There are times when, as a bulldozer operator, you hope you don’t get work. The earthquakes that have hit the South East Asian region in recent weeks have been devastating. They are a reminder that anyone – almost anywhere – suffer earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and wild fires on a regular basis – often destroying homes, neighborhoods and even whole towns. Who gets called in to wipe it all away? The bulldozers.

Bulldozers do a good job of wiping away the signs of devastation. They do a good job of clearing the way for rebuilding as well. Whilst these are jobs that most bulldozer operators don’t wish for – someone has to do them when they do occur.

This type of work can be tricky at times as bulldozer operators may find themselves working alongside family members who are trying to recover as much of their personal lives as possible. Bulldozing a site is done carefully, pushing aside debris in a way that allows those family members access to what has been left behind.

It is hard to train someone for this type of work. Basic bulldozer training lays the platform – the rest comes with time and experience. Being sensitive to the needs of the family members is a skill that cannot be taught – either you have it or you don’t. Fortunately, most people do.

The life of a bulldozer operator can be difficult at times. However, at the end of the day you have helped people, communities or towns start the rebuilding process that gets their lives back on track again. Whilst the event that caused this devastation is sad, the act of clearing away and rebuilding isn’t -in fact it can often be met with celebration, a time of rebirth. It is a tough job, but it is a very satisfying job – are you up to it?

Old hands will tell you that excavators in use today are far easier to operate compared to twenty years ago. Is it true? It is a question that is not as black and white as it first sounds. Yes, almost all heavy equipment is ‘easier’ to use compared to twenty years ago, but that is not the complete story.

Looking at the basic operations of heavy equipment, the technical improvements in areas such as hydraulics and electronics have certainly made the life of a heavy equipment operator easier. Machinery like motor graders, which used a steering wheel, required strength to operate. Power steering has changed all that – if the machinery has a steering wheel. Excavators were good workers but lack fine controls – most modern excavators now have that fine control. This means they can work to precise degrees of accuracy.

Of course, that is the standard day-to-day operation and yes, on that basis, modern excavators are easier to operate. However, modern excavators come with a range of attachments – the excavator is no longer just an excavator.

Attachments like a hammer turn the excavator into a large jack-hammer capable of breaking up hard material like rock or concrete slabs. Large claws can be attached and are used to pick up objects. Learning to operate these attachments takes a whole new set of skills – skills that operators of twenty years ago don’t possess.

A simple answer to the opening question would be to ask if today’s operators could operate the excavators of yesteryear and whether the operators from that era could operate today’s excavators. The answer – today’s operators probably could operate an excavator from twenty years ago. Unfortunately, the operators from twenty years could struggle with today’s equipment. Based on that response, you would have to conclude that today’s heavy equipment is technically more difficult to operate than those machines of twenty years ago.

Not only is the equipment more difficult, the training required to operate an excavator is more intense. This is one reason why it is important to undertake your training through a reputable heavy equipment training provider. If they are not accredited, be careful when handing over you money – you may not get what you are paying for.

Heavy equipment operators used to be tough old nuts. They had reputations for being hard talking, hard drinking and hard working people. I wonder what they would think of the latest equipment on the market? Not a lot I should think. Take the latest in motor graders. I said armchair comfort and I am not joking.

The latest offering from heavy equipment giants John Deere include seats with comfortable armrests (that makes it an armchair doesn’t it?). So what, you say – believe it or not, their G-series grader is controlled using armrest mounted finger-tip controls. It still has a steering wheel but you can steer using lever steering if that is your preference.

John Deere are not the only manufacturers. Caterpillar, a famous name in heavy equipment for decades, produce graders that do away with the steering wheel altogether and use joysticks instead. Those joysticks handle more than just the steering as well.

Fortunately for the old time grader operators, there are still traditional manufacturers around like Komatsu. They still produce motor graders with steering wheels, foot pedals and levers. With the new control systems proving to be popular it won’t be long before they follow Caterpillar and John Deere I am sure.

Are you ready to take on a career that is technically improving all the time? If you are then take on the challenge of a heavy equipment career by undertaking grader operator training. There are positions opening up all the time, particularly as older operators call it quits as new technology moves in. As they move out – you can be the one that moves in.

Crane operator training is essential if you wish to work in the industry as a crane operator, even the smaller mobile cranes. You may feel that learning to operate a crane is fairly simple. It goes up, it goes down, it swings left, it swings right. Nothing complicated there, surely? Operating a crane can be a complex task and knowing the controls is only the start.

When working on most construction sites a crane operator rarely works alone. They are generally accompanied by an off-sider whose role it is to hook and unhook loads. They also have the role of being the operator’s eyes on the ground. They communicate using a basic set of hand signals – signals that all operators need to learn if they wish to work in the industry.

