Should you multi skill and become a backhoe operator? I guess I don’t have to remind everyone of the economy and the struggles that everyone has been through – if you didn’t see, feel or hear about it then you probably weren’t on the planet at the time. Times have been tough and many small businesses have been feeling the pinch – even in heavy equipment. As we start to shake off the problems of the past two/three years, businesses are starting to spend again, but very cautiously.

When it comes to heavy equipment purchases, prudence is the order of the day and cost reduction the number one factor. One of the easiest ways to cut costs is by using equipment that is versatile. The more versatile a unit of heavy equipment is, the more income that equipment can generate. I know, boring details on how to run a business – however, it does impact on all of us.

When it comes to heavy equipment, why buy a loader and an excavator when a backhoe can do the same work – in one unit. The only down side to buying a backhoe is that it can only be in one place at any one time – but it can certainly undertake a wide range of tasks while in that one place. During the recession, the last unit of heavy equipment to be mothballed was the backhoe. The first unit to be purchased was also a backhoe and, at present, the highest demand for operators is for backhoe operators.

Since it takes the skills of both a loader operator and an excavator operator, it makes sense to multi skill and take on the role of a backhoe operator. The path to multi skilling is made easier when a heavy equipment training program actually covers a wide range of equipment When the economy evens out, you can specialize in excavators, or loaders, or perhaps stay with backhoes, it’s your choice.

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?

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.

Graders – they’re weird looking beasts yet they perform a role that is vital to the success of any road building program. If you were to closely examine a grader its design would probably confound you. They are long and narrow and at times their front wheel bend at such an angle you would swear they were about to snap off. The design of a grader, like most heavy equipment, is one built from need.

Before graders, roads were built by hand with hundreds of laborers working long hours in the hot blazing sun to lay roads that were not quite level, but for their time, good enough. If you wanted a smoother or flatter finish to the road, you brought in heavy rollers like the old fashioned steam rollers. Now, although rollers are still used, they perform a different role.

The advent of graders has meant that work gangs are no longer needed in such high numbers. In fact, these days most workers on road crews are qualified in some field – we certainly don’t need the scores of laborers we once did. The role of a grader is fairly straightforward although the job itself is certainly not ‘straightforward’. The grader ‘grades’ the surface. In other words it carves and shapes the road much like a knife cutting through butter. The very slight slope that all roads have owes itself to the precise skills of a grader operator – skills that can be developed in as short as three weeks yet take a lifetime to really master.

You can start that journey to becoming a master grader operator by completing a three week heavy equipment training program that provides you with the skills to operate equipment like graders. If you’re ready for the journey, we are ready to help you through those first few weeks – you just need to take those first few steps.

Is truck driver training difficult? It can be but it shouldn’t be. If you can drive a car then taking the next step to driving a truck is really no big deal. There are certainly a few more road rules you need to learn and some driving techniques do require a little practice. However, truck driver training should be and is easy when you have experts training you.

I once overheard a truck driver telling a student that the hardest part of driving a truck was getting into the rig. Once in, the rest became easy. For some people it’s true too. If you enjoy driving and enjoy being on the road then you’re halfway there. If you can maintain a high level of concentration then you’re almost there. All you need are the skills themselves and they come with practice. Apart from getting into the truck, the hardest part of driving a truck it realizing its size. You can’t perform the same zippy movements that you can in a car, and the bigger the truck the more important size becomes.

If you take a big rig traveling at sixty miles per hour down the highway, how quickly could it stop in an emergency? You would be surprised but, invariably, it’s never enough and you always run the risk of jack-knifing if you’re driving a tractor-trailer setup. Yet these are all basic skills that can be taught, and learned, in only three weeks. Truck driver training that puts you behind the wheel for as many hours as possible is the key to becoming a good truck driver. Practicing reversing, practicing turning tight corners, and practicing driving in traffic are the only way to develop skills – so long as there is a skilled trainer alongside you correcting mistakes and offering tips and sound advice.

If you are looking to become a truck driver, undertake your training with skilled professionals through a business that has over 40 years experience in truck driver training. Let’s face it, to survive that long means they must be doing something right – and they are, they are producing skilled drivers ready to walk into a career as a professional truck driver. Are you ready for truck driver training that’s been made easy?

When looking for work as a loader operator you will be surprised at how many different terms are used for these machines. Some terms are regional specific, most are manufacturing specific, yet there is a certain amount of logic behind each name. Some of the names you may come across include:

• Wheel Loader – as the name suggests, this equipment is driven on wheels rather than tracks like a bulldozer. This is one of the more generic terms used for loaders.
• Front-End Loader – this is another generic term for a loader.
• Skip Loader – these are smaller vehicles, often smaller than a standard car. The arms that control the shovel come forward from behind rather than from the front.
• Skid Steer Loaders – these vehicles are also much smaller. They are generally driven on tracks rather than wheels and get their name from the steering method. Each track is driven independently so stopping or slowing one will cause the vehicle to skid in a certain direction.
• Backhoe Loader – this is a combination of front loader and rear excavator tool. For many businesses, these are popular since you get two tools for the price of one.
• Shovel – an old term that is not used very often. This term describes the bucket or scoop used to move material.

