Bulldozer training – you can actually find bulldozer training facilities all over the place. Some training schools are better than others, but then that’s true of every industry across the nation. If you are looking to enter the heavy equipment industry there are several things to beware of.

Mavericks – check the credentials of anyone who offers to provide training on heavy equipment like bulldozers. Because of the popularity of the industry at present, operators and former operators often sell themselves as heavy equipment trainers. They can be expensive, especially if you have to hire the equipment to undertake training. Good training operators have their own range of equipment and properly set up training schools – not some out of the way empty paddock.

Bad Habits – poorly trained individuals often pick up bad habits from their trainers. Employers will soon spot those bad habits and, if short cuts and safety become issues, soon show you the door. Your training should be setting good habits from day one.

False Paperwork – it’s nothing short of fraud, but by the time you find out they have gone (and so has your money). Again, it comes back to checking on the credentials of your training school.

The easy solution is to find a heavy equipment training provider that has been around for a long time. They are recognized within the industry, have a proven track record that can easily be verified (just talk to potential employers), and provide you with recognized paper work at the conclusion of your training. Heavy equipment training is not ‘cheap’ – if it is there is something wrong with the training. There is a strong demand for bulldozer operators at present – be sure your training is delivered by a training school that will help you into the workplace, not one that will teach you bad habits and keep you out of the industry.

For many, a backhoe is weird look vehicle that has a bucket at one end and a scoop at the other. The bucket digs trenches like an excavator does while the scoop acts in pretty much the same manner as a traditional loader. In reality, operating a backhoe is far more complex. When it comes to buckets, there are a range of sizes that are interchangeable. This can range from a narrow 12 inch wide bucket to a fairly decent 40 inches – but interchangeable buckets are just the start.

The range of attachments is fairly broad. In fact, think of a device used in construction, logging or mining and their is most likely an attachment available for a backhoe that does the same job. Jackhammers, augers or drills, grapple hooks, logging tools – you name it, there is a tool available for the job.

As a backhoe operator, you will be expected to know how to change attachments. It would also help if you knew how to use each attachment. The latter is not so hard since the controls remain the same – change attachment, take five to get a feel for it, and away you go. Professional heavy equipment training is the key to understanding how to change attachments and to use many of them.

You can find professional training through ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools. You can complete your training in as little as three weeks and be on your way to a career as a professional heavy equipment operator in next to no time – backhoes included.

There is strong demand for heavy equipment operators at present but what does a heavy equipment career offer for new operators? In the short term, there is plenty of work available and there are opportunities for all new operators to not only gain a start in the industry, but to also bring home a healthy pay check. The long term outlook is much harder to predict.

When it comes to the future, there are never any guarantees. We don’t know where the economy is headed, whether or not the bleak conditions in Europe will affect us, or how fast we can bounce back to a healthy economy. We can however look at history and what has happened in the past.

History shows that economies are always bouncing around going from highs to lows before climbing back to highs again. There is one other factor that needs to be considered when looking at any career, particularly those in construction and heavy equipment. This is the aging of our population. To some, there is real concern that, rather than having an over supply of operators, we will be left with severe shortages.

If you look around most building sites, the one thing you will rarely see is sixty year olds at work, even in the cab of heavy equipment. Most construction workers seem to get to around fifty, perhaps fifty-five and then give the game away and look for employment that is a little less physical, a little less dependent on young fit bodies. Heavy equipment careers are a little different in that age is not a strong factor when it comes to being capable – but after 30 or more years as an operator, many are still ready to call it quits when they hit their fifties.

This exodus of labor from the industry is already starting to take affect. Many employers are trying hard to retain experienced operators well into their fifties, or using them to pass on their skills and knowledge to the next generation. Is there a bright future for heavy equipment operators? The next twenty years will undoubtedly see highs and lows, but if we don’t have an increase in the number of young people graduating from heavy equipment training programs, there is a real risk that we will have severe shortages in numbers, not an excess. Heavy equipment careers can still offer a reasonably stable future for new operators – we just need to encourage more into the industry.

If you’re a business that employs crane operators to do specialist tasks then forming an alliance with an experienced and accredited training provider can make a lot of sense. Alliances enable employers to build a relationship that delivers quality training to their employees, often at a cost far less than if the employer was to deliver the training themselves.

Training providers like ATS Crane Operator Schools do the hard work in developing training programs, training materials and gaining accreditation for both their training program and their training delivery. They can also gain accreditation to deliver assessments and certification of crane operators under the umbrella of the National Commission For The Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO).

These can all be costly processes to go through and, unless you are training a hundred or more operators each year, not very cost effective. Internal training costs are exploding these days, particularly when operators (like crane operators) are faced with compulsory certification. Many large businesses are now finding that the cost of training is moving beyond being viable as an internal process so they are instead outsourcing their training requirements.