Safety is a big issue on any work site and it is the crane operator’s off-sider who guides the operator into how and where the load is moved – safely. Yes, it is important to learn the controls for without that knowledge the crane would be useless. Knowing the hand signals is an integral part of getting the job done. Add to this other components of crane operations such as ensuring the crane itself is balanced on firm ground before attempting any lift and you will come to some understanding at how much training is required.

Have I scared you off yet? I hope not because that is not my intention. Most people can complete the required training fairly quickly. Once completed, you can develop and build on your new skills in the workplace. Experienced crane operators are highly skilled and amongst the highest paid workers on a construction site. Is this the right career for you? If so, check out your crane operator training options today.

Our country was built using the skills and labor or migrants. In fact, most of us come from migrants, even you can trace your ancestry back to the first arrivals – they were still migrants. We are still accepting migrants into the country and sometimes those migrants need to adapt their skills to our work environments. Heavy equipment is no different.

Heavy equipment skills recognition is not always as easy as looking at your foreign qualifications. Crane operators, for example, require certification in many states. Truck drivers will need to pass local commercial drivers license tests. The biggest hurdle facing many migrants is that need to be able to read, write and speak English reasonably well.

If they are able to communicate, the rest becomes a lot easier. Taking part in an accredited heavy equipment training program, an accredited crane operator training program, or an accredited truck driver training program will provide the migrant with the necessary skills and workplace safety knowledge that is required to work successfully in this country.

Yes, their skills are transferable to a certain extent. However, there are many countries that are not quite as advanced as ours. Their heavy equipment is not as advanced as ours – in fact, some are absolute dinosaurs. New technology such as GPS and laser will be quite strange to many migrants – hey, they are quite strange to some of our own older operators as well.

The good news for migrants who are entering this country is, they don’t have to look for new careers. If they have worked successfully as heavy equipment operators in their own country, they can update their skills here and continue in their chosen profession.

According to many former students, the singe factor affecting their employment options was their choice of training. Why? In most cases, that was the feedback from the employer. Heavy equipment training organizations develop a reputation. It is this reputation that employers look at when deciding who to hire – pick the wrong training organization, and you may find yourself unemployable.

This is not unique to heavy equipment training. Take a look at most professions and you will find some training providers who are highly regarded, and others who are looked upon poorly. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools has worked hard over the years developing a trust between those who hire operators and their training schools. Based on this trust, our graduates are looked upon quite favorably when it comes to applying for positions.

There are several factors that go into building a solid reputation. Time is important – we have only been in operation for forty years – do you think we may have learned a thing or two ourselves in that time? We have – we have learned what employers want.

The second factor is to deliver training that is industry accredited. This means that employers know that graduates will leave our training schools with a certain level of skills – the employer doesn’t have to guess what your skill level is.

The third factor – our actual training. When we say that someone has completed and passed their training – they have. Individuals cannot pay their money, turn up for the first and last days then expect to pass – you have to do the work to complete the course – there are no bought qualifications at ATS.

Employers know who they want to employ. Your choice of training will determine whether or not you meet their criteria. Add ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools to your list of possible training providers. Check us out and I think you will agree that undertaking heavy equipment training through us – is by far the right choice.

A major component of heavy equipment safety for excavator and crane operators is the look up and live philosophy. It can be all too easy to fall into the tunnel vision trap when you are digging trenches or using a crane to move objects at or below eye level. This tunnel vision sees an operator focus on what is in front and down from their position in the cab. Of course, danger often lurks from above.

A story by Tessa Muggeridge (Sept. 24, 2009 08:17 AM – The Arizona Republic) involves a crane operator who was working on a road side. With traffic light, he was using part of the road to move his load. When a truck appeared, he instinctively moved the crane’s boom out of the way – and straight into overhead power lines.

He was probably focused on what he was doing and the traffic – which is fine, that is his job. What he forgot to add into that focus before even climbing into the cab was what was overhead. This has to be a part of an operator’s checklist before starting work. What is around them and what is above them. If they are close to power lines, they need to make a mental note to be ultra-cautious.

The crane operator was lucky – he lived to tell the tale, suffering serious burns on his ears, face, chest and legs. He wasn’t the only victim – a work colleague would have to consider himself very unlucky. He suffered second-degree burns and blisters on his ears. How? He was wearing a communications head set and power flowed through the crane and into him.

It’s an unfortunate accident yet one that could have been avoided. Occupations Safety and Health Administration will now review the accident and you can guarantee that some of the questions they will ask will include whether or not the crane operator was certified and what, if any, heavy equipment safety training the operator had received. Heavy equipment safety is important – when working with equipment, look up and check for power lines – it may just save your life.

