Whilst heavy equipment operators are well paid, their rewards don’t stop there. Like all jobs, there are benefit packages that are offered when you first start with an employer. The size and scope of these benefits packages are generally determined by the size of your employer, your experience, and your reputation.

So what benefits can a heavy equipment operator expect?

• Health care that may include medical, dental, vision, and prescription medication coverage. These healthcare programs may include family members as well.
• Life insurance plans that include disability coverage.
• Retirement plans.
• Cash bonuses – these are generally tied to contracts, if a contract is completed early or on time, then a cash bonus may be payable. Some employers also offer bonuses for safety records and long service.
• Paid vacations.
• Paid training – some employers may even reimburse heavy equipment operators the costs associated with additional training such as truck driver training and crane operator training.

That is only a short list of common benefits offered by employers, however, the total value of a paycheck together with those benefits can be quite sizable. Heavy equipment operators who are highly skilled and who have a good reputation as operators can also look forward to job security, even when times are tough. Employers will hang on to their most valued employees for as long as possible – you certainly wouldn’t be the first to let go when times are tough.

If you want a well-paid career that comes with a lot of side benefits, then heavy equipment operations should be on your list. It only takes three weeks of heavy equipment operator training to prepare you for the workplace – from there, your future is in your hands, and it could be a lucrative and enjoyable working future at that.

Everyone wants a bigger pay check each month, however, convincing your employer you deserve more money is often a difficult task. There are several ways you can help your cause, and most of them revolve around how flexible and important you are to your employer. We have spoken in previous posts about being proficient in the operations of a range of heavy equipment, and employers are now preferring to employ operators with these skills.

Employers are also looking for heavy equipment operators who have a commercial drivers license. It’s almost becoming a must-have with a high proportion of heavy equipment operator job vacancies we receive, including a current CDL as a requirement. Employers will pay a premium for those heavy equipment operators who have a commercial drivers license since that reduces the need to employ separate truck drivers.

Operators can transport their own equipment to the job site and back again, or on to the next job. There’s no down time whilst the operator waits for a truck to arrive and pick-up/drop-off their equipment.

Our truck driver training program can help heavy equipment operators gain their commercial drivers license in just over three weeks (if you’re prepared to do some of the work at home), or five weeks for a complete CDL-A training program. That’s a short period of training for what will be a lifetime skill, and a qualification your employer can make use of almost immediately.

For employers looking to up-skill their heavy equipment operators, truck driver training could prove to be ideal. That extra skill can help you better plan your operators activities, reduce costs overtime, and add diversity to your employer’s working life, a factor that leads to a more satisfied group of employees. For heavy equipment operators who want to earn more money, simply add a CDL-A to your skills list. It could make a big difference over time.

There’s a lot of satisfaction gained in a career as a heavy equipment operator. In most cases, you can really see what you have achieved at the end of the day. Consider a bulldozer operator, at the end of the day, they can look back at all the earth they have moved. For a grader operator, there’s a perfectly graded stretch of ground, perhaps the base for a new road. Loader operators can look back at all the dirt they have moved. When a project has been completed, there’s a new road to drive on they can say they helped to build, or a new school, hospital or housing project. The role of a heavy equipment operator is tangible – you can see the results of your work, and in most cases, those results are there to see for decades.

Job satisfaction goes beyond results. There’s the satisfaction a heavy equipment operator gains whilst working. It’s not until you get in the operator’s seat and commence moving dirt that you realize how powerful heavy equipment is – and that includes the little babies like skid steer loaders. A bulldozer is a beast that can push tons of earth around each day, and as an operator, you can feel that power at your fingertips. Heavy equipment operators don’t need power trips. Every trip is already full of power, and plenty of it too.

What may surprise many is that modern heavy equipment is so easy to operate. You can learn to operate a range of heavy equipment in as little as three weeks, and we are talking about being work ready after three weeks. With a little more experience on the job, heavy equipment operators can bring home good monthly pay checks, easily covering the costs of their training.

If you want a career that’s full of job satisfaction, then consider a career as a heavy equipment operator. It’s one job where you can proudly state your being well paid to move the earth.

There have been a lot of changes made to heavy equipment over the last 50 years. At the same time, the actual work that heavy equipment does has remained very much the same. A bulldozer is still nothing more than a tractor with a large blade at the front designed to push dirt. There is a similarity to modern cars – they still take us from A to B, however, there have been big changes made to motors and to the interiors of cars. Heavy equipment is no different.

