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.

It may be winter and the ground may be frozen solid, but if a trench is needed, the excavator is the machine for the job. Frozen ice may be too hard for the bucket, but excavators come with a range of tools that can used, including ground breaking picks. They say that backhoes are versatile, but so too are excavators.

Backhoes are versatile machines and often a lot easier to use when it comes to tight spaces. However, for every attachment that a backhoe has, an excavator has an equivalent. Where the excavator often excels is in in pure power. Size for size, the excavator can often exert a lot more grunt so when it comes to icy ground – call in the excavator, they are muscled up and ready.

Excavator operators are often multi-skilled as well. If you can operate an excavator then you should be able to transfer some of those skills to the backhoe. The reverse is true also. If your original training is undertaken through an accredited training company then there is a good chance you have been trained on both – and the loader as well.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools train their students across a range of heavy equipment that includes excavators and backhoes, loaders, bulldozers as well as graders. These are the main machines used in excavating, construction and mining, the major users of heavy equipment operators. For those looking to enter the field of heavy equipment, we have new heavy equipment training programs starting all the time so the wait for the next course is always minimal.

If you are looking for a job operating an excavator – you need the training first. Contact us and we can discuss your training options and what is needed to become qualified.

If you were to choose a career in heavy equipment, which machinery would you specialize in? There is a wide variety to choose from, one being the grader – or motor grader. Why should you select the motor grader instead of a bulldozer or excavator? They are both great machines, however, the motor grader has a couple of extras going for it. These include:

• Technology: Graders lead the way when it comes to technology. They use GPS, laser and on-board computers. Whenever there is a new technology being tested – you can almost guarantee that graders will be a part of that trial.
• Skills: Grader operators are amongst the most skilled when it comes to heavy equipment. They have to be, they are the finishers when it comes to many projects. Where bulldozers use brute force to move dirt, graders use fine controls, exacting angles and precision driving to achieve that finished result.
• Money: Money is always mentioned when it comes to comparing grader operators to other heavy equipment. But then, they are often paid more – need I say any more?
• Pride: While all operators take pride in their work, grader operators often take just a little more. The reason for that is because you can see their finished results. Using the bulldozer and road building as an example again, they carve out ground but then the grader comes in and reworks what the bulldozer has done. It is the grader operator that puts the final touch when it comes to evenness and slope and everything that goes into preparing a road for sealing.

That’s four good reasons I can think of for selecting a career as a grader operator. Here’s a fifth. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools are highly skilled at training heavy equipment operators, grader operators included. They can have you trained and ready to start work in as little as three weeks. Are you ready for an interesting career as a grader operator? If so, contact us at ATS for more information on our next training program.

The demand for heavy equipment operators is steadily rising with forecasts for 2010, indicating a much heavier demand in spring and summer, especially when it comes to excavators and loaders. Bulldozers and graders follow closely with other heavy equipment operators also in strong demand.

Excavator operators will be in heavy demand in spring with new building projects scheduled for spring starts. Excavators and bulldozers are the two machines generally called in first for a building project. Many projects have already had the clearing preparation completed and ready to turn the soil. This involves excavator operators and, to a lesser extent, loaders and backhoes.

Foundation work and service trenches is the area that will see highest demand although road construction will create a demand across most areas of heavy equipment. Excavators also play a role in road construction – this is why the demand for excavator operators is expected to surge – both areas of construction requiring operators at the same time.

Undertaking a heavy equipment training program early in 2010 is advisable if you are looking to enter this field, particularly if you are considering specializing in excavators. The number of operators in the work place has diminished over the last 10 years. Many older operators have left the profession whilst others have simply moved on to other trades.

Excavator operators will be in demand in 2010. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools are gearing up for a busy year training new operators to meet this demand. If you are considering a career change and moving into heavy equipment, contact us to find out what training are available in your area.

Heavy equipment operator training has many different formats with some training bodies specializing in one piece of equipment, like a bulldozer or excavator. A thorough heavy equipment program should expose the students to a variety of machinery for both practical experience and for familiarization. A student may decide to specialize in bulldozers, however, knowing how a grader works and its limitations, for example, can help the bulldozer operator when working around a grader.

