This is the time of year when employers are looking at their human resources and deciding if they have enough personnel to carry them through the next year. As a result of this self-inspection, you are likely to see more job ads. It’s actually a pretty decent time to look for work as a truck driver or heavy equipment operator. Here are some of the job leads we’ve been acquiring recently.

1. PADUCAH, KY needs NCCO crane operators.
2. TOMAHAWK, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
3. SAUK CITY, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
4. GREEN BAY, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
5. BURLINGTON, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
6. DE PERE, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
7. MARSHFIELD, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
8. REEDSBURG, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
9. ALMOND, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
10. TOMAH, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
11. COLUMBIA, TN hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
12. JANESVILLE, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.
13. FRANKSVILLE, WI hiring Class-A CDL truck drivers.

So, as it looks, if you are a trained Class-A CDL truck driver, then you have the pick of the litter. If you want to become a Class-A CDL truck driver, then now is the time to get your training. You’ll be graduated and ready to find your first job right after the first of the year.

Enter 2016 with a bang and get your Class-A CDL training now.

ATS Heavy Equipment School is big on three things, our Motto:

• Quality
• Integrity
• Pride

We find that our friends in the military respond well to these values, which we have turned into a useful motto. But it’s more than just a motto. It’s actually a way of life. It’s our way of viewing ourselves and the world around us.

Quality

Our commitment is to our students. We want to provide the highest quality professional training possible. Whether you want to learn how to operate a crane, learn every piece of heavy equipment available, or acquire a truck driver’s license, we strive to provide the highest quality training possible. To achieve that goal we hire the highest quality instructors and use the highest quality training materials and equipment.

Integrity

There is more to integrity than simply telling the truth. We at Associated Training Services strive to be honest in business and in our personal lives. We believe integrity involves keeping your actions consistent with your words. People will notice what you do more than what you say, and we want to be known for our high commitment to moral principles. Therefore, we maintain a high level of integrity.

Pride

Pride is taking ownership of your achievements. From the top executives to our newest instructors, we take pride in our work and in the training we provide our students. We know that every student that graduates from our school is a reflection of our values and training philosophy. We’ve got many years of affecting the trucking and heavy equipment industries positively by training people to be the best at what they do.

Learn more about Heavy Equipment School’s commitment to Quality, Integrity, and Pride.

Have you ever seen a big piece of heavy equipment on a flatbed trailer, securely tied down and being transported to a new job site? The person driving that truck usually is the same person who will be operating that backhoe, grader, or whatever it is once they get to the job site. Heavy equipment operators who also have their Class A CDL often are hired before those who only have their certifications because they can drive the truck that takes the equipment to new locations.

Why Does This Combination Work So Well?

The combination of heavy equipment operator certification and CDL means many more career opportunities open up for you. Industries that need that combination include a lot of possibilities:

• Equipment transportation
• Sand & gravel hauling
• Concrete/Asphalt
• Freight hauling
• Tanker driving
• Dump truck driving
• Tractor-trailer operations
• Road paving
• Mining
• Construction materials handling

How Much More Training Does It Take?

Associated Training Services provides short-term truck driver training for heavy equipment operators who want to take advantage of the expanded opportunities they can have with a CDL. In three weeks of full-time training, you are given the knowledge and the skills needed to take your CDL road test and move your career to a new level:

• Department of Transportation rules & regulations
• safety & CDL equipment operations
• driving heavy equipment on roads
• backing heavy equipment
• pre-trip inspections
• coupling & uncoupling
• other essential CDL truck driving skills

If you are doing research about getting trained as a professional heavy equipment operator, it’s a good thing. Choosing a career in the skilled trades means that your training is going to be scrutinized carefully. After all, you’ll be operating expensive equipment in dangerous situations, so the company wants to make sure they hire the best. Choose ATS for your training needs.

Since the insurance companies are also very interested in who is on the site and how the operators have been trained, that also comes into the consideration companies give to who gets hired. Credentials and affiliations are proof that a school has retained specific standards and training practices.

