A tractor is something that is used on a farm so why do they call a truck a tractor? There is a lot of terminology surrounding trucking that many finding either confusing or which simply draw blank stares. Here are some of the terms used around trucks (and tractors) that you have heard but not understood.

Tractor – the tractor is also known as a road tractor, prime mover (UK, Australia and New Zealand), or traction unit gets its name from the job it does. The tractor is the power house that does the pulling. One or more trailers (or semi trailers) can be attached to the tractor. They can also be referred to as articulated trucks. This simply refers to the fact that the tractor moves and the trailer follows – the same principle applies to a car towing a boat trailer – the boat follows the car.

Rigid Truck – the rigid unit is, as the name suggests, rigid. In other words, the tractor and the trailer are one solid unit – there is no articulation between the tractor and the trailer.

6×4, 6×2, 4×2 – these numbers refer to the wheel configuration of the tractor. The first number indicates the number of wheels (divide by two for axles) whilst the second number refers to the number of wheels powered. The most common tractors are the 6×4. The have three axles two of which are powered. This is commonly seen with the tractor having two wheels (one axle) forward of the drivers cab (used for steering) and four wheels (two axles) behind the drivers cab. The articulation point is located above the rear wheels.

Triple, Turnpike double, Rocky Mountain double or Road Train – this is a reference to a tractor with more than one trailer attached. For example, the triple will have three trailers attached.

There are many more terms in used trucking, far too many to include in a post. However, commence a career as long distance tractor driver and you will very quickly pick up the language used amongst drivers. Naturally, getting the right truck driver training from the beginning is all you need for a successful career as a long distance tractor driver.

We unfortunately live in a society where, despite standards and accreditation procedures, there are some heavy equipment training schools that just don’t make the grade. Gaining a qualification is not exactly cheap – in fact, if you come across a training program that is cheap – be careful, it may be cheap in more ways than one. So what should you look for in a heavy equipment training school?

I said there are standards and accreditation processes. It is obvious that these should be your first check. Are they accredited and do they meet the minimum standards required. However, you should do your own quality assessment and this can be done quickly using some of these guides:

Heavy equipment

There are two things to look at when it comes to the machinery itself. Is the heavy equipment reasonably modern and well maintained, or does it look like it’s been around every construction yard in the country? You don’t necessarily want every machine to be modern. You do need some experience on some of the older machines since the workplace is going to be full of machines of various ages and conditions.

The second think to look at when it comes to heavy equipment is the range. Do they have a broad range of machinery types, or are you going to be stuck behind a bobcat with a variety of attachments? Variety is the spice of training – by that I mean a variety of machinery, not attachments.

Training Area

Is the training area dedicated – or just part of the car park. Is it large and does it contain a variety of materials such as sand, gravel and rock. If you are going to train on a bulldozer, you want real earth to shift – not a pile of sand in the middle of the car park.

The Classroom

As much as we hate being in a classroom, every job has its theoretical components and that requires a specialist classroom – not the company’s lunch room. Equipment such as video players and overhead projectors will give you an indication of their professionalism.

Training Support

Is there a dedicated administration area? This is important. You want your training records stored for future reference. If there is no dedicated admin area, or admin staff, what is going to happen to your records once the heavy equipment training program has been completed? Will they be thrown in a pile in the corner, filed in the shredder, or carefully stored for future access?

These are minimum standards that you can check, often by just eyeballing the training center from the carpark. If you are satisfied with what you see, and the organization is accredited to deliver and assess heavy equipment training, you can consider enrolling and chances are, you will come out the other side a professional heavy equipment operator ready to hit the workforce. Oh yes – do they have a professional job placement service as well?

If you are an employer and you are not quite getting the best out of your workforce, you may want to consider engaging a custom training organization. There are few businesses that have the resources or skills required to intensively train their workforce although many try with less than satisfactory results.

Professional training organizations that have custom training programs available have a host of real advantages. One of the biggest often comes as a surprise to employers yet a careful study will reveal how true it is. Custom training is generally speaking far cheaper than trying to do it yourself.

Think about the costs associated with training just one member of your workforce. Someone has to do the training which means taking them out of the production cycle and placing them into a low producing position is one hefty cost. Other costs include developing a training program that can deliver the required skills immediately.

If you are not employing skilled training staff then there is a good chance that the training delivered could be ineffective – or worse. It could lead to the development of poor work habits. Cost is a huge factor and is a part of many of the other reasons that employers undertake custom training. These reasons include:

• qualifications and skills of training staff
• flexibility of delivery
• on/off site delivery of training
• assessment and awarding of certificates
• tailoring of training to meet specific goals

You may feel that as an employer you can handle some or all of these areas. The last point is a good example. You know what goals you want to achieve and how the equipment should be used to achieve those goals. That, however, does not mean you have the skills to develop a training program to achieve those goals, at least not without help. Custom training – is it right for you? Almost always – yes!

