What sort of equipment would you like to operate?

• Backhoes
• Wheel Loaders
• Dump Trucks
• Bulldozers
• Scrapers
• Excavators
• Motor Graders

You can learn the basics of these heavy equipment machines online through ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools, and it’s free.

The training is divided into three levels with an online 10 question quiz at the end of each module. Get 50% correct in all modules and you will receive a frameable confirmation of completion certificate.

This could be your first steps towards a very lucrative and rewarding career in the heavy equipment industry.

Being a crane operator can be a very interesting and diverse career. Most people consider crane operators as construction workers, working on building sites helping to move heavy steel and concrete parts of the construction into the place. Careers in crane operation are far more diverse than that.

Most of our ports would come to a standstill if it wasn’t for the work of crane operators. They lift goods in and out of ships holds all day everyday. Special cranes are used to lift containers out of ships and placing them onto rail or road freight cars.

The mining industry relies heavily on crane operators for much of their work. Mine operations can be a dangerous field so reliable well trained operators are always in demand.

Some of the unusual career options include those involved with emergency work. Helping to get rail cars back onto their tracks after a derailment; helping to get semi-trailers back onto their wheels after a roll-over; and helping to lift vehicles of all shapes and sizes out of lakes and rivers can all be a part of a crane operators job description.

Qualified reliable crane operators are always in heavy demand. Because of the pivotal roll that this position has in many industries, good operators can be well paid with good fringe benefits paid to ensure they stay with the one business.

If the roll of a crane operator appeals to you then the your first step is to acquire the skills required to get your foot in the door as a crane operator. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can help you get that start as a successful well paid crane operator.

Most people looking at that title would be wondering what I am talking about. However, if you are in the construction industry you will possibly know what it means.

Critical lifting of course relates to cranes and how they lift objects. They are ‘critical’ in certain circumstances. For instance when a particular lift with an overhead crane requires substantial planning due to:

• Load weight or size constraints
• Tight travel paths
• Risk to surrounding equipment or
• Risk to personnel

Under those circumstances a critical lift plan may be in order. The critical lift plan is put together so that a work team knows exactly what they are doing at any given time. The plan maps out:

• load limitations
• path sketches
• team member assignments
• emergency procedures

Without a critical lift plan you can guarantee that something will go wrong. Crane operation is a highly technical position which requires good training in the basic. You can get that basic training at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

Do you enjoy driving? Does the freedom of the open road appeal to you? Perhaps a career as a truck driver could be ideal for you.

One of the great things about truck driving is that once your loaded up and on the road, you are effectively your own boss. You have the wheel and you know where your going and when you have to be there by. The rest is up to you.

Both men and women can flourish as truck drivers and trucking is not only fun and adventurous, but also provides a secured future. While you may start as a flatbed driver or perhaps as dumptruck driver, once you gain a little experience you can seek out training that could put you into one of the big rigs that criss-cross the country.

Anyone who is interested in truck driving can get into the field by attending a training school like ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools where can help you to learn to handle a truck. They can also teach you rules of the road and provide safety tips while handling a truck. Some of the training schools like ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools offer a job placement facility after completing your training. Truck driving can be a great career for someone who enjoys the freedom of the road.

Being a heavy equipment operator can be a real challenge. No matter how experienced you are, you are always going to come across situations that are a little tricky or even a total challenge.

Working on slopes has often been the biggest challenge facing any heavy equipment operator. If you can image standing on a slope with a shovel in your hand trying to dig a straight and level hole. It’s not easy.

Using a bulldozer on a slope has it’s own set of difficulties. Using a grader on a slope has a different set of difficulties. What they both have in common is the one fear that crosses every heavy equipment operators mind and that is rolling over.

Handling a rollover can be a terrifying experience. With today’s modern equipment the operator is fairly safe. What is often difficult it getting that piece of equipment back on to its feet ready to operate again – if that is it’s not to damaged.

Heavy equipment operation comes with its own challenges. They are however a lot of fun to operate and it all starts by getting some accredited training. Follow this up with some on the job experiences and your ready to tackle the best and worst of any job required by a piece of heavy equipment.

If this is where your career lies then check out ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools for heavy equipment training.

So you want a career in heavy equipment? How heavy? While we cannot promise you will ever get to operate one of these, and they require five operators to work the machine, we can at least get you started – just a little smaller perhaps.