By developing informal partnerships with training providers, the individual cost of training is reduced yet the training delivered is still tailored to their specific requirements. At ATS Crane Operators Schools, we have dedicated training staff that can deliver crane operator training at one of our training schools, or on your site if that is more practical. It becomes a win-win situation for employers – their employees are trained to operate the equipment on hand using techniques that are often unique to that business niche. The costs are reduced with one whole department (training) effectively outsourced for someone else to worry about. For your employees, they are receiving the skills that continue to make them valuable employees to your business.

If you employ crane operators, particularly in specialist situations, or in areas that are considered remote, then contact ATS Crane Operator Schools to discuss forming a training relationship.

One of the things you will notice about graders is that they tend to work on their own. This can be a little misleading because graders are really just one part of a large team – a very integral part of that team. Road making, for example, is done in stages with different heavy equipment handling each stage. A grader cannot commence until a bulldozer has finished its work; likewise, the hot-mix machines cannot commence until the grader has completed its work.

As part of a team, you will often see that roads are built in sections. A bulldozer will work on section one and, once completed, move onto section two. In the meantime, the grader sets to work on section one. When completed, it too moves on to section two. In a well oiled and efficient team, each piece of equipment finishes its job just in time for the next unit to come. They are all working as a team and before you know it, a new highway has been constructed.

Heavy equipment training at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools offers students experience on a range of equipment. This is useful knowledge going into a work place since operators know what each unit of equipment is capable of. It all helps a team knit together over time – a factor you can see in a well oiled team that seems to complete jobs on time and with few problems.

If you enjoy working as both an individual and a team player then working as a heavy equipment operator could be an option. A grader is only one of the many options available, yet it can be one of the most challenging and exacting options in the heavy equipment range. Interested? Then contact us for more information on training dates and for the closest ATS school to you.

A commercial drivers license (CDL) enables the holder to operate vehicles of a commercial nature. This includes trucks, tankers and buses. It is the class of license together with any endorsements that determines what size vehicle and what sort of goods the holder can transport. Generally speaking, the classes and endorsements are common across the nation even though each state manages their own licensing. This often means that, although you hold a particular license in one state, if you move to another state you will need to transfer your license to that new state.

Using Florida’s licensing system as an example, the classes of commercial drivers license fall into the following three categories:

• Class A: Trucks or a truck combination that has gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 lbs. or more, provided towed vehicle is more than 10,000 lbs.
• Class B: Straight trucks weighing 26,001 lbs. gross vehicle weight rating or more
• Class C: Vehicles transporting placardable amounts of hazardous materials, or vehicles designed to transport more than 15 persons including the driver with a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 26,001 lbs.

Endorsements are additions, or special components to a license, that allow the operator to move certain goods. The Endorsement comes in the form of a letter; for example, an A class CDL with H endorsement. The endorsements are (for Florida):

• H. Any vehicle used to transport hazardous materials in placardable amounts.
• N. A tank vehicle designed to transport any liquid or gaseous material with designed capacity of 1,000 gallons or more.
• P. Any vehicle, public or private, designed to transport 16 or more passengers, including the driver
• S. A commercial motor vehicle (requires CDL) used to transport pre-primary, primary or secondary school students from home to school, from school to home or to and from school-sponsored events. Does not include a bus used as a common carrier.
• T. Combination vehicles with double/triple trailers
• X. Any tank vehicle used to transport placardable amounts of hazardous material

To obtain a commercial drivers license, you will need to meet certain requirements such as age (18), pass an eye test and undertake (and pass) written and practical tests. There are also Federal requirements that need to be meet (for example, if you are wanting a H – hazardous materials – endorsement then you will need TSA finger print clearance) and a DOT physical examination.

ATS Truck Driver Schools can help prepare you for the tests that are required to obtain your commercial drivers license. This includes both in-class and behind-the-wheel training. Truck drivers are in high demand and although the process to obtain a CDL may seem protracted, it can be achieved quite quickly. A Class A commercial drivers license can certainly open the door to a whole new career.

Every job has its good points and its bad points and for loader operators it’s no different. One of the downsides to living on a continent like the North America is the unpredictable nature of the weather. Whether it’s tornadoes, hurricanes or wild fires, they all leave devastation in their wake and someone has to clean up after them.

In many cases, the devastation is complete. Homes, schools and buildings in general are either totally destroyed or damaged to the point that repair is impossible. In these situations, bulldozers often come in and literally clear the area – the scrape it clean. The problem with bulldozers is that they are limited in what they can do. They can clear all areas, but effectively all they are doing is pushing everything into piles. It is the loader operators that have to come in and load everything into dump trucks ready to carted away.

