Some people are just born to be drivers. I know I was. I could spend all day driving, whether it is around town or out on the open highway. Come holiday time, my family knows we are going on a trip. We hit the road and just drive; of course I stop occasionally so the family can see the sights. In reality, I should have been a truck driver, my wife says a long distance one at that.

If your like me then perhaps a career as a truck driver may just be an option you should look into. The work itself is not too grueling, the conditions fairly good and the pay quite reasonable as well. All you need is your Class-A Commercial Driver License to begin with.

To gain a Class-A Commercial Driver License you need to satisfy the licensing body that you are competent behind the wheel and that you know all the road rules and safety laws related to truck driving.

The ATS Heavy Equipment Training School’s truck driving program can deliver all that. With 40 years experience in training truck drivers, they certainly have history behind them. They have also got over 10,000 trucking companies nationwide in its job placement database. With that history they must be doing everything right.

ATS uses both in-class training, when it comes to road rules and safety requirements; and in-vehicle training to provide you with all the knowledge and experience required to gain your Class-A Commercial Drivers License.

Heavy equipment operators are always in demand, even when they reach a point when they don’t want to be behind the controls any more. Having the skills, knowledge and experience of operating heavy equipment means you are invaluable to many employers.

One of the more obvious areas that a skilled heavy equipment operator could work in is the training industry. You have the skills – in other words you can operate the equipment; you have the knowledge – this means you know your dirt, your surfaces, the work places and the people; and of course you have the experience – you have combined the skills and knowledge and been an effective operator.

These can all be passed on to the next generation of operators. The best people to learn from are the ones that have done it, got their hands dirty, and done the work.

Other post heavy equipment operator careers could include positions as inspectors such as safety inspectors. These often require further training, however your experience behind the controls is invaluable, especially when it comes to safety.

A career as a heavy equipment operator has many possible outcomes. You don’t have to look at it as being a ‘dead end’ job. However, without the right training you will not have a career in the first place. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can provide you will all the skills and knowledge you require to get you started in a career. And yes, we use highly skilled and knowledgeable trainers to deliver your training.

There are a lot places where you wouldn’t expect to find a bulldozer. Bulldozers come a variety of shapes and sizes and range from giants that work in the mining industry to babies that work in factories.

These little bulldozers are also put to work in the holds of ships and are often used to scrape up the remnants of whatever material has been carried in the holds. This can range from coal, stone or gravel through to wheat and other grains. This is one job where you wouldn’t want to be claustrophobic.

It’s not just shipping. There are many factories that use bulldozers to push the raw material around. Sugar refineries use a bulldozer to push raw sugar into small hills. They are also used around wood chip and sand and gravel enterprises.

Bulldozers are a part of many commercial enterprises today. Whilst the big boys may live and work on construction sites, mines or road building; their little cousins are equally hard at work. They may move less material compared to their larger relative, but they work twice as fast to make up for it.

Despite the size, the training required to handle a small bulldozer is not that different to what is required to operate a full size bulldozer. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools deliver training that will have you well equipped to handle any size bulldozer.

If you have seen an excavator or excavators at work then you will know they are quite powerful and can excavate trenches fairly quickly. What you may not be aware of is the range of attachments that can be added to the equipment. These attachments provide for a wide range of tasks that an excavator can perform. Attachments include:

• Jackhammers: Jackhammers are used to break up material such as hard earth, rock or concrete;
• Shovels: Hydraulic mining excavators often use shovels;
• Grapples: Grapples are similar to claws and are used to grasp objects such as trees or tree stumps;
• Augers: Augers are similar to a drill bit, and are used to drill through materials to help break them up.

Operating these attachments is not difficult and often taught on the job. Using the attachments is often the easy part. The difficult part can often be the process of attaching and removing the attachment.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools provide training for all heavy equipment including excavators.

Where bulldozers rely on brute strength to push dirt around, motor graders rely in finesse to finely ‘grade’ as surface. Motor graders truly are the fine artists in the heavy equipment family.

Bulldozers are short stout muscle men. Motor graders are long and narrow. Bulldozers are often sitting on tracks which make them slow and cumbersome. Motor graders are on wheels which make them fast and nimble. The bulldozer has a blade at the front, the motor grader a blade hanging from the middle of the vehicle. I could go on with these comparisons, after all, they are both heavy equipment that has been designed to push dirt around.

The biggest difference is that bulldozers push huge quantities of dirt over short distances. Motor graders make long passes gently taking the top surface and trimming and smoothing it until it has the right angle or the right slope.

Road making is a prime example of a graders work. All roads have a slight angle to them, carefully designed to influence the run off of water. On corners, these angles (or camber as it is known) is designed to keep the car on the right line going around the corner, particularly when going through mountainous or hilly areas.

Believe it or not, the bulldozer can do some of the work that a motor graders does. However it takes far longer and is not precise like a true grader. A grader would have difficulty doing the work of a bulldozer.

