If you work as a heavy equipment operator, then there’s a very simple reality about today’s workplace – you can’t have too many skills. Employers, when listing job vacancies, are now looking for operators with a range of talents. The most common is the wide range of heavy equipment that an operator has experience with. Other skills often requested include CDL licenses with experience on dump trucks or heavy equipment haulage. Employers are also looking for individuals who have had training and experience as a signal person and/or crane operator.

You don’t need to go to the expense of adding too many skills. If you start by learning as much as possible across a range of heavy equipment, you’ll meet an employer’s major requirement. Over time, however, it has been shown time and again that the addition of a commercial drivers license has added value to an individual’s career opportunities.

Modern machinery has changed to the point that some jobs can now be done in far less time. Rather than having an operator idle while awaiting their next task, employers are now wanting to move them onto alternative machinery. It’s understandable – an idle worker is not productive, yet the employer still needs to pay their wage.

If you are considering a heavy equipment training program, then be sure to gain as much experience across a range of equipment as possible. If you are already skilled as a heavy equipment operator, consider adding a commercial drivers license or a crane operators certificate to your skills list. You will open up more employment opportunities and add a lot more variety to your career.

One of more profitable careers in heavy equipment is that of a crane operator. Because cranes are specialized, they require specific training rather than being included in a heavy equipment training program. However, specific training does not mean you are restricted to one type of crane. While many people opt for an entry level position as a mobile crane operator, you can cast your aspirations a little higher operating a range of cranes.

ATS Crane Operator Schools provide training that meets industry requirements on a number of different cranes. If you are looking at crane operator training, we provide certification programs in:

• Fixed and Swing Cab Mobile Hydraulic Cranes
• Lattice Boom (Crawler or Truck)Cranes
• Articulated Boom (Knuckleboom) Cranes
• Rigging / Signalperson Training and Certification

Training is delivered to NCCCO standards and operators can receive NCCCO certification if they pass the requires tests at the conclusion of their training. NCCCO certification is a nationally recognized qualification which makes operators compliant in all states for work operating cranes that they have received certification in. Certification was introduced to ensure that all operators met minimum standards when it comes to operating skills and safety knowledge.

When undertaking training at ATS, you will receive a blend of classroom and in-the-seat training. This ensures you are trained in the theoretical side of crane operations, a required skill if you are going to be successful in this field. It also ensures you receive all the safety training required to satisfy the safety component of the NCCCO tests.

There are a lot of different types of crane in use around the country. When looking at training to become a crane operator, be sure your crane operator training school has a range of cranes that you can gain experience on, and that you have adequate hands-on, and classroom based training.

If you have experience on a range of heavy equipment, then there are plenty of jobs on offer around the nation. We have one employer this week who is looking to fill up to 20 positions with operators who can work on multiple machinery. If any of these vacancies appeal, or if you want to see which other jobs are still available, then visit our job site – your next job could be just waiting for your application.

Multiple Construction Equipment Ops – Onawa, IA
16-20 positions. Successful candidates will participate in project completion through operation of medium duty heavy equipment e.g. loaders, backhoes, trackhoes, forklifts, etc. and assistance to the site managers on lesser tasks.

Construction Positions – Milford, CT
Now accepting applications/resumes for…Asbestos/Lead Supervisor
Must have own transportation. Heavy Equipment Operator
Demolition experience a plus.

Heavy Equipment Operator – Fairfax, VA
Multiple positions located in Lorton, Virginia. Under general supervision, operates a variety of heavy construction-type equipment to include rubber tire loader, track machines, backhoe, and road grader. Also drives a semi-tractor trailer truck. Performs pre-operational inspections, and preventive maintenance.

Crane Operators – IA, Forest City

Heavy Equipment Operators – Mass

If you don’t have training on a wide range of heavy equipment, then you need to review your training. All students in our heavy equipment training program get the opportunity to train on equipment such as loaders, bulldozers, graders and excavators, and that’s just a small list. Our graduates are ready to operate a wide range of machinery – perfectly suited to some of those positions advertised above.

Winter may be approaching, but it seems the amount of work available for heavy equipment operators is not easing. In fact, demand for operators in this sector is steadily on the increase. According to a quick search on Indeed.com, as of today, there are almost 4,500 positions available waiting for operators. While 4,500 may not sound like a lot, it is up from this time last year where there were just over 3,800 vacancies listed on Indeed.com.