Top speed for this beast is a leisurely 0.5 kph or 0.3 mph. If you get a flat battery I am not helping to push. Heavy equipment like this beast are used a lot in the mining industry, particulalry in open cut mines.

If you dream of driving heavy equipment then check us out at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools. We can’t promise to put you in the driving seat of a piece of heavy equipment like that – however a bulldozer or grader are a start.

During the past decade the demand for professional tractor trailer drivers has been the highest level for a great many years.

Skilled operators find jobs in all types of truck driving such as equipment transporting, dump trucks/trailers, sand and gravel, paving, concrete/asphalt, mining, freight haulers, construction materials and tankers to name just a few.

Benefits of joining the trucking industry may include the following depending on the positions available:

• High income potential
• Insurance
• Retirement Benefits
• Job Security
• Owner/Operator Programs
• Flexible Work Schedule

If you would like more information about the industry and to see if you qualify for one of these positions, then contact us at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools. Our training includes “hands-on” instruction in the equipment including backing and other close quarter maneuvers as well as pre-trip inspection, coupling and uncoupling and actual highway and city driving. A career in truck driving awaits you.

To most casual observers, a bulldozer looks like a huge machine with a blade at the front that is used to push dirt around. They are partly correct. A bulldozer is used to push dirt around and it does a mighty good job too. But that isn’t the only job for a bulldozer.

With many bulldozers, have a look at the rear end. There you will find a massive pick. This is used to scrape the ground and loosen up the dirt. There is a real skill to using the pick – actually called a ‘ripper’.

The tool gets it name from the job it does – ripping up the ground to make it easier for the blade to get in and push away the dirt. Rippers are used when the ground is particularly hard. I can also be used to break up and drag out concrete and hard road surfaces.

Bulldozers that have a ripper attached are often duel controlled. Face the front to operate the blade and swing your seat around to face the rear and there you will find the rippers controls.

If you have a slightly destructive nature and like tearing things up, getting a job as a bulldozer operator may just the right career for you. You can break up the ground using the ripper then dozer out all the loose material.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can provide all the training required to get you started as bulldozer operator.

Motor grading is a job that can sometimes be considered boring, you spend hours just driving up and down, skimming a little of the top at a time. The reality is that good motor grading is actually an art form and the best heavy equipment motor graders are those with many years experience.

With blade work, there is so much in the way of repetition, going over your work till you get it to the right grade. Sometimes it takes a lot of time. Even for some one with a lot of hours up is can seem boring and frustrating. That is the life of a heavy equipment operator.

Patience and a good eye and feel and being able to anticipate what the machine is going to do in advance is one of the special skills that is developed over time and with experience. Along the way you also learn where your material must be and where it will end up once you have completed each pass. With heavy equipment operation, a lot of the skill is your intuition and what you are feeling through your hands and feet. In a way, you become one with the machine, feeling the slightest imperfections in the surface through your hands.

While not wishing to be too hard on new heavy equipment operators some from this generation have not learned patience – and that is the main essential for all types of motor grading, no matter what machine you are on. If the job needs another one, two or three passes to make it tidy or right, then that is exactly how it is.

Over the years all heavy equipment operators learn and develop these skills. The art of motor grading lies in the hands. However, you need to learn the basics of heavy equipment and motor grading operations before you can even begin to learn the finer art. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can give you that basic training to get you on the road to a great career. Check us out.

Of course you do – and training too – and we provide both. For an employer it is a catch 22 situation. They obviously want experienced heavy equipment operators, however if every employer took that attitude there would be no new blood coming into the trade.

Heavy equipment operators held about 416,000 jobs in 2002 and jobs were found in every section of the country and were distributed among various types of operators.

Job opportunities for heavy equipment operators are expected to be good through 2012 so new operators are constantly in demand. What is important is that what once you finish your training, you consider every job as an extension of that training – that is – you continue to learn on the job.

About three out of five heavy equipment operators work in the construction industry with many of them involved in heavy construction, building highways, bridges, or railroads. About one out of five Others – mostly grader, bulldozer, and scraper operators – work in mining. Some also work in manufacturing and for utility companies. Less than one in twenty construction equipment operators were self-employed.

With that information, it is obvious there is a call for skilled heavy equipment operators. The only way to gain those skills is through training at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.