ATS Credentials & Affiliations

1. National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) has the highest standards in the business. All ATS instructors are NCCER credentialed, and we are an Accredited Sponsor. We also helped write the heavy equipment training textbooks, that’s not something that every school can say.
2. National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) is a non-profit organization to develop safety and performance standards for crane operations throughout general industry and construction. ATS is an approved test site and registered training provider and if you are going to operate a crane, this is where to start looking at what you need.
3. Department of Workforce Development/Workforce Investment Act provides funding for financial assistance. ATS is an eligible training provider qualified to receive that funding, which means you could get money for our programs.
4. US Department of Veterans Affairs has approved ATS as an eligible training school, which means that military benefits are available if you qualify for them.
5. State Boards of Education in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, and Indiana have approved ATS and licensed our school.
6. Better Business Bureau (BBB) rates ATS with an A+.
7. ISNetworld supports over 360 Hiring Clients to manage more than 54,000 companies in 75 countries. ATS is a registered contractor with ISNetworld, which gives us global connections.
8. Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) is a national construction industry trade association founded on the merit shop philosophy. ATS is a member of this organization committed to work safely, ethically, and profitably to improve the communities we work within.
9. National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) is the leading trade association working exclusively in this incredibly important industry. It takes heavy equipment to do a big job, and ATS is a member of NUCA.

Choose ATS For Your Training Needs

We are pleased to be affiliated and accredited by these organizations because the benefits of our connections help our students to be equipped to become respected in their industry.

You don’t have to get a Commercial Drivers License when you come to ATS for heavy equipment operator training, but it’s a good idea to consider it. In the decades since Associated Training Services started preparing skilled craftspeople for these important trades, we’ve noticed that heavy equipment operators who also have gone through the CDL Truck Driver Program added a couple more weeks to their schooling and upgraded their career potential to the max.

A lot of times the heavy equipment you learn to operate has to be moved by truck, and the person who can operate the equipment and drive the truck, too, has a better chance of being hired. They also have a higher pay grade most of the time. The more stuff you can do on a work site, the more likely you are to stay working when others get laid off.

It’s pretty simple. Valuable employees are able to do what needs to be done and do it the way it should be done. When the boss needs the backhoe moved to the new site, and the backhoe operator can load it and haul it there, that backhoe operator is valuable. If the backhoe operator can also get in the dump truck, use the grader, and figure out other heavy machinery on the job, then the future looks good, right? Particularly if the task is done professionally like you learn how to do it at ATS.

Every ATS graduate gets help finding jobs for the rest of their career. But the ATS grads who upgraded their training by getting their CDL are able to find more jobs and find them a lot faster.

When you are trying to figure out where to get training, it’s a good idea to look at the philosophy, experience, and goals that the school offers. Associated Training Services has a clear explanation of those very things called “The ATS Advantage,” and there are good reasons why this advantage is valuable.

Philosophy Explains Why ATS Exists

Quality, Integrity, and Pride were the keywords chosen as our motto over twenty years ago by company president John Klabacka. Each one of these words holds a meaning that expands beyond the letters to the idea behind them.

Quality is the high standard of excellence in every aspect of ATS, from the equipment and instructors to the services and facilities. We choose the best in order to train the best.

Integrity is the honest, strong moral character that is the foundation for choices made at ATS. We choose to act with integrity both professionally and personally because we know how essential integrity is to success.

Pride is the result of doing a good job. Being responsible for behavior, putting effort into improvement, and seeing things change is the source of our pride.

Experience Explains How ATS Got Where We Are

The National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) develops and publishes standardized construction and maintenance curricula, safety programs, management education, and more. The NCCER certification is the gold standard for employees in the industry — and ATS is recognized as a participating organization in the curriculum textbooks published by NCCER.

We’ve been doing this long enough to work through the rough spots and create a complete package of housing, financing, and training that doesn’t stop at graduation because we also offer lifetime employment assistance to graduates.

Value ATS and Where It’s Going

Our students are also our customers, and the primary goal of ATS is to produce satisfied customers. With the offer of lifetime employment assistance, you know that we are looking at the long haul. Since we are going for the long term goal of safe, high quality, enjoyable learning experiences that result in lifetime careers, we regularly evaluate the job we are doing to make sure we are on the right route.

A lot of the time, our students come to us through an agency they are working with to find employment. It might be a job relocation, or veterans‘ assistance, or school counselors. It could be any one of the many government agencies designed to help people get a job and keep it. And if you are the one interested in heavy equipment operating, and the agency you are working with has never dealt with that interest before, there will be questions.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School has information for agency counselors available on our site, and we can also answer any questions they may have if they give us a call at (800) 383-7364. We can give heavy equipment wages & earning potential, employment outlooks, job descriptions, working conditions, training program descriptions, career service assistance details, Eligible Training Provider status, and other details they’d need to know in order to get you into the program under their aegis.