Modern heavy equipment is being made to be more environmentally friendly. Lower emissions, better fuel economy, and much improved hydraulic systems have made modern equipment easier to operate, and very efficient. There have been big changes inside the operators cab as well. Many are sealed from the outside environment and rely on airconditioning to maintain a comfortable work space. It has also meant that computer technology’s reliability has improved – there’s no dust, dirt and high humidity entering the cab to create problems.

Some of the biggest improvements can be found in the controls that now face an operator. They look very similar to those of 50 years ago, and their use is very much the same. The new technology comes in the form of electronics. This makes the controls very touch sensitive, however, in the hands of an experienced operator, able to perform fine movements. There is one regular contest held each year that tests an operator’s skills in this area – they have to pick up an egg using the bucket of a backhoe – that does take a lot of skill.

Heavy equipment operators now work in a comfortable environment with finely tuned controls. This makes the job a little more demanding in that fine motor skills are required, however, this has made working as a heavy equipment operator much more enjoyable – the operator is at one with their equipment, unlike the past where they spend all day wrestling their equipment. For equipment owners, efficiencies are much improved, as is reliability. If there is a downside, it comes in the form of more complex maintenance, and a higher cost when it comes to breakdowns – but then, good operators try to prevent breakdowns by regularly checking their equipment and undertaking basic maintenance regularly. Like all areas of industry, technology is having a big impact on heavy equipment operations.

When considering any career change, it’s important to look at the bigger picture, and this includes employers. If you’re looking to enter the field of heavy equipment operations, one key element is job vacancy – what, exactly, is an employer looking for? It may sound very simplistic, and it is in terms of social skills – for example, reliability. However, you need to look a little closer.

If you look back over the job vacancies that have been posted on these pages each Saturday, and on our jobs website, there is one characteristic that should stand out – employers are looking for heavy equipment operators. They are not looking for bulldozer operators or road grader operators – they are asking for multi-skilled operators. Sometimes they will list the range of equipment that an operator could be required to operate, however, it stills boils down to a requirement for a multi-skilled operator.

That doesn’t mean you cannot specialize in one piece of heavy equipment. It does mean that opportunities may be limited if you do specialize. Sometimes, the key to specialization relies in the old-fashioned ‘foot in door’ theory. Get a job with an employer who is looking for multi-skilled heavy equipment operators, then work your way into becoming their main bulldozer operator, or grader operator (or whichever equipment you want to specialize in).

Like all careers, undertaking training that meets the needs of employers is the first step to success. Being willing to meet those needs in the short term will help to further your career. Once you have the experience and reputation, you can then start to dictate the direction of your career. Your first step is to find a heavy equipment operator training program that exposes you to a wide range of heavy equipment. The wider the range, the better your chances of a successful career.

Finding work in any field is a little difficult, particularly at this time of the year and given the current economic conditions. There are heavy equipment operator jobs around, however, they can be difficult to track down. There are a number of reasons for this, one being the way employers go about looking for new operators.

Heavy equipment operations is one of those industries where ‘who you know’ can be very important. Before using traditional advertising channels, employers are more likely to promote vacancies to those within their businesses, allowing word-of-mouth to promote any vacancies. Employers are also keen to use services like our job website. This site allows an employer to advertise directly to operators who are looking for work.

When looking for work as a heavy equipment operator, sometimes it’s quicker and easier to look on our jobs website rather than in a newspaper. After all, would you rather pay to advertise to the public at large (newspaper) or use a free service that advertises a vacancy to a target audience? Employers also know which jobs websites deliver the best results, and we do very well in that respect.

With Christmas Day only a few days away, job listings are going to be quiet. However, in the New Year we suggest you regularly visit our jobs website to see the latest job listings. You can also subscribe to this site – each Saturday we publish a round-up of the latest job listings. By subscribing, you can receive that post each Saturday directly into your inbox. We also list job vacancies for crane operators and truck drivers.

Scenes on the news of a crane that was damaged by the high winds in New York this week are a timely warning to all heavy equipment operators. Weather is an important factor when operating heavy equipment, cranes, and even when driving large trucks. Strong winds can be a problem, however, what really causes damage is when that strong wind gusts. You may feel that operating a vehicle in 30 mph winds is okay – and it may be, however, wind can often gust to twice it’s speed, so that 30 mph suddenly becomes 60 mph, or more. The real damage being caused because it is unexpected.

It’s not just wind, rain and snow can also cause real problems. It may be quite safe to drive a bulldozer into a paddock to clear away trees and debris, however, a sudden downpour of rain could make a bulldozer’s escape a little difficult, perhaps even impossible, until the water has dispersed.

