Tough guys don’t sleep and they don’t doze either, especially on a construction site. The dozer, or more correctly, the bulldozer, is one of the tough guys on site. They are renown for their strength and their ability to shift large quantities of material in a short period of time.

Bulldozers are used in earth moving, road construction, mining, land clearing and for military purposes. The consist of a heavy body with a powerful motor generally sitting on ‘caterpillar’ treads. At the front is a thick strong steel blade that is used to push dirt. Combine the power of that engine, the overall weight of the machine, the treads and the blade and you have one tough muscle machine.

For highway construction, bulldozers are one of the first machines called in. The carve out the raw landscape into a rough road shape in preparation for motor-graders and other heavy equipment to come in and perform the finishing touches. Without the bulldozer, the motor grader would have nothing to work on.

In land clearing, the bulldozer is capable of ripping up the top couple of feet, pulling up shrubs and small vegetation, pushing over trees and even dragging tree stumps out of the ground. They are able to level a plot of land in fairly quick time.

On construction sites, the bulldozer prepares the ground by scraping away the top surface and providing a level building platform. The bulldozer is one of heavy equipments most versatile machines and operators are in heavy demand nationwide.

For a career as a bulldozer driver check out ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools for nationally accredited training.

There are two different types of heavy equipment training. The first is a standardized training program that all our students complete. This training produces a level of knowledge and skills across a range of heavy equipment types. The training is designed to meet the needs of employers. Any student that completes the requirements of training programs is ready for employment from day one.

There certain times, and certain industries, that require specialized heavy equipment training. This training to meet the individual needs of the employer. Specialized training can be designed to upgrade the current skills of employees or train new recruits from the ground up.

Specialized heavy equipment training is designed through a process that involves consulting with employer to determine their exact needs along with industry minimum standards, particularly in the field of safety.

The added benefit of specialized training is that we train in the field, using the employers equipment and in the environment the heavy equipment will be used in. The training is designed to meet the particular needs of the employer. Furthermore, training can be delivered at times and places that suit the employer and their employees. This can often reduce productivity losses during the training period.

Why undertake specialized training? Most employers seek specialized training when they use, or buy, specialized equipment. By employing a training firm such as ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools you know that each employee will receive identical training thereby ensuring that all employees have the same sets of skills.

ATS prides itself in delivering the best training, both standard and specialized. If your business requires specialized training services then call ATS on 1-800-678-8120 and we will be happy to discuss your training needs.

CDL – Class A Commercial Driver License. You need to obtain your CDL if you wish to work in the industry driving trucks on public roads.

Obtaining your CDL is done in three stages. The first stage involves training, in a classroom setting, in subjects such as Department of Transportation rules, safety and safe operation of equipment, Commercial Driver License regulations, logbooks, and hazardous materials.

Transport rules cover the use of the vehicle on public roads and includes information such as general road rules, load limits, and driving limits.

The second stage involves hands-on training in the use of a truck and includes backing and other close quarter maneuvers as well as pre-trip inspection, coupling and uncoupling and actual Highway and City driving. The later provides you with the opportunity to experience truck driving on public roads in traffic situations.

The third stage is where you actually complete the requirements to receive your license. Different states may have different requirements, however they all require you to sit and pass a written test and to pass a driving test.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools have a three week truck driving course that prepares you for those tests. Upon completion of the test and the granting of license, we have over 10,000 trucking companies nationwide in our job placement database.

One of Heavy Equipment’s largest machines is the dragline excavator. This equipment is used in both civil engineering and surface mining. Smaller types are often used in road and port construction, particularly if an old piece of road needs tearing up.

The larger types are used in strip-mining operations generally to extract coal. These are amongst the largest heavy equipment in use and weigh in the vicinity of 2000 metric tonnes. There have been machines weighing up to 13,000 metric tonnes.

A dragline bucket system consists of a large bucket which is suspended from a boom. The bucket is maneuvered by means of a number of ropes and chains. Powered by large diesel or electric motors, the hoist rope supports the bucket and hoist-coupler assembly from the boom. By skillfully controlling the hoist and the dragrope the bucket is, as the name suggests, dragged through the material to be excavated.

For civil engineering, there other machines that have been specifically built to replace the dragline. Training to operate a drag line is often done on the job. However most employers preview to employ those that have heavy equipment experience on machines like a bulldozer.

You can get your bulldozer credentials through ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools. Drop in and check out what courses may suit you.

There are a lot of heavy equipment training providers in the market place at present so you may be wondering why you should choose us over one of the others. At the end of the day, training is not about the little bit of paper you receive when it is all over. For that paper to mean anything, your skills and your ability to successfully use them in the workplace is what counts most.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools pride themselves on the way they do business. They have a core set of values which they stick by. These values include:

LONGEVITY: Being able to stick it out over a great many years training in heavy equipment

QUALITY: Quality speaks for itself. You are going to be the best judge so they wont let you down.

INTEGRITY: Doing what we say we are going to do.

PRIDE: We take pride in our business. We also take pride in our heavy equipment students.

INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF: Only qualified, experienced and well trained staff – you deserve the best

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: At the end of the day you will judge us on how we have delivered our service to you.

