Grader operators are amongst the best paid when it comes to heavy equipment operators. Their average pay checks are ahead of excavator operators with bulldozer operators coming in third. All three work in positions that demand a high level of precision when it comes to a finished job. Grader operators are probably recognized as having a tougher task when it comes to precision earth moving and that is reflected in their pay checks.

Wages for grader operators can be anything from $30,000 to $80,000 depending on the skills, years of experience, job requirements and job location. Excavator operators have an earning potential of between $30,000 and $70,000, again dependent on those attributes. However, excavator operators that advance to the giant mining excavators can earn even more.

For a career that starts with just three weeks of training, you have to admit those wages are a fairly good return on your investment. When looking at fees for career courses, that is how you should assess them – they are an investment (along with your time) and like all investments, you need to look at the return. I don’t know many investments that could return those dividends.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools provide heavy equipment training that encompasses graders, excavators and bulldozers along with several other units of heavy equipment. Our courses are conducted over a three week period and include behind the controls and classroom instruction. Our aim is to have you ready to enter the workforce at the end of that three week training period. With potential earnings of over 50k, you must admit the return on your investment could be well worth the effort.

Bulldozers are fairly straightforward units of heavy equipment and an operator can be effective with fairly basic skill levels. However, being a competent operator goes beyond knowing which levers to push or pull and when – there are many others factors that are required. If you undertake a heavy equipment training program through ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools, you can expect to learn how to operate:

• backhoes
• wheel loaders
• scrapers
• excavators
• bulldozers
• road graders
• rock trucks
• Skid Steers, and
• All-Terrain Forklifts

As you can see, bulldozers are included in the range of heavy equipment that you can learn to operate. This gives you more variety when it comes to employment opportunities in the future. Operating skills are only one part of what is needed to become an effective operator. Other skills required include:

• the ability to read and assess grades
• ability to use laser levels
• knowledge of different soils and soil structures
• understand and work to safety guidelines
• ability to read and understand site layouts
• knowledge and ability to carry out basic heavy equipment maintenance

These complementary skills are what separates average operators and good operators. This is particularly true of bulldozer operators who are often required to work on a construction site when it is still virgin bushland. Reading plans, understanding the soil, and working to a site plan are essential to achieving a finish ready for construction. Good operators will get the job done on time and leave a ‘clean’ building site. Cowboy operators will tear the area up but often leave it ‘dirty’ – by ‘dirty’ I mean an uneven finish with huge gouge marks and little piles of dirt everywhere.

If you want to be a bulldozer operator, or any type of heavy equipment operator, make sure you undertake your heavy equipment training through an accredited training body like ATS – you are then assured of quality training that prepares you for the workplace.

Loaders come in all shapes and sizes ranging from the little skid steer type loaders up to giant earth moving machines – and I do mean giants. For many of us, the most common type of loader seen is the standard wheeled loader or front end loader. You typically see these on most building sites carrying dirt, sand or gravel to where it is needed. The second most common type would be the mini loaders or skid steer loaders. These are popular with landscape gardeners and hire yards.

While I wouldn’t belittle operators by saying that loaders were easy to operate, they are at least one of the easiest units of heavy equipment to learn to operate. As such they can be the easiest path into a career as a heavy equipment operator. This is the path that many operators take, starting with loaders and moving up to backhoes, excavators and bulldozers further down the track.

Most heavy equipment training programs include all of these units in their training repertoire. Once you graduate you will have some knowledge and experience on a range of equipment. Loaders may just be the least competitive field when it comes to job opportunities. The field of heavy equipment operations can have a career path – it’s just not so easy to map out as everyone has different attributes. Loaders can be seen as the start of that career path.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools provides training on a wide range of heavy equipment including loaders, backhoes, excavators and bulldozers. At the end of your three week training period, you are ready to enter the workforce as a trained and skilled heavy equipment operator. You can choose to specialize in any unit of heavy equipment, however, you may find that loaders are your easiest entry.

When undertaking a heavy equipment training program it is helpful to have career services provided by the training company. However, there are some career services that are really nothing more than point and shoot offices – they point you at the vacancies and tell you to go and apply. Like ATS, some heavy equipment career services offer a little more. We offer a full range of career services including the most important of them all, soft skills training.