When thinking about heavy equipment safety, it’s easy to forget about weather, more so if you have had months (or years) of reasonable weather. The storms currently crossing our east coast are once every ten or twenty year storms – the kind of storms that most operators rarely get to see. This week’s storm is so severe it’s plain commonsense not to operate your equipment unless it’s an emergency. It’s the smaller storms that are a worry, the kind of storm where a heavy equipment operator may be tempted to risk it. You really need to ask yourself – is the risk worth it?

As heavy equipment operators, you have a responsibility to operate your equipment in a safe manner. It is your responsibility to ensure that people and objects are safe, that your equipment is safe, and ultimately, that you yourself are safe. If there is a risk to any of those areas, you shouldn’t be operating your equipment. Heavy equipment training can cover a lot of safety issues, however, it’s your job to assess the environment at the time.

Work places have become quite tricky when it comes to following OSHA guidelines. In many jobs, your primary role may be very easily defined, however, it’s your secondary tasks that could cause confusion – and problems if you’re not very careful. Truck driving is one job where problems could arise.

Truck drivers that deliver pallet loads of building bricks to construction sites are often required to use a small crane boom that is attached to the truck. Rather than being a truck driver, they are now crane operators, and as such they require all the crane operator training and certifications that full-time crane operator receive. Small cranes, even those attached to the back of delivery trucks, require skills that go above and beyond those of a truck driver.

Small crane operators still need to assess the load, stabilize their vehicle, and ensure the load is moved safely and in accordance with crane operator guidelines – hence the requirement for certification as a crane operator. The upside for truck drivers who are certified to operate a crane is that they have a secondary occupation they can fall back on if times are tough in the trucking industry – not that there’s any likelihood of that in the foreseeable future.

If you have a commercial drivers license and you want to extend your skills base, consider crane operator training. If there is always a demand for truck drivers who are multi-skilled, another example being truck drivers who can also drive heavy equipment on and off flat bed trailers. You can learn these skills in less than a month and they will provide a lifetime of employment opportunities.

Bulldozers are just bulldozers, right? A large engine pushing a large steel blade. They have been around for a long time, and they never change. Technology surely hasn’t affected a bulldozer! To the naked eye, that may appear to be true, however, all heavy equipment, bulldozers included, have gone through some remarkable changes over the years. The problem is not with the new technology; it is that many of the improvements are behind the scenes.

Engines are a good example. Today’s engines are more efficient than those of ten or twenty years ago. More importantly, modern engines are much cleaner using the latest technology to reduce emissions. In some countries, heavy equipment technology includes the use of solar cells to generate the power required to run cab air conditioners, radios, and many other devices that require electricity.

When it comes to digging tools, blades, buckets, and scoops have been redesigned to maximize their effectiveness. A bulldozer blade of today, for example, can cut cleaner and push more dirt simply because of the changes in angles and curvature of the blade.

Of course, computer technology now plays a big role in heavy equipment operations. Grader blades, for example, can now be set to the finest accuracy using GPS, laser technology, and computers. The operator doesn’t need to estimate a blade’s position, or set it manually – the computer can do it for them.

Whilst technology is playing a big role in the efficiency and accuracy of heavy equipment, that doesn’t mean that operators are either becoming redundant or mere ‘drivers’. Heavy equipment operators are more highly skilled, technology-wise, than those of many years ago. The emphasis now is on ensuring that new operators are well trained, not just in the operational aspects of heavy equipment, but also on the technological aspect. Well-trained heavy equipment operators are in high demand, and with experience, often command top dollar when it comes to negotiating wages.

Heavy equipment operations can be taxing at the best of times. For those who are not in the industry, heavy equipment operations may seem like a ‘bust or bust through’ type job where brute strength is used to perform jobs to a rough plan. In most cases, the reverse is true – heavy equipment operators are working to precise measurements and well drafted plans, and the ultimate skills are perhaps those possessed by a fined grader.

Fine graders are the operators who complete the final work on a surface. A new road is a good example. A fine grader will grade that surface to fractions of an inch in accuracy in both thickness (of the road base) and angle – and roads are built at precise angles to facilitate water drainage whilst helping to keep vehicles on the road. You may notice that well built mountain roads have a camber that angles the road away from the mountain edge – gravity forces help to keep vehicles on that road, especially around corners (check it out the next time you’re driving along a mountain road).

Graders, whilst predominantly used in road building, do have uses in general construction. Fine graders are found in those areas as well. Most grader operators work towards the recognition of being a fine grader. They are generally paid more than standard grader operators, however, achieving that goal takes more than just a few weeks of heavy equipment training.

Once trained with a sound platform of skills, a grader operator will need many months, sometimes several years, of on-the-job experience, all the while refining their skills to the point they are able to complete tasks with very fine accuracies. Heavy equipment operators are just muscle machines – they do work to plans, often to fine degrees of accuracy.