There has been a lot of talk recently about how the construction industry has held together despite the recession. In fact, the recession has probably helped it out considering all the money that has been thrown into thousands of programs around the country. The silent winners have been the truck drivers.

Truck driving is one of those skills and qualifications that a lot of people take for granted. Yet, without truck drivers, the heavy equipment required for these projects would still be sitting idle in the contractor’s yards. It’s not just the heavy equipment either. These projects require building materials and often need to have rock and debris removed before work can start.

Work as a truck driver covers a broad spectrum of jobs. You could be a heavy equipment hauler; perhaps a dump truck driver; or a truck delivering building materials. These are all jobs that are essential to any construction project thus making truck drivers valuable members of any construction team.

Learning to become a truck driver is not difficult. It only takes a few weeks and you have the skills required. The hardest component is passing the test to qualify for a commercial drivers license. Pass this test and you’re officially a truck driver. It is then up to you to decide in which area you want to specialize.

ATS has been teaching people to drive trucks for over 25 years. We have a great track record for delivering truck driver training that enables most students to qualify for their CDL at their first attempt. Are you a truck driver in the making? The nation’s heavy equipment needs people with good truck driving skills to move that equipment from job to job.

One of the more commonly seen yet unusual uses of an excavator is on the back of a barge helping to dredge the floor of a river. They are more common than people realize with many excavators permanently attached to the barge – that is their life’s work. For an operator, it can be one of those ‘cushy’ jobs.

Sitting on barges, the excavator’s role is no different than digging a trench on land, the only difference being the trench is under water. The mud is scooped up and dumped into another barge, the water-based version of a dump truck. The work is relatively easy with the biggest danger being bridges and underwater cables.

Despite being an easy job, they are hard to come by since they can be very popular amongst operators. The skills required to operate a barge-mounted excavator are no different than those required to operate a land-based excavator. Standard heavy equipment operator training is all that you require together with a reasonable amount of experience.

If you are considering a career as an excavator operator then you will be entering a field that can be interesting and varied. Excavators are no longer restricted to just digging trenches; they operate in a wide range of environments including my favorite, demolition. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools offer a comprehensive training course that prepares graduates for work in a variety of fields. Our training is accredited and recognized nationally. This means your training credentials qualify you for employment as a heavy equipment operator across the country. If this sounds like a career for you, contact us now to discuss your training options.

Some people consider a job placement service to be just that, a service that finds a job, any old job, and sends you off to it. These days, no one can afford to do that if they want to remain credible within the industry. Some employers want resumes, others want application letters whilst many others want both. Knowing what employers expect is part of a modern job placement service and the only way you can develop that knowledge is through experience.

Just because you have completed your heavy equipment training doesn’t mean you will be guaranteed employment. In fact, finding your first job can be harder than the training itself. There are many employers that simply won’t employ green operators. They want operators with experience, often many years experience. It’s a bit of an oxymoron at times. How can you get the experience they require if they refuse to employ green operators that are looking to gain some experience.

That doesn’t mean the jobs aren’t out there nor does it mean that every employer is like that. A good job placement service knows which employers are willing to take on someone new to the industry. There are some employers who will take on green operators, but only if they come through certain training schools – the ones with good training reputations.

We are fortunate here at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools – or rather, our graduates are. We have a job placement service that helps new operators put together job applications. We also have a good track record for providing employers with well trained operators. Finally, we know the employment market. With over 25 years experience in training, we have developed a strong rapport with employers. There are employers who will take on our new graduates and help them gain experience.

The heavy equipment operator job market is starting to open up. Employers are being forced to take on new recruits because of the lack of experienced operators. Now is the best time to commence your training and to make use of our job placement service to snare that first job and to start gaining the experience required to become a well sought after operator. The jobs are there; the training is here; where are you?

If you have been considering a career in heavy equipment, particularly as a grader operator, then I suggest you do something about it now. I don’t mean to be pushy, but, spring is only a day away and spring heralds the start of the busy earth moving season. By the time summer starts, most heavy construction jobs will be in full swing; employers will have completed their hiring; and heavy equipment operators will be hard at work trying to complete contracts on time so they can sneak more in before winter returns.

