license that employers are looking for, it also opens the door for further employment options such as dump truck driving or general truck driving.

Employers are looking to employ individuals who can offer a range of skills. This makes those employees versatile and available for work where and when needed. Are you versatile? Do you have a range of skills that make you more valuable than the next operator? That could be the key to increasing your employment opportunities – and your value to employers.

Certification is slowly becoming an issue for many operators in the heavy equipment industry. This is particularly so of crane operators as more and more states adopt the concept of employers being only permitted to employ certified crane operators. From July this year, new standards will start to come in effect on a national level that will make it compulsory for all crane operators to be certified.

ATS Crane Operator Schools have been supporters of crane operator certification for several years now. We have been accredited to deliver both the training and the certification assessments, a situation which makes life far easier for those looking at a crane operator career. The process is fairly straightforward as well.

As a new student, you will spend three weeks of in-class and in-cab training. This is designed to give you the actual skills required to work effectively in the industry. At the same time, you will be given training in areas such as maintenance and the all-important safety aspects of crane operations. Crane safety is one of the driving forces behind the requirement for crane operators to become certified. In theory, if all operators are certified they should all have the same set of basic operational skills along with the same safety training knowledge. The end results should be a far safer workplace.

If you are looking at a career as a crane operator, check with your crane operator trainer regarding certification. If they don’t train to a national standard then they will not be preparing you for the inevitable certification process – this will see you spending a lot of money on training that could be useless. Select a training provider that not only provides training that is accredited, select a training provider that can prove both the crane operator training and the crane operator certification assessments. Your money will be well spent and you will have a qualification that will be accepted throughout the country – that’s invaluable.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools are one of America’s oldest heavy equipment training schools, having had forty years of experience. Although we are one of the oldest, it doesn’t mean our heavy equipment is and our range is not limited to a bulldozer or two. Depending on which school you attend you could have access to:

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

Our training programs run for three weeks and are designed to provide the fundamental operating skills required to work using this equipment. By offering a broad range of equipment, students leave our schools in a position to apply for available work opportunities. Along with operational skills, students are also trained in:

• grade reading
• laser levels
• soils
• safety
• site layouts
• heavy equipment maintenance

Knowledge of these areas is essential in today’s heavy equipment operator if they are to enjoy a successful career in the industry. Heavy equipment operations is a career that is built on experience. As we have mentioned in the past, that experience needs a good solid foundation and that is where ATS excels – we help you lay those foundations. Over time, with hands on experience in the work place, you will find your reputation growing as a skilled operator and, with it, the demand for your services.

The demand for heavy equipment operators is constant. As a skilled operator you will find your services always in demand – and as a bonus, the pay checks that most experienced operators take home is well above many other career options. If you need more information on heavy equipment training, feel free to contact us at any time.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools are all accredited by the National Center for Construction Education Research otherwise known as the NCCER. In today’s world, there are several areas in training that both students and employers need. These include standardization of training and portability and the two go hand in hand.

Standardization is fairly straightforward. The skills you learn training to operate heavy equipment in Florida should be the same set of skills you would learn if you were training in Texas, New England or any other state. Obviously, if everyone is trained to the same set of standards, it doesn’t matter where you did your training, your skills would still be recognized – that’s portability. You can work in any state and your training and skills are recognized.

Many years ago, if you were trained in one state the chances were those skills were not recognized in the next state, even though the border was only a mile away. To work in both states, you had to undertake training in both states. A little ridiculous really so industry has established minimum standards that all graduating students should achieve.

Because we are accredited through NCCER, our students can be Nationally Certified by NCCER and receive certifications and credentials from NCCER. Details of their accomplishment is recorded on a national registry. This reinforces the portability aspect of nationally accredited training.

ATS has been accredited for many years. In fact, we are one of the leaders when it comes to accredited heavy equipment training. We have a proud tradition of producing quality graduates, graduates that employers are often keen to hire. If you’re considering a career in heavy equipment, first ensure your training provider as national accreditation for their training programs. If you have any doubts, call us, we have training centers in over ten locations around the country. What does national heavy equipment certification really mean? Peace of mind for students, graduates and employers and the knowledge that training has been delivered to very specific standards.