Job vacancies are across a range of industries including construction, forestry, mining, conservation, land clearing, reclamation, landscaping, utilities and the army. The latter is an interesting option – the army prefers to recruit heavy equipment operators that have already undertaken their equipment training, and who have a reasonable amount of experience on that equipment. The army will train operators to use their specific equipment, however, they still need that core base of skills to work with.

Today’s employer is looking for one key factor – quality training. Heavy equipment is expensive with some machinery costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is no way an employer is going to allow an untrained operator to use their equipment when they have invested so much money in them. OSHA guidelines also insist that operators are qualified in some way, and that they have completed safety training designed for heavy equipment operators.

The work is there, the job advertisements clearly show that. Even as winter approaches, employers are still recruiting, and while new recruits do find it a little tougher initially, those that have undertaken their training through a reputable heavy equipment training school are finding their first jobs. That’s all takes – good training and that first job, from there, you can build a long and successful career.

While many construction sites slow down their activities over winter, other industries ramp up their activities. Landscape gardening is one area that is not thought of as a user of heavy equipment, yet in many cases, heavy equipment is the only machinery suited to a job. Frozen ground is no fun to dig in by hand, yet excavators and backhoes can often work with little effort.

So what sort of jobs would heavy equipment be used in landscape gardening. One of the more frequent tasks is the movement of whole trees. Winter, or the dormant season, is the best time to move a tree. Excavators and backhoes are perfectly designed for this type of work, including cutting through excess root systems. Mobile cranes are often used to lift the tree, root ball and all, into a truck ready for transport.

Before trees are transplanted, an excavator or backhoe will dig a large hole. A mobile crane is then used to lower the root ball into the hole, and to hold the tree upright while the soil is then back-filled into the hole. Backhoes are a handy tool for this job – the shovel can dig the hole while the loader can be used as a bulldozer to push the soil. In some cases, one of those nimble little skid-steer loaders is used to back-fill and compress the soil.

Whether you’re operating a mobile crane, excavator, backhoe or skid-steer loader, precision and caution is most important. For a large tree to be transplanted successfully, the tree needs to be moved quickly and with as little damage as possible. The skill of landscape gardeners and heavy equipment operators manage this on an almost daily basis – and those trees, some of them giants, survive the experience. If you’re interested in landscape gardening and heavy equipment operations, the two do go hand-in-hand – moving trees is just one of many jobs. For landscape gardeners, undertaking heavy equipment training could be what you need to further progress in the industry.

Heavy equipment operations is a viable career option for many people who are currently out of work. As an eligible training provider for many government programs, we know that we can help many of these out of work individuals start new careers. We even offer a free one-day training workshop that interested people can attend, just to see if they are suited to a heavy equipment career. The good news is that one-day event is totally free.

This may be of interest to those in employment agencies whose responsibility it is to help people find work. If your clients are eligible for one of the government programs, you can send them to the one day program to see if they are interested in and suited to this industry. This is an ideal way of ensuring that government grants are allocated to individuals who will get the most benefit from them.

Associated Training Services has a long and successful history of working with agencies to help people commence new careers. This is built on a long and successful history of training in the heavy equipment, truck driving, and crane operating fields. We have worked successfully with departments of workforce development, Workforce Investment Act (WIA), dislocated worker re-training programs, Trade Adjustment Act (TAA), vocational rehabilitation, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), state Departments of Veterans Affairs, Federal Veterans Administration.

Our eligible training program is available to anyone, not just individuals referred through employment agencies. If you are interested in a career as a heavy equipment operator, then contact our admissions staff for more information on this offer, along with any other offers available. A career as a heavy equipment operator is both interesting and lucrative, and the demand for new operators is steadily growing.

November and December can often be quiet times when it comes to employment opportunities in the heavy equipment field. In northern areas, construction grinds to a halt as weather makes life difficult, however, many of these jobs are replaced by winter work operating snow plows and other winter-related equipment. Construction work in the south doesn’t grind to a halt although vacancies are often snapped up quickly by those from northern areas who follow the sun. That doesn’t mean there are no jobs on offer – on the contrary, we have already had the following opportunities listed on our job site in November:

Heavy Equipment Operator – GA
An employer is looking for a Certified Heavy Equipment Operator for GA Power project.

Heavy Equipment Operator – TX
If you’re looking for challenging work, then this Texas-based outfit is looking for heavy equipment operators.