Heavy equipment is competitive. There are many jobs calling for well trained staff. I role is to help employers find staff that meet their needs so we adapt our training according to current requirements. Check our free brochure and DVD on the heavy equipment industry.

Operating a crane is a piece of cake these days compared to a couple of hundred years ago. The modern crane looks nothing like those earlier devices. Today’s cranes can comfortably sit in the field of heavy equipment, back then there was nothing heavy about the crane at all.

The medieval crane must have been something to see. There were several different ways to operate them, the main one being using human power, running inside a giant wheel. Of course, as time progressed, horses were brought in to do some of the work load. Daily accidents and deaths were a standard part of a working day.

Today’s cranes are far more complicated and yet, at the same time, less complex. They are certainly a lot safer, yet they can lift far more than their earlier counterparts. The cranes of that era, particularly the simpler ones were often a lot easier to transport; but then, all you had was a large piece of reinforced timber. You could always find a fulcrum somewhere near the job site.

When you look at some of the ancient castles, you have to be amazed at how they managed to erect them using such primitive cranes – yet they did and those building still stand today.

Fortunately we don’t have to rely on those old cranes. Our mechanical cranes do the job in a fraction of time using far less manpower. The manpower that is used needs, however, far more training. That is where ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools comes in. We prepare our students for work in the heavy equipment field so they than can get the job done quickly and safely. Join the crane operators of today with effective heavy equipment training.

Heavy equipment is used in a wide variety of situations. From the mine to the forest, our ports and roads, and construction of everything from a home to a high rise building. The requirement for heavy equipment operators seems to ebb and flow. However, there always seems to be vacancies for skilled operators.

Our free job placement service can help you find employment operating a wide range of heavy equipment related to the training you undertook. This heavy equipment includes:

• Wheel loaders
• Backhoes
• Excavators
• Scrapers
• Bulldozers
• Road Graders
• Swing & Fixed cab mobile cranes
• Equipment Transporting
• Dump Trucks

Job placement assistance is a priority with us. All our graduates are eligible to receive job placement assistance at no extra cost. There is a demand throughout the country for heavy equipment operators.

As a graduate, you are able to access our job placement database by calling the School or on the internet. The job placement department assists in locating potential employers in your community.

To put these services into affect, you must have graduated from ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools. Contact us for no obligation information and DVD.

A dumper is often a diesel powered vehicle used to carry loads and material around, often on building sites. Older dumpers steer by turning their back wheels. They had no electric or hydraulic parts and thus has not much that can easily go wrong. The skip was secured by a catch near the driver’s feet which, when released, allowed the skip to tip under the weight of its contents.

Modern dumpers often steer by articulating at the middle of the chassis. They have a host of electric and electronic components with hydraulics and are more expensive to make and operate.

Their skips have power tipping and often lift as they tip. In the 1990s dumpers with swivel skips, which could be rotated to tip out sideways, became popular, especially for working in narrow sites such as road works.

Dumpers are specialized equipment that may require specialized training. However, the basic training required is often no different to that of a truck driver or dozer operator. To gain training in all aspects of heavy equipment contact us at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

The modern heavy equipment cab is almost luxury compared to those of ten and twenty years ago. One question I heard was why? Why have they made modern cabs so comfortable?

Older heavy equipment was heavy in all aspects. Even the steering was heavy. It often took a lot of strength to turn the steering wheel, pull on the levers and push down on the pedals. Add to that the heat and dust and the poor supply of fresh air and the role of a heavy equipment operator was quite taxing. Most operators finished the day mentally and physically exhausted.

It was a known fact that most accidents occurred in the later part of a working shift. This was because workers were tired, less vigilant and their reflexes much slower. Some reports put heavy equipment operators on the same level of those who were intoxicated.

Over time, different areas of the operators cab were refined. One of the first was the introduction powered steering. This took a lot of strain of the operator particularly when hydraulics where also improved to make the movement of levers and pedals much easier. The physical strain on the body was immediately reduced.

Add to this the inclusion of comfortable seats, climate (and dust) control and wide wrap around windows and suddenly the heavy equipment operator’s life became easier. We call them luxury cabs, those who operated the old machinery call them safety cabs.

Learn to operate heavy equipment yourself through ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

As the name suggests, all terrain fork vehicles can operate across a range of terrains and can often be found around mines and on some large construction sites. Their role in the heavy equipment world is to load and unload trucks and to move heavy equipment around the mine or construction site.

All terrain fork tend to be larger than a standard fork lift truck and are included in the heavy equipment category. They operate using a set of two or more ‘forks’ at the front of the truck. The forks are placed under the material to be moved, then raised until the material is well clear of the ground.

All terrain fork vehicles can be quite nimble and can move around a site fairly quickly, even with a heavy load. Operating a fork requires a sense of balance along with good eyesight and the ability to navigate a vehicle that often has a load that is much wider than the vehicle itself.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can deliver training across a wide range of heavy equipment including Backhoes, Wheel Loaders, All Terrain Fork Vehicles, Rollers/ Compactors, Off-Road Dump Trucks, Scrapers, Bulldozers, Excavators, Motor Graders. To get your career off to a flying start give us a call.