If you have read any of our previous posts you will know that a bulldozer is a piece of heavy equipment that is designed to use muscle to scrape the surface and push dirt around. You could say they were the bully boys of a construction site. Nothing gets in their way, and I mean nothing.

However, that strength can also be used for other things. Some bulldozers can have their blade removed and a large scoop attached. To load dirt onto a truck, these bulldozers need hydraulic arms that can lift the scoop high enough to empty the contents into the truck.

Standard bulldozers have arms with limited movement. They can be moved within a narrow height band – some as high as the drivers cab, tilt the blade and angle the blade to the left or right. Raising the arms above their head is a different story – at least, for most bulldozers.

Having a scoop attached can certainly add to the versatility of a bulldozer. They can clear the area ready for construction, then, with a change from blade to scoop, load the pile of debris onto a truck. Of course, the operator would need heavy equipment training that covers both a bulldozer and a front end loader. That would combine the skills of both machines into the one job.

That’s all fine. But what would you call a bulldozer that can have a scoop attached? As you can see from the picture, they do exist and, taking the name bulldozer and front end loader into account, they are simply called dozer-loaders. There is another piece of trivia brought to you courtesy of ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools.

If you’re really serious about starting a career as a heavy equipment operator – don’t go it alone, use a job placement service. They know the industry, they know the good employers (and the bad), and they know who is or who will be employing new operators. They also have that one little bit of knowledge that you will find impossible to find, who employs rookies and who turns them away.

You can waste a lot of time visiting construction companies trying to get your foot in the door. Many of them simply won’t employ new operators, preferring instead to hire those with experience. It may seem a little unfair, and it probably is since those experienced operators were once rookies themselves. However, that is where a job placement service can be a big help.

There are a lot of job placement services around; it is simply a matter of finding the right one for you. You also have to be sure they have specialist knowledge of the heavy equipment industry. Of course, if you’re lucky, the organization you do your training with may have their own job placement service.

You are in luck because you are one step away from finding that heavy equipment training organization that also offers a job placement service. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have one of the best reputations in the nation for delivering quality training and for providing the industry with well trained operators.

Because of that reputation, employers will often come to ATS seeking their best students. In fact, ATS has an extensive database of employers that graduates can access. Their heavy equipment job placement service doesn’t stop there, it includes a specialized web site and trained staff ready to help graduates find their first job. ATS won’t help you get your foot in the door. We want to get your feet on the pedals and actually working – after all, that is what a job placement service is all about.

If there is one general trend in our society at present it is to go ‘green’ and heavy equipment careers look set to be one of the biggest beneficiaries. When I say going green, I am of course referring to environmental issues. One of President Obama’s aims is to create 5 million new green construction jobs over the next ten years. That equates to half a million jobs each year.

Green machines have been developed in the past. Fork trucks often run on LPG rather than liquid fuels like diesel. Diesel itself is slightly better for the environment than petrol, even the unleaded version. But that is the heavy equipment itself.

What President Obama is looking at is the building of zero emission power stations, roads that shorten journeys and prevent gridlock – a huge cause of pollution and green house gases. Other projects are likely to include dam building and hydroelectricity, wind farms and the demolition of old buildings – replacing them with green earth projects.

This will create a demand for operators of heavy equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, graders and cranes. There will also be an increase in the demand for truck drivers, not only for transporting heavy equipment around the country, but also for the transportation of building materials.

As we move forward with controls on green house gas emissions, demand for skilled operators will increase. Operators who have received heavy equipment training through professional training bodies will be the ones most sought after. Their heavy equipment careers will blossom whilst those from a generation ago that trained “on-the-job” may find that refresher and safety training courses are required.

Heavy equipment careers look set to travel in one direction only – upwards. The demand is already growing with some states now trying to influence school leavers into exploring a heavy equipment career. There has never been a better time than now to investigate a career as a heavy equipment operator.

They call them boys and their toys and when it comes to heavy equipment, they don’t get much bigger – mind you, there are plenty of girls enjoying the thrills of the sport as well. Around the country and throughout Canada there are various events that challenge heavy equipment operators at what they do best. Often held as part of county or state fairs, these contests are a lot of fun to watch. They are even more fun to participate in.

One of the best contests to watch (and one of the funniest) is the backhoe egg race – yes, egg race. Backhoe operators need to move an egg from on top of a pile of dirt and place it into a nest made from an old tire and some straw – without breaking the egg. By the way, they don’t use their hands, they have to use the backhoe bucket to do the whole task.

Backhoes are not the most graceful of tools, yet you would be surprised at how many eggs make it unscathed. How about a game of backhoe basketball. Here the operator has to lift a ball from the top of a cone and place it into a basket.

If you really want to have fun, keep your eyes open for, wait for it, synchronized dancing. I have only ever seen this twice – once using backhoes and the second time using skid steer loaders. It is fun to watch but more than that, you have to marvel at the control these operators have over their equipment.