What are soft skills? These are the skills allied to a career. They don’t always help you out in the job itself, but they are essential if you want to land that job. Soft skills training includes teaching people how to put together a decent resume; how to write an effective application; and how to handle oneself when attending an interview. These skills are becoming more important, particularly now that many employers are college trained professionals.

Years ago, the person you applied to for a job as heavy equipment operator was probably either another operator or a former operator. I won’t say they were illiterate, but 20,30 or 40 years ago, having a resume and applying for a heavy equipment operator’s job was unheard of. The typical application back then went something like this:

“So you can drive a bulldozer, can ya?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, get in and show me.”

“That’s good enough for me; when can ya start?”

And that was it. Now, of course, prospective employers want to see proof of training, perhaps certificates or licenses (or both) and probably a couple of references or referees as well. At ATS, our career service can help you put together job applications that can at least help you get to the interview stage. From there, it’s up to you. Having said all that, don’t be surprised if a prospective employer says “Okay, get in and show me what you can do.” Some habits just never die!

One of the benefits of undergoing heavy equipment training for machinery like backhoes is that it doesn’t discriminate on age, gender or ethnicity. What determines a good operator is skill. Of course, like all jobs, there are other attributes such as commitment, punctuality and reliability that are important. But skill is the most important attribute of them all.

When it comes to age, there are few barriers. In the workplace, the minimum age is 18 to work as a heavy equipment operator and here at ATS, our minimum age to enroll in a heavy equipment training program is 18. Maximum age? So long as you can pass a medical test, have good eyesight and hearing and can operate all the pedals and levers – there is no upper limit. Employers may balk a little at employing a ninety year old, but then again, if the operator is healthy and good at his job then age shouldn’t factor into the equation.

Backhoes are a popular starting point for many new operators. They can be tricky to begin with but it doesn’t take long to become proficient. The real tricky situations arise when it comes time to use one of the many attachments that can be fitted. Over the years we have also seen many women entering the field as heavy equipment operators. Bulldozers, backhoes and excavators are always popular equipment to gain a start in.

If you have recently left school, or perhaps in mid life and just been made redundant, you could consider a career as a heavy equipment operator. The pay is reasonably good, the conditions are good and, at present, jobs are available. Whether it is backhoes, bulldozers or any other unit of heavy equipment, age is not a barrier to most people – and that most likely includes you!

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have 10 training locations spread around the nation. Each training school offers heavy equipment training in a variety of equipment. Each training school is different and the range of equipment available at each one may vary.

Heavy equipment covers a very broad range of equipment. Small skid steer loaders are considered heavy equipment and the range goes up to include some of the super machinery used in mining. It is impossible to offer training in every type of machinery, however, by providing a cross section of equipment in training, students gain skills in the most common types in use. This equipment may include:

• Backhoes
• Wheel loaders
• Scrapers
• Excavators
• Bulldozers
• Road graders
• Rock trucks
• Skid Steers and
• All-Terrain Forklifts

Many of the skills are interchangeable to a certain extent. What most people don’t realize is that heavy equipment operation involves many different skills. For example, hand-eye coordination is important in most jobs. However, for some heavy equipment your hands may be going in different directions. A good example is an excavator where one hand is perhaps pushing the boom out, the other hand is opening the bucket to release the contents while the feet are controlling the swing of the entire unit. This coordination is a skill that is transferable to other machinery, even if the controls are unfamiliar at first.

If you are looking at a career in heavy equipment then ATS could be a smart choice when it comes to heavy equipment training. The wide range of equipment means you will gain a good grounding of skills. Add to this the in-class training in areas such as safety, soils and site layouts and you have the complete training package.

Loaders are already working away, preparing the way to spring and summer work. Spring is not that far away although you wouldn’t know it given some of the weather conditions at present. However, in some areas, the snow is turning to water and starting to run off. What it is leaving behind is often churned up mud and pot holes. Dump trucks can’t get in with fill so it is left to loaders to do the work – they at least can get across boggy ground.

That is one of the advantages of loaders, they can cover a diverse range of terrains and offer construction companies a lot of diversity. Loaders are also efficient, being able to carry large payloads with respect to their overall size. Not only can they carry these payloads, they can spread the material fairly evenly, effectively carrying out two jobs.

Loader operators are the key. Well trained, they can get loaders to do a lot of tasks, tasks that others may find beyond them. That training starts with a credible training organization that understands what skills employers need and how to train students to meet those needs safely. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools has the accreditation to deliver nationally recognized heavy equipment training. This includes training on loaders, bulldozers, excavators and motor graders.