There are many other terms used to describe loaders. What they have in common is a bucket, shovel or scoop in the front that is used to move items, generally dirt, from one point to another. Most have sufficient reach to enable the loading of dump trucks. What they also have in common is the need for basic training on heavy equipment. Basic heavy equipment training programs provide the skills required to operate a loader. These training programs also provide knowledge on factors such as safety and maintenance, essential in today’s job market.

It doesn’t matter what name you give them. Loaders all over do similar tasks, just on a different scale. If life as a busy loader operator appeals to you – contact us for more information on training programs and training schools closest to you.

We have mentioned in the past that excavators are for more useful than just digging trenches. Large excavators can do a number of jobs including an involvement in mining. Smaller excavators are also useful for many different jobs. In the last week there has been a lot of activity around the world involving excavators – some of the news isn’t what you see or want to be involved with while others are a sight to see.

One area that excavators are used in is rescue operations. Despite their size and power, excavators can be quite gentle when used with experienced hands. There have been two situations recently, one in Taiwan involving a landslide and another from the sub-continent also involving a landslide. In both cases, people were trapped in trains or vehicles under tons of dirt, mud and rock. Excavators were called in to quickly remove the debris so rescuers could get in.

Closer to home, excavators were hard at work, in the middle of night, demolishing a large bridge in Portage last weekend. You can see the photos of the excavators at work here. That would have a sight to see, in the middle of the night, in pouring rain, a pair of excavators virtually eating their way through this large overpass bridge – the whole area lit by large flood lights.

Of course, it takes a considerable level of skill to complete these jobs but I can guarantee one thing – the operators involved in these tasks all started with some sort of basic training. Heavy equipment training is the core to being a successful excavator operator. At ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools we design our training in such a way that you leave us with the skills and knowledge required to start work immediately. If you’re ready for work, we’re ready to provide you with the skills.

Retraining for a new career is becoming harder as many organizations that provide this funding start to run short. The Federal government has injected more funds into some of these budgets, however, this has really only scratched the surface. Many people currently in long term training may soon find their financial aid suspended. One of the benefits of short career courses is that the course is over and done with quickly.

Associated Training Services runs a number of career training programs including heavy equipment, truck driving and crane operator training. These training programs generally run over three weeks – in theory, you could be in the work force three weeks after starting your training. Of course, some of these training programs require licensing (truck driver CDL for example) so that start would be delayed. The point, however, is that you are not committed to six/nine/twelve months of training – training often without an income.

Because you can be back into the workforce quickly, there are a number of financial aid possibilities that could be accessed to cover your training costs. These include traditional career loans. While many people may balk at going into debt to cover the cost of training, the prospect of returning to work quickly with a good pay packet should allay some of those fears.

If financial difficulties are preventing you from making a career change, contact us at Associated Training Services. We have a number of financial aid options that we can take you through that can help to pay for some or all of your heavy equipment training.

Most people imagine bulldozers on constructions sites, building roads, leveling residential estates, or perhaps clearing a huge block for a new factory, school or hospital. While construction is a big user of bulldozers, the rural community makes use of them as well, particularly our farmers. There are a number of roles that bulldozers fill although few are directly related to producing food.

When it comes to rural communities, bulldozers play a big role in the establishment of dams, in clearing areas ready for grazing or tilling for broad crop farming. Bulldozers can frequently be found rebuilding farm roads, often nothing more than a scar on the land that has had road metal or gravel spread over it. In the past, farm equipment like tractors (the actual forerunner to the bulldozer) were used as bulldozers, however, these vehicles are not really built to handle the pressure. Why put the stress on a farm tractor when there’s a bulldozer just down the road.

Working as a bulldozer operator in these rural communities is more demanding, more interesting and more rewarding often than working on construction sites. The skill levels for rural bulldozer operators needs to be high given the diverse range of jobs and conditions required of them. Yet many of these operators start by undertaking basic heavy equipment training then diving straight in and continuing their skills development on the job.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools is a popular choice for those looking to head into our rural communities. Our training programs are designed to provide a solid platform of skills that makes it far easier to build on in the workplace. If a career as a rural bulldozer operator appeals to you then contact us for more information on heavy equipment training and the location of the nearest training school to you.

Undertaking a heavy equipment training program at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools gives you one advantage – you receive training across a range of equipment. When it comes to working as a backhoe operator, you need to combine the skills of several units of equipment into one.

Backhoes are the odd one out when it comes to heavy equipment. At one end you have an excavator style digging tool while at the other end you have a loader tool – being proficient with an excavator and a loader would certainly be handy.

Backhoes are one of the most versatile units when it comes to heavy equipment and earth moving. Being wheeled vehicles, you will often see them driving down the road with their ‘back hoe’ folded in a little like a scorpion’s tail. Their ability to work in reasonably confined spaces is a help but their real value comes in the flexibility of the tools they can use.

Like excavators, there are scores of different types of tools that can be attached. There are also different types of scoops at the opposite end of the vehicle – some that can be opened at the bottom for faster emptying. Having a broad range of skills then is essential if you wish to become a proficient backhoe operator. Those skills can only be obtained through training followed by experience on the job.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools, we take a holistic approach. Your backhoe training is important and needs to be across a range of equipment. Just as importantly, being able to quickly find employment where you can use your newfound skills will help to hone them. We don’t just train you, we also help you find this employment through our career services department. Put together, this means you can become a highly proficient operator in a very short time.