The popularity of heavy equipment careers seems to come in waves – this could be an economic led effect or perhaps an effect brought on by publicity when heavy equipment labor shortages appear. We are currently in a situation where we have both of these effects – an economy that is coming out of a recession and a shortage of heavy equipment operators.

When considering a career as a heavy equipment operator, most people focus on one piece of equipment. You will often hear someone say, “I want to drive a bulldozer”; or “I want to drive a crane”. I can’t help having a little chuckle when I hear the words “I want to drive”. Sure, you do drive trucks and there is an element of driving when it comes to most heavy equipment – but driving is such a small component. The question I always ask is, why are you limiting yourself to a bulldozer?

Heavy equipment careers span a very wide range of machinery and in many cases skills are transferable between machinery. If you can operate an excavator and a front-end loader then you can operate a backhoe – and vice-versa. For this reason, I recommend learning to operate a variety of machinery.

For you, the operator, it makes you far more employable, since you can apply for a wider variety of positions. For an employer, you are far more attractive since you offer employees the flexibility of using your abilities where and when required – this is particularly useful if you are called upon to complete a job where the current operator is ill or injured.

What are the options in heavy equipment careers? There is no limit. Check out any decent heavy equipment training program and they should offer you training on a variety of machinery. Gain as much experience as you can and the sky is the limit.

I bet you didn’t know that dump trucks built roads. In a way, they do. Sure, they don’t smooth out the road base and they don’t lay the seal, but they do play a big role in building our roads. In fact, if you care to stop and watch a team as they build a new road, you will be amazed at how involved a dump truck is.

Without getting too technical in how a new road is built, there are steps which are pretty obvious. The stretch of land where a new road is to be built has to be cleared of vegetation. A road crew will often remove the top foot or so of soil – sometimes much more. This is generally the role of a bulldozer and a front end loader. The loader of course dumps the cleared waste into – a dump truck.

From there, graders get to work leveling the new road. Once they have a smooth platform to build a road on, the assembly of a new road begins. And that is what it is – an assembly project. Dump trucks bring in road base, a material used to make the foundations of the road. This could be a gravel and cement mixture, for example. The dump trucks don’t just dump and run. If you watch them you will see they start the tipper action and as the base starts to flow out, they drive slowly down the new road evenly spreading the road base. This makes life easier for the grader who follows and smooths out the material.

There are several other processes such as driving rollers over this area, which compact and level out the road base. It is then ready for the final seal. This could be cement or a hot mix. Either way, a special machine is used to lay the seal. Once again, dump trucks are used to carry the mix – they dump it in to the machine laying the new road. Wave after wave of trucks come in and they are able to empty their contents without the machine stopping. This enable a completely smooth road to be laid without any seams.

Dump trucks are involved in some way in every step of road making. You can work as a dump truck driver once you complete a truck driver training program. The pay is good, the hours are great, and the job never boring. At the end of the day, you can look back on a piece of road that you have helped build – a permanent record of your hard work.

Bulldozer operators and backhoe operators are the two units of heavy equipment most likely to work on their own. They do form integral parts of teams but you will often find a backhoe out on a site doing the preparation work alone. One such job is the digging of foundations for a new building. Let’s spend a day with a backhoe operator as they dig those foundations.

A backhoe operator typically starts the day quite early. They arrive at the construction yard where they collect their work orders for that day. After an inspection of the backhoe they load it onto a truck and often drive it themselves to the site. Once on the site the backhoe is unloaded from the truck, the scene of battle surveyed, the blue prints checked then it’s on with the job.

As the name suggests, a backhoe is a piece of heavy equipment that has a hoe (the bucket) that is operated by dragging the bucket through the earth towards itself. In other words, it drags it back, it doesn’t push forward like a bulldozer of loader. As the backhoe edges forward, it is leaving a trench behind itself.

An experienced backhoe operator can dig a standard house foundation in less than a day. Once the foundations have been dug, it is time to pack up and return to the construction yard. After unloading the backhoe, the operator generally reports back to the manager on the work performed. They may even preview the following day’s work, particularly if special attachments are required.

A backhoe operator’s day finishes with another walk around inspection – this is to check for any damage the machine may have received during the day. Backhoe operators often work long hours when required and may work six day weeks. If you are looking for a heavy equipment career that provides some independence then training to become a backhoe operator could be your best option.

If a backhoe is not quite to your liking then I suggest you check out our “spend a day with” series. The series covers mobile crane operation, bulldozers, motor graders and excavators.