This of course is the aim of these contests. How well can these operators master their machines? It all starts way back at the beginning when they first received their heavy equipment training. They have obviously had the kind of training that has made them feel extremely comfortable with their machines – the kind of training that has lead to them being experts in the field of heavy equipment operations. If you ever get the opportunity to visit one of these contests, do it. You will be thrilled at the action and amazed at their skills.

Skid steer loaders are one of the most versatile pieces of equipment in use. Once thought of more as a landscaping tool, they are starting to make their presence felt in construction. The skid steer loader is probably the one piece of heavy equipment that proves that size doesn’t matter, or that smaller can be better.

As you can see from this picture, skid steer loaders are not simply loaders. This machine has been fitted with a breaker designed a little like a large jackhammer. Its job is to break up any hard surface. This includes rock, concrete and packed earth. There are so many different types of attachments that it would take ten blog posts just to cover the more common types.

The list of attachments for a skid steer loader include

• Backhoe and mini backhoe
• Auger
• Bucket
• Crane boom
• Grading rake
• Post hole digger
• Trencher
• and Grappler

How To Have A Happy And Long Career As A Skid Steer Loader

This second picture shows a skid steer loader fitted with a grappler. You can see how easy it can move large objects like rocks away from a work area.

Skid steer loader training is more than just learning how to drive the loader component. You need to learn how to change attachments and how these attachments operate. There are also maintenance issues with each attachment in use. Most training programs cover the basics of attachments, the balance of your training being done on the job.

If you’re interested in a career operating a skid steer loader then the best advice I can offer is to find employment after your training that will expose you to a variety of attachments. Developing skills in the operation of a variety of skid steer attachments will make your future employment more attractive. Having operators that are multi-skilled is becoming important in our modern work forces. If you can promote yourself as a multi-skilled skid steer loader operator, you will have a long and happy career.

One of the biggest problems in the construction industry at present is getting our youth interested. This lack of interest is flowing through to heavy equipment careers with the numbers of young people who are undertaking training dropping each year.

The future of any industry is in our youth. As they gain knowledge and experience, they transfer that knowledge onto future generations. There are a lot of programs around, such as the Block Kids Program, a program that tries to get our youth interested in construction. When it comes to heavy equipment, we tend to rely on the fascination that children develop when playing in their sand pits at an early age.

Whilst many complain about the lack of youth coming through, heavy equipment is perhaps one industry where we can be more relaxed. It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you are reasonably fit, reasonably intelligent and willing to look, listen and learn then you can be trained to operate heavy equipment.

There is a lot of emphasis placed on youth. However, many employers shy away from taking on the very young. Not only do they lack experience on the equipment, they lack experience in driving in general and they lack experience in life. This is where the not-so-young have a distinct advantage.

Where a lack of youth will hurt the industry is in isolated areas. In the past, this was seen as an attractive way to work and save money to help fund specific life goals. Mining, forestry, and isolated projects like pipeline construction could start to feel the pinch.

What is important for everyone to realize is that heavy equipment careers are for everyone. You don’t have to be fresh out of school to undertake training. In fact, a little maturity could be a real plus when seeking employment. Heavy equipment training is designed to encompass all ages and genders so whether you’re fresh out of school or nudging 40 (or older), if you’re interested in a heavy equipment career don’t let your age get in the way – no one else will.

Truck driving is one of those jobs that often draws mixed emotions. For some, these big rigs are the bane of their existence. They fear these monsters as they tear along our highways, often in the middle of the night. There are just as many who find them fascinating, perhaps even dream about driving one.

I admit there are certain highways that seem to have an endless stream of big trucks booming up and down the highway. However, they have a job to do. We consume what they transport from A to B. If we didn’t need the goods they transported, the trucks wouldn’t be on those highways. Come to think of it, without trucks using those highways, half of them wouldn’t exist anyway.

If you’re considering a career in truck driving then these may well be issues that your friends and family throw at you. You have to grin and bear it. After all, unless they have driven a truck, they won’t understand what you are feeling.

This is one of those jobs where even the worker feels all those feelings. Yes, there is a touch of fear. You’re roaring down that highway at 60mph, part of a long line of trucks. If one goes pear-shaped, how many more will follow. At the same time, there is that feeling of power, and a job to be done.

They say that children can be good judges of character. When it comes to those big trucks, children display a healthy respect. They keep their distance – at least, to within a safe distance. Yet they love them. If you ever watch little children around big trucks, there are the mixed squeals of fear and joy, but the big smiles on their faces really give the game away. They love them. It also helps when the driver obliges with a resounding hoot on their air horns.

You can be a part of that emotional mix. If you have ever craved a truck driving career then your next step has to be to inquire on a truck driver training program. Learn to drive a big rig and the highways could be yours – so too the grins of those excited kids as you go zooming by.