If you’re somewhat of an artist and would like to work in the heavy equipment field, then check out ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools to see if we have the right training program for you.

Ever wondered what it is like to sit in the operators seat in some of those heavy equipment machines? Perhaps you can stop wondering and experience the feeling yourself. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools are having an open house and has been aptly named:

In-The-Seat Day

October 25th 2008

The following schools will be involved: Southern California, Northern California, Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and New Hampshire.

The open house will include FREE food, drinks, and a FREE gift (hats or t-shirts). Te first 100 attendees will also be eligible for a share of $100,000 in scholarships. See the website for conditions.

This is a perfect opportunity to get into the seat of a heavy equipment machine and see how comfortable you are behind the controls.

When undertaking a heavy equipment training program from a qualified and experienced trainer, you learn how to operate that equipment according to manufacturers instructions. What you also pick up are handy little hints and tips along the way that the instructor has learned from personal experience. Take the front end loader, or for that matter, the backhoe loader.

Both of these machines have a loader which is, effectively, a scoop. Although referred to as a scoop, it should never be used as a scoop. Take these handy little operating tips:

Leave the bucket flat – when using the front loader, many operators angle the bucket forward and attack the target in a scooping action. This can cause you to lose traction and possibly the load. It is also more stressful on the drive train. It’s better to keep the bucket flat on the ground as you approach the pile when loading, then lift and skim the pile.

Keep it clean – wipe your machine down daily, clean the windows and pick up any debris in the cab. By keeping the exterior clean, you can easily spot any fluid leaks before they get worse and result in downtime. Debris in the cab can get lodged in the controls and cause a problem.

Two simple tips. Most people don’t think about cleaning their equipment, however, if you don’t, you never know what damage it could create.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools only employ qualified and experienced people to deliver the training. They can train you as to how to operate any heavy equipment – they can also pass on tips gained from their experience on a the machine. All you need to do is pick their brains.

Heavy equipment is one field where accredited training has become important. In the past, almost anyone could set themselves up as, say, a bulldozer trainer; charge you a small fortune for training which may or may not have been adequate, and left you with a worthless piece of paper.

You can always tell the cowboys. They don’t have an office or training rooms and all of their training is delivered on the machine. There is little in the way of official safety training or heavy equipment safety checking. Training organizations that deliver training to an accepted level will apply for accreditation. This ensures your training is up to a minimum set of standards. Training organizations will always advertise and promote that accreditation – why? Because they are proud of their accreditation.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools are a good example of this. They are proud of their accreditation and proudly display the NCCER logo that shows they are accredited to deliver heavy equipment training.

Training organizations that have been accredited will be around for the long haul. They wont advertise, take your money and then disappear – it’s only the training cowboys who do that.

There are many different types of equipment that come under the classification of heavy equipment. Some of these machines are specialized and training is generally undertaken on the job. A prerequisite to gaining employment and subsequent training for many companies is some form of heavy equipment training and experience.

One specialized machine that you wont see every day is the bucket-wheel excavator. These machines are used in surface mining and civil engineering. The bucket-wheel gets its name from the design – a large rotating wheel mounted on an arm or boom with a series of scoops or buckets on the outer edge of the wheel. As the wheel turns, the buckets remove soil or rock and carry it around to the backside of the wheel where it falls onto a conveyor.

Some bucket-wheel excavators truly fit the classification of heavy equipment. The can be over 200 meters long and up to 100 meters in height.

The largest machines are used in German strip-mining operations. They cost over $100 million, take 5 years to assemble, require 5 people to operate and weigh more than 13,000 tons. The MAN Takraf is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest land vehicle.

Of course they are the giants. There are smaller bucket-wheel excavators in use. To operate on of those machines requires specialized training. This training is based on your knowledge and experience in using excavators or other heavy equipment such as bulldozers or motor graders.

You can receive training in heavy equipment such as bulldozers, motor graders and excavators through ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

Heavy equipment operators seem to love their work – and their machines. If you look around a building construction site you will notice a couple of things. If you look really closely, you may be surprised at what you see.

The first that strikes me is that heavy equipment operators are never far from their machines. Even when they stop for lunch, it is normally right alongside their machine and heaven help anyone who touches it. It’s certainly taboo to climb inside the cab without and invitation. In fact, I know many operators who don’t stop for lunch – they eat on the job and work right through their break time.

Why do heavy equipment operators like their job so much? There are plenty of reasons, it could be the feeling of power in their hands; or it could be the the fact they sit so far above everyone else.

In reality, they love their job because it’s a combination of creative and destructive. You may have to totally tear up a piece of round, then craft it back to a level surface to build on. Heavy equipment operators are employed, often to operate more than one type of machine and to do a wide variety of tasks. Of course they are happy; it’s the best job in the world!

You can be a heavy equipment operator too. All you need to do is complete our training program at ATS Heavy Equipment Training School and you’re ready to start your career.