Becoming a grader operator is not as difficult as it seems. Sure, they are complex beasts and the role they fill is one where precision is a necessity. However, with onboard computer technology, this is often fairly easy to achieve. Training in the field of heavy equipment can be completed in as little as three weeks and have you ready to enter the workplace.

Training programs such as those at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools include all the skills necessary to gain and keep well paid employment. Our heavy equipment training is accredited nationally, which means your skills will be recognized nationwide. It also means that employers know you have been trained to a certain level of skill. In fact, once they see the ATS logo on your documentation they know you have received quality training.

Now is the time to act – if you enroll now you should have your training completed and be ready for work by the end of March, just in time for the mid-spring heavy equipment operator recruitment drives.

A recent report has highlighted the stimulus spending effects on the construction industry in general. The news is good with heavy equipment careers set to boom over the next 12 months. In fact, if you have had any thoughts of entering the industry, now is the time to act or you run the risk of missing out.

The report estimates that stimulus spending has saved or created 280,000 direct construction jobs. If around 8% of all construction jobs are heavy equipment related, that equates to around 25,000 heavy equipment related jobs – with more to come. The report also pointed to transport projects as being the one construction area to really grow over the past 12 months. Transport projects (road and bridge construction) have a heavy reliance on heavy equipment.

With the current employment situation favoring construction, now is the best to enter the industry. Heavy equipment operator numbers have steadily decreased in recent years as our population has aged. For the industry, it is has not just seen a loss of operators, it has seen a loss of operators that have had decades of experience, something that cannot be replaced overnight.

Is a heavy equipment career right for you? The only person who can answer that is you. However, there is one tool that you can make use of that may just help you decide. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools has a totally free online training program. You can register for this training program and undertake the lessons, all from the comfort of your own home on your own computer. Once you have completed the training program, you can then decide whether or not a heavy equipment career is right for you. The jobs are there – we just need the right operators to fill those jobs. Are you potentially one of them?

It’s a play on words I know, but a commercial drivers license does offer a degree of employment security no matter what the climate; political, economic, or atmospheric. Even in tough times, such as the one we have just been through, truck drivers were still in demand. It’s a basic need – we have to eat and our food arrives in the supermarkets on trucks. In fact, from farm gate to supermarkets, trucks are the one common factor.

Truck drivers can work in a variety of occupations. There are the long distance interstate drivers. They almost live in their cabs being away from home for days at a time. If long distance is not for you, there are the short haul drivers who drive, generally speaking, intrastate. They generally spend no more than one night away from home depending on which states they operate in and what types of loads they carry.

The most popular form of truck driver is the local driver. They work within a town or city and spend almost every night in their own beds. These are the truck drivers you see on our local roads every day. They deliver food items, building supplies and short haul products if the town is a major sea or rail hub.

Training for a commercial drivers license is not as arduous as many think. A truck driver training program takes around three weeks. This should include as much time as possible behind the wheel gaining driving skills. Once you have gained the skills required, it is simply a matter of undertaking a testing session through your state licensing authority. If you pass these tests, your commercial drivers license is issued and you are ready to seek work as a truck driver. No matter what the climate is – you’ll almost always find employment opportunities.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have 10 training locations spread around the nation. Each training school offers heavy equipment training in a variety of equipment. Each training school is different and the range of equipment available at each one may vary.

Heavy equipment covers a very broad range of equipment. Small skid steer loaders are considered heavy equipment and the range goes up to include some of the super machinery used in mining. It is impossible to offer training in every type of machinery, however, by providing a cross section of equipment in training, students gain skills in the most common types in use. This equipment may include:

• Backhoes
• Wheel loaders
• Scrapers
• Excavators
• Bulldozers
• Road graders
• Rock trucks
• Skid Steers and
• All-Terrain Forklifts

Many of the skills are interchangeable to a certain extent. What most people don’t realize is that heavy equipment operation involves many different skills. For example, hand-eye coordination is important in most jobs. However, for some heavy equipment your hands may be going in different directions. A good example is an excavator where one hand is perhaps pushing the boom out, the other hand is opening the bucket to release the contents while the feet are controlling the swing of the entire unit. This coordination is a skill that is transferable to other machinery, even if the controls are unfamiliar at first.