Agencies ATS Works With

There are many agencies who have worked with Associated Training Services over our decades of existence. We have a lot of experience at getting through all the paperwork that can be involved. We also can work with agencies not on this list; all you have to do is ask.

• Government employment offices
• Departments of workforce development
• Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
• Dislocated worker retraining programs
• Trade Readjustment Act (TAA)
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
• State Departments of Veterans Affairs
• Federal Veterans Administration
• Other agencies that help people find employment

Of course, you don’t need to be working with an agency in order to enroll at ATS, but if you are, we can work together to get you trained and on the job in a good career as a heavy equipment operator.

Associated Training Services is a recognized training provider, approved for veterans and military educational assistance. There are many types of benefit packages, so it’s a good idea to contact our financial services department and ask if there’s something that fits your circumstance. Here’s a quick list of possibilities if you qualify:

• the GI Bill could provide monthly subsistence payments while you are in training
• the Montgomery GI Bill for pre-911 service members could help support your family
• the Post-911 GI Bill allows up to $17,500 for tuition assistance
• the Armed Forces Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) is for active duty members of the military and could give up to $4,500
• National Guard and Reserve members might qualify for these or a state military benefits program
• injured service members or their descendants may qualify for Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation benefits

Military benefits are provided by state and federal government programs because as a member of the military you have earned them. As Memorial Day gets closer, there will be more folks saying “thank You for your service,” and we say that too. Thank you for the ways you have sacrificed to serve. We appreciate it.

Getting certified training as a heavy equipment operator, crane operator, CDL driver, or rigger/signalperson doesn’t just give you a piece of paper. ATS is committed to helping you get a job once you become a graduate, as long as it takes. From the time you send in your online application, we will help you figure out which benefits you qualify for and provide career counseling if you need it so that your career is on track.

Every successful career as a heavy equipment operator, or a truck driver, or a crane operator started with getting trained. The quality of that training is the foundation you build your career upon, so it’s important to choose the best training school you can find and start training as soon as possible.

Of course, we think Associated Training Services offers the best training around, but you don’t have to take our word for it. Do your research, look at the accreditation and certifications a training school holds and see if that school qualifies as a training provider for state and federal funding programs. Check out all the licenses and paperwork so you know what we are talking about when we say that employers respect the level of training our graduates to attain and look for those graduates when it comes time to fill a position.

Then, when you are ready to start training, look at the Training Classes Schedule and choose the training you are interested in taking; heavy equipment, truck, or crane. The calendar will give you the dates of this year’s training sessions, and they start every three weeks so you can start when you want to. We do it this way so there’s no waiting list because once you know you need the training to get the job, you need to start that training as soon as you can.

It’s easy to apply online and get started. There are some personal questions to answer because we don’t want to waste your time if your health or driving record or other histories will keep you from being considered for employment once you graduate. If you have questions for us about the process, we will be glad to answer them. The only thing you have to do is decide to start.

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The crane operator does spectacular things, hoisting heavy loads and accomplishing tasks like placing critical beams where the job requires it. But the crane operator doesn’t work alone because riggers and spotters are part of a team, making the whole unit successful. Without each member of that team, something bad could happen on the work site.

Riggers make sure the load is safely attached to the crane. The rigger’s job should be guiding the load, and keeping that load their priority.

Spotters make sure the crane is not going to hit any power lines or other hazards. They can’t guide the load, too, because they need to keep watch on the hazards. People have died when both rigging and spotting are done at once; all it takes is hitting a power line with the boom.

Crane operators need to be able to see both the rigger and the spotters at all times. Signals have to be clearly understood since the noise of the equipment messes up communicating by shouting. The operator uses the rigger and spotters as extra eyes to see what is going on and do the job safely.

All three positions on the team have to be filled by qualified people who were trained in all the safety procedures. Anything less than that is an accident waiting to happen. Associated Training Services provides that training and makes sure the certifications are earned. An ATS graduate has the knowledge and the training to be a part of the crane operation team and do it well. We schedule the NCCCO Certification regularly all through the year, so there’s no reason you can’t become part of this team of qualified professionals.