Having exposure to a variety of equipment is important. It is also important to have some hands on experience in the popular machinery in use today. This includes bulldozers, excavators, graders, loaders and backhoes. When it comes to employment, these are the areas of greatest demand and the areas where most students will find employment.

Large reputable training organizations that have been around for many years have one very important attribute over many of the newer training organizations springing up and that is experience. Not so much the experience with training itself, although that is important. Their experience is in knowing what employers are looking for when looking to hire new operators – an attribute that many new training organizations haven’t as yet developed.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools have been around for over 25 years. During that time they have developed a reputation for providing industry with quality operators who have been trained ready for work – in other words, they have the skills that employers are looking for. The heavy equipment training program offered by ATS includes excavators, graders, backhoes and, of course, the bulldozer. No training is complete without experience operating any of these machines.

Old hands will tell you that excavators in use today are far easier to operate compared to twenty years ago. Is it true? It is a question that is not as black and white as it first sounds. Yes, almost all heavy equipment is ‘easier’ to use compared to twenty years ago, but that is not the complete story.

Looking at the basic operations of heavy equipment, the technical improvements in areas such as hydraulics and electronics have certainly made the life of a heavy equipment operator easier. Machinery like motor graders, which used a steering wheel, required strength to operate. Power steering has changed all that – if the machinery has a steering wheel. Excavators were good workers but lack fine controls – most modern excavators now have that fine control. This means they can work to precise degrees of accuracy.

Of course, that is the standard day-to-day operation and yes, on that basis, modern excavators are easier to operate. However, modern excavators come with a range of attachments – the excavator is no longer just an excavator.

Attachments like a hammer turn the excavator into a large jack-hammer capable of breaking up hard material like rock or concrete slabs. Large claws can be attached and are used to pick up objects. Learning to operate these attachments takes a whole new set of skills – skills that operators of twenty years ago don’t possess.

A simple answer to the opening question would be to ask if today’s operators could operate the excavators of yesteryear and whether the operators from that era could operate today’s excavators. The answer – today’s operators probably could operate an excavator from twenty years ago. Unfortunately, the operators from twenty years could struggle with today’s equipment. Based on that response, you would have to conclude that today’s heavy equipment is technically more difficult to operate than those machines of twenty years ago.

Not only is the equipment more difficult, the training required to operate an excavator is more intense. This is one reason why it is important to undertake your training through a reputable heavy equipment training provider. If they are not accredited, be careful when handing over you money – you may not get what you are paying for.

Summer is over and it may only be Fall, but that means winter is not far off and with winter comes snow. Heavy equipment operators should now be preparing their equipment for snow clearing and part of that preparation will include examining what heavy equipment technology is now available for their machinery.

There are now more than 50 snow removal attachments, with the list including snow blowers, blades, buckets and pushers. The equipment used in snow removal ranges from the small skid steer loaders upwards to include graders, bulldozers and even trucks fitted with snow clearing blades. Each does a job and each can be more effective than the others under different circumstances.

It’s not unusual to see two or three vehicles working together to clear snow covered highways or airport runways. When these vehicles work together, they clear a runway, for instance, extremehttp://www.heavyequipmentschool.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1616ly quickly. It is generally the larger bulldozers using a range of heavy equipment technology that work as part of team to clear these large areas.

Snow clearing starts well before the snow falls, particularly in areas that require difficult access. These include mountain roads and trails. By working on these roads now the operators ensure easy access when snow clearing is required. Their work won’t end at the end of winter either. Once the snows melt the roads often need to be leveled again with pot holes filled. It’s a non stop year-round job.

Heavy equipment technology has been improving snow clearing attachments to make snow clearing quick and effective. This ensures that access is available along most roads and highways even through the toughest winters. If you want to be a part of this winter exercise then now is the time to get your heavy equipment training started. Winter is not that far off – get the skills now ready for the big chill.