If you are looking at a career in heavy equipment then ATS could be a smart choice when it comes to heavy equipment training. The wide range of equipment means you will gain a good grounding of skills. Add to this the in-class training in areas such as safety, soils and site layouts and you have the complete training package.

Crane operator training is very different today than what it was twenty or thirty years ago. Today, the requirement in many states is not just training, but certification that you have met the minimum standards when it comes to knowledge and skills. There are other states where this requirement is not currently in place, however, training to work in those states and not receiving certification is a big mistake.

To begin with, any crane operator training that you undertake should be done to national standards. Training bodies that are accredited by organizations such as the NCCCO train to standards that industry itself has identified as being the minimum. If you think about this it is only logical to take the next step. Certification provides proof that you now meet those minimum standards. If you’re trained to a national level, why not become certified to prove it?

What are those minimum standards? In simple terms, it is an assessment of operational skills, safety knowledge and non-operational skills such as basic maintenance and fault identification. The reality is, you can learn these skills and gain this knowledge in as little as three weeks.

ATS Crane Operator Schools are not only accredited to deliver nationally recognized crane operator training, they are also accredited to undertake assessments under the national certification system. You can receive your crane operator training, undertake the assessments, and become a certified crane operator, all under the one roof. Crane operator training and certification go hand-in-hand so it makes sense to complete it all at the same time.

For most people, the image of a bulldozer is that of a machine that pushes dirt around all day. In simple terms, they are right. However, in the hands of a skilled operator, bulldozers are land sculptors. Rather than just pushing dirt around, they carve areas ready for whatever the intended use is.

If you take a housing development, the land is cleared. This is the bulldozer at its beasty best. It uses brute strength to carve away the top of the area to be developed. However, once the initial work has been completed, the bulldozer then starts to carve out areas. Roads may be carved a little deeper than the surrounding home sites. Playgrounds or shopping precincts may be carved a little deeper still or at least cleared to a large flat surface. In the hands of a skilled operator, this work can be completed with precision in fairly quick time.

The operative words there are ‘skilled operator’. The bulldozer is going nowhere unless it has an operator. The more skilled the operator, the better the machine performs. Becoming a skilled operator takes two steps – training and practice. Training, of course, provides the skill and knowledge base that practice (or experience) builds on. Like any building, lay a faulty foundation and the chances are that building will collapse. Develop a poor skills base and no amount of practice will help – not if you are practicing poor work habits.

Quality training starts with a quality training organization like ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools. ATS deliver quality bulldozer training through their nationally accredited heavy equipment training program, a program that can have you work ready in as little as three weeks. If you fancy the challenge of operating a beast to carve out the landscape then consider bulldozer operator training.

Heavy equipment safety has become one of the most important components in an accredited heavy equipment training program. There is good reason for it as well. Over the years, heavy equipment accidents have resulted in deaths, serious injuries and millions of dollars in damages to properties. In most states, all employees need to be following a work place safety plan and businesses can be fined large amounts for breaches in safety procedures.

Unfortunately, heavy equipment safety is very much an attitude issue. In the past, heavy equipment operators were seen as rough, tough, heavy drinking loudmouths that worked with a break or who have a break-through type attitude. We still see this stereotype as heavy equipment operators, but that mentality is no longer the dominant force in this industry.

It may seem strange, but heavy equipment safety needs to become a subconscious act, not a conscious act. Sure, you need to be thinking safety, but your subconscious is what is always watching what is taking place around you. Some people call it a sixth sense. The term doesn’t matter – heavy equipment safety just needs to become second nature.

We do it in our cars as we drive around. We are not constantly thinking about safety, we just do it. The same is true when it comes to heavy equipment safety. This all starts with your attitude and the type of training you receive. Your heavy equipment training should be accredited and should include heavy equipment safety training components (if it’s accredited it will – it’s part of the accreditation process).

Here at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools we have a well earned reputation for providing industry with well trained graduates who are ready for employment. This means they have been trained to national standards including heavy equipment safety. If you are looking to become a heavy equipment operator – train with the best to ensure that your skills and knowledge are what employers are looking for.