Entering the profession of heavy equipment operations is not as difficult as most people imagine. You can start by undertaking a comprehensive three week training program that provides the skills to get you into the work place. Like many occupations, you deliver higher skills on the job – provided, of course, that you have a good foundation of skills.

If you’re looking to enter the profession then gain that good skills foundation through ATS – contact ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools now to discuss your training needs and for more information on our next heavy equipment training program.

Excavators come in a variety of sizes these days. From giant lumbering beasts to compact units that can get into some pretty tight places. Not only are they available in a range of sizes, they also have a wide range of attachments, making them extremely versatile machines. Gone are the days when an excavator was only useful for digging trenches – show me a hand tool and I can almost guarantee there is an excavator attachment to match.

Despite the range in sizes, the wide variety of attachments that an excavator can use, learning to operate one is not as difficult as it sounds. In fact, you can go from zero to a competent operator in as little as three weeks. Not only that, but along the way you could also pick up operator skills in bulldozers, graders, backhoes and loaders.

Exposure to a range of equipment during training helps you appreciate their power and their limitations, important knowledge when you are working as part of an earth moving team. The main role of an excavator is still to dig trenches. Their attachments help them to achieve this quickly without having to call in other equipment. However, they are not restricted to trenching.

Excavators have been used as part of demolition teams, in the mining industry, and in very different roles such as removing silt from the bottom of rivers to make them deeper. The role of an excavator operator is varied, challenging and well paid.

Does a career as an excavator sound interesting? Find out more by contacting us at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools to see when our next heavy equipment training program starts.

Everywhere you look there is bound to be a unit of heavy equipment hard at work. There are bulldozers clearing land, graders preparing roads, excavators and backhoes digging trenches and loaders moving what ever it is that needs moving. But which unit of heavy equipment is the most popular? Now, by most popular, I refer to most number of units sold and most number of units in operation at any one time. The answer may surprise you although on reflection, it shouldn’t. The answer? Believe it or not it’s the skid-steer loader.

I said that, on reflection, you can understand why. First, it is the largest unit of heavy equipment sold. Second, there are more skid-steer loaders in operation today than any other unit of heavy equipment. The reasons are fairly understandable too. They are cheap to buy, efficient when it comes to fuel use, easy to maintain and easy to transport. Add to that the versatility with the range of attachments and the fact their lighter weights cause little damage during operations and you have one handy little piece of equipment. It also helps that they are fairly easy to learn to operate as well.

Just about every construction yard, construction company and local government authority has a skid-steer loader. Most heavy equipment operators could jump into the seat of a skid-steer loader and operate it as well – perhaps not as efficiently as a full time operator, but they could get the job done.

Learning to operate a skid-steer loader is not that difficult. Most respectable training companies like ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools include skid-steer loaders in their heavy equipment training programs because of their popularity. If you want to get behind the controls of one of the countries most popular units of heavy equipment, give us a call to discuss your possible training options.

Heavy equipment careers cover a broad spectrum in both machinery types and industries. You could work in construction, mining, forestry, agriculture and/or landscaping – just to name a few. You can find work in almost every corner of the world, even here at home. When it comes to machinery, I don’t have enough room on this page to list them all. You can break them down into generalized categories. These include:

• Pushing – this includes bulldozers and graders
• Excavating – this includes excavators and backhoes
• Carriers – this includes front end loaders, backhoes and fork lift trucks

I have been very brief in each description. For example, some of those units of equipment could be further broken down to skip loaders or mini excavators, for example, and I haven’t even covered heavy equipment like scrapers. If you enter the mining industry then you will be introduced to specialized equipment like shovels – in reality, massive excavators that spend all day shoveling tons of rock into trucks. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

There are jobs everywhere for heavy equipment operators, even in the military. If you have experience with heavy equipment you could even find work in our ports, on oil wells, at rail yards and in some of our largest factories. You would be surprised at which sectors of the workplace use heavy equipment – you would also be surprised at what sort of work they do.

There is one common thread that runs through these roles in heavy equipment. A successful heavy equipment career starts with a training program that provides experience on a range of equipment. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools is accredited to delivering and assess students in the use of heavy equipment. If you are looking for a heavy equipment career – contact us here at ATS – we will get your started.