It can be a tough job at times. You are clearing away people’s lives. There are treasures that cannot be reclaimed – photos, mementos, furniture, along with the buildings themselves – what were once people’s homes. Like I said, it’s a tough job. But someone has to do it and work is work. If you don’t do it, someone else will.

We can train you to be an effective loader operator; we can provide you with all the skills required for the position. What we can’t do is teach you how to mentally handle this type of work. Some people just switch off and treat it like every other job; for others, their heart goes into every load, particularly if they are from that community. There is one upside to this – no matter how much destruction there is, people will always stand up and start again. Before long, the site you are about to clear will once again have a home standing there.

People will pick up their lives and move on. So while the job may have a downside, in reality, if you’re not there to do it, people can’t move on and start again. Bulldozer and loader operators are our society’s first steps to rebuilding lives. So when looking at a site that has suffered some calamity, look on the bright side – your there to help rebuild lives!

Excavators are used in a wide variety of industries and the job prospects for each industry is varied. Although the majority of operators tend to work in construction, there are other industries that also rely on competent operators. Some of the industries and their prospects include:

• Government – government, particularly local government can be reliable employers. The demand for heavy equipment operators can be in season. Prospects are still strong in this sector.
• Highway and Heavy Construction – prospects remain strong in this area.
• Mining – prospects fluctuate and although mining is a year round activity, vacancies can be seasonal.
• Logging – prospects are fairly weak in this industry. Excavators are not widely used and the competition for the few vacancies can be strong.
• Quarries – this is another industry where vacancies are few and competition strong.
• Water Management – vacancies in water management are moderate, however, employers in this sector tend to target operators with a lot of experience.

When you first look at that sort of scenario, you may feel that working as an excavator operator could be risky. However, it should be remembered that the two biggest users of excavator operators are the construction (including roads, bridges and highways) and government where almost 80% of all operators work. The mining industry uses excavator operators although they are often upskilled to more powerful and larger machinery.

Generally speaking, if you are looking at a career as a heavy equipment operator and the role of an excavator operator appeals, look to the general construction field first. Most other sectors demand operators with two or more years experience across a range of activities. Sectors like the logging industry also want operators that are highly proficient in the use of excavator attachments. It’s an interesting career working as an excavator operator, and one that can be well paid as well. Heavy equipment training is the key to opening the door to this career.

One of the major pushes in heavy equipment operations is that of safety and there is good reason for this – when heavy equipment is involved in an incident, it is normally something major; rarely is it a minor event. To achieve a safer workplace, heavy equipment safety training is becoming a mandatory factor when employing workers. If a prospective employee hasn’t had any workplace safety training, it is now up to the employer to ensure they receive it prior to commencing work – often at the employers expense.

For employers, the easy way around paying for workplace safety training is to only employ those individuals who have already completed some form of heavy equipment safety training. As a prospective heavy equipment student, the obvious course is to select a training organization that offers heavy equipment safety. Choose the right training organization, and your training should be to national standards. This means you don’t have to redo any training should you move interstate, or if you are coming from interstate to undertake training.

ATS has a number of training schools in a wide range of locations, each offering training in either truck driving, crane operations or heavy equipment operations – some of our schools will offer all three. Workplace safety is included in all training programs as part of the nationally accredited training program. It is not an expensive added extra – or expensive compulsory extra.

For heavy equipment, our training programs run for three weeks and includes both in-class and in-the-cab training. Heavy equipment training is not restricted to the classroom, it includes in-cab tuition and observations making the operator aware of everything that is happening around them. Heavy equipment training is designed to make the workplace safer for everyone, the operator included.

Bulldozers are large lumbering machines. In fact, they look fairly awkward traveling on large tracks rather than wheels. Despite all that, they are amongst the most powerful of heavy equipment when it comes to sheer strength. They can also be one of the easiest pieces of heavy equipment to use – if you get the right training to begin with.

When it comes to complexity, bulldozers don’t know the meaning of the word. One of the hardest parts to learning to operate a bulldozer is often the steering, get that right and the rest gets easier. In some ways, it’s not the operation of a bulldozer that is difficult, it is the knowledge of the terrain your on, what sort of soil structure it is, how easy it is to move and whether or not its likely to have hidden objects like rocks and tree stumps.

Much of this knowledge can be picked up in a classroom, but much of it needs to be on the job experience. We can tell you about sticky clay surfaces, but its not until you actually experience it that you come to understand the effect it has on a machine like a bulldozer. Every soil type can react differently – learn that and you will become a master.

In the meantime, before looking to become a master bulldozer operator, start from the beginning with a bulldozer training program that provides a good solid foundation of knowledge. That is where ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools can serve you well. As one of the nation’s top heavy equipment training companies, we know what employers want in new recruits and we know how to provide them with graduates that meet their needs. We also know what students want when it comes to training, and those needs are met as well. Become a master bulldozer operator by gaining the best possible basic training – you’ll never regret it.