Lattice Crane Operators – Radford, IA
Employer looking for certified lattice crane operators

Paving Equipment Operator – Miami, FL
Miami is a popular winter destination so enjoy the sun working for a Paving Company operating graders, dozers, and pavers.

If you are looking for a career in heavy equipment operations, don’t be put off by the winter chill. There are often jobs appearing, especially in areas that haven’t been affected by heavy snow and ice. Our heavy equipment operator schools offer training all year round.

We are proud of the reputation we have gained over almost half a century. That reputation doesn’t just stop at training people to become truck drivers, crane operators or heavy equipment operators. We have developed a reputation for working with industry to provide job ready drivers and operators – graduates who are ready to hit the ground running. We have also developed a reputation for working proactively with students and graduates to turn their training into an actual career.

Bragging? No, just stating facts. It’s hard work starting a new career. Just making that life changing decision is hard enough. Then you have to finance your training, then work your way through that training, all under a cloud of doubt – how long will it be before I can actually start work? That’s where our career services department earns its keep. No one can ever guarantee you a job – we’re trainers, not contractors who employ operators. However, we can work closely with you to find and secure that first job.

Our career services personnel have several aces up their sleeves. The first, contacts with thousands of employers. The second, and most important, is knowledge of what employers are looking for in new recruits, and how employers want to be approached. Some appreciate cold calling, others resent it. Our reputation is such that employers come to us with job vacancies – you can see some of those jobs listed here each Saturday, or you can take a short cut and go straight to our job site.

Having a dream to operate a bulldozer, grader or loader is really quite common. Turning that dream into reality is not that easy. Our career services department work with every student helping them to do just that, secure that first job and to turn that dream into a reality – and that’s why we have the reputation we’re proud of – our graduates succeed.

Taking on a new career can often be difficult, and truck driving is no different. However, the real difficulty is trying to decide on the type of truck driving you want to do. There are so many different options available ranging from long distance to local – and even then you have options within those options.

For example, there are many truck driving jobs that will have you home each night. These jobs include:

• dump truck driving
• waste disposal trucks
• heavy equipment transport
• delivery trucks

When it comes to delivery trucks, the options are very broad. You could be driving a tanker full of milk or grain from the farm to a processing plant, live animals to a feed lot or abattoir, or just general deliveries from factory to bulk store, rail head, port or another business.

You have similar options when it comes to long distance driving. You can also add international driving for rigs that cross international borders. With long distance driving, you could be driving trucks with multiple trailers and when it comes to the types of goods transported – it could be anything.

There are few careers that offer so many different options based on a single training program. Three weeks of truck driver training will have you ready to undertake your commercial drivers license test. From there, your biggest decision is going to be the type of truck driving you want to do. Fortunately, most people enter their truck driver training with a firm idea of the type of truck they want to drive, where they want to drive it, and whether or not they are looking at home each day or long distance driving. If you’re looking to become a truck driver, perhaps you should consider the type of truck you want to drive first – that then is one decision out of the way.

Operating a crane can be a challenging, exciting, and somewhat dangerous job. A lot of work goes into lifting a load, especially heavy loads. In fact, lifting and moving a load is often the easy part – the hard part being the planning and setup of your crane. When it comes to crane operator training, you can undertake a three training program that can lead to certification as a mobile crane operator – you may see these positions advertised as CCO mobile crane operators. The CCO refers to certified crane operator.

If you want to move beyond your basic mobile crane, you can take you crane operator training to the next level by adding Lattice Boom (Crawler or Truck) Cranes. A lattice boom crane is so called because of the lattice work used to create the boom. A standard mobile crane has a solid steel boom that can be raised, lowered and sometimes extended. A lattice boom crane is a little more complicated – to gain a longer boom, you need to add lattice inserts. This takes careful planning to ensure your crane is set up right.

One of the big differences, from an operator’s point of view, is the operator’s pre-start inspection. Lattice work, while adding strength to a crane, can also be its weakest point. The rust tolerance level, for example, is zero. This means lattice inserts need to be handled and stored carefully to ensure they are not vulnerable to rust attacks.

Lattice boom cranes are one of the most common cranes used so there is always demand for operators. You do need to be certified as a lattice boom crane operator before you work in this field. This means taking a further two weeks of lattice boom crane operator training and assessment in order to achieve that certification. Once certified, you can work across the nation as a CCO lattice boom crane operator.