The backhoe has often been seen as a thrown together cross between a fully fledged excavator and a full size front-end loader. There is probably a little truth in it as well since the backhoe can do some of the work of an excavator using one end of the machine, and do some of the work of a front end loader using the other half.

Looking a little like a scorpion, backhoes have their place in construction, particularly when the jobs require the services of a smaller machine. Over the years new technology has made big inroads into the capabilities of excavators, road graders and to a lesser extent, bulldozers and front-end loaders. The backhoe hasn’t been forgotten with new attachments coming out all the time.

One attachment that came out several years ago really changed some of the capabilities of backhoes. There are times when a sidewalk needs to be torn up and the best machine for the job was the backhoe. However, there were times when the only way to complete the job involved damaging the areas either side of the sidewalk. A new tool called a Rototilt was introduced that completely changed the way a backhoe tackled the job. Now, a backhoe can dig up a sidewalk and cause little or no damage to surrounding areas.

This is just one attachment, there are hundreds of others. What has it meant to the backhoe? It is no longer a cross between an excavator and a front-end loader, it is a legitimate machine in its own right. Whilst the combined skills of an excavator operator and front-end loader operator are ideal, the backhoe now demands skills specific to the machine. If you are looking for a career in heavy equipment that is challenging and involves a lot of variety, consider undertaking backhoe training – it’s a career that continues to evolve and challenge operators – you will never find yourself becoming bored.

The use of GPS is growing markedly in our society and you can really see the impact it is having when you look at construction and machinery like graders or excavators. A technology known as 3D GPS assists the grader operator to accurately position the blade, allowing for a faster grade without utilizing survey grade stakes.

There are several spin-offs in the use of GPS when it comes to heavy equipment. A grader is a good example of the use and some of the benefits obtained. Safety, of course, is always an important issue on a work site. The use of GPS to set the position and orientation of the blade, even when working to slopes, means the grader will perform the work exactly as planned. This removes the need for a grade checker. Their job was to constantly check the grade from the ground, often putting them in close proximity to all the heavy equipment – the closer you get, the higher th risk of an accident. No grade checker – no accidents.

A second major benefit for construction companies that use GPS in their work is speed. Machinery like graders will get the job done first time every time. If the GPS co-ordinates have all been calibrated correctly then you will never come across a situation where the work done doesn’t meet the plans – and it’s done first time around. This saves time which equates of course to saving money. In some cases, construction contracts award bonuses for early or ontime completion of projects.

The use of GPS can be a specialized field when it comes to graders and excavators. Before undertaking GPS training, you would need to have a solid foundation of excavator or grader operator training along with a little experience using that equipment. Once you have that solid base of skills, you can then undertake GPS training for heavy equipment

These days there really is not as much need to pull out the graders for small to mid-sized jobs, these are often the domain of bulldozers with laser-guided blades. That does not mean that graders are out of a job, far from it, it just means that they are relegated to predominantly larger tasks. There are a few reasons that we can see for this transition.

New technology allows bulldozers to perform tasks that they were not previously able to do. In particular, the aforementioned laser-guided grading systems that are now available for an affordable price really makes light work of complicated grading requirements. Light bulldozers are able to perform some remarkable feats of grading in small-scale situations. It is perhaps this that has seen some smaller companies make use of them for slightly larger jobs as well. A bulldozer, whether it is laser-guided or not is not going to do the job of a purpose built grader, but it will allow spaces that were previously too small to be graded to receive the benefit of grading.

Tighter spaces have meant that we are not always able to fit a grader into a property, nor able to give it the room it needs to maneuver. This has been the situation for some time. Graders are well suited to wide open areas, rather than the small blocks of suburbia. That is why you will find graders in large construction sites and working roads, but usually not leveling a suburban block.

So what are graders used for?

Graders are used for big jobs that require the precision that they are built for. Graders are used for creating roads and runways, and sometimes for grading large foundations. You will also find graders put to heavy use in winter, when they are put to use clearing snow from roads. If you live in an area with a lot of snow, it is scarce to see a grader going unused, no matter what time of the year you find yourself in.

If you are interested in learning more about driving bulldozers or graders, please do not hesitate to contact us at Associated Training Services.