In today’s workplace, safety is the responsibility of everyone; employees, employers, workplace visitors and government agencies included. When it comes to earth moving equipment, heavy equipment safety training is a necessary requirement in all work places. The question then is, do you undertake that training as part of your heavy equipment training program or expect a future employer to deliver the training?

Most employers are running on thin margins in today’s economic climate. Given a choice between employing an individual who has already completed a heavy equipment safety course, and someone who hasn’t, you know who the employer is going to select. It makes sense then to ensure that when buying a heavy equipment training program, you check first on whether or not it includes a safety component.

Entering the heavy equipment workforce can be a tough undertaking so you need to have every possible box ticked. Employers are picky when it comes to new recruits, and they are taking a big gamble on someone who has little experience apart from that received during training. So what boxes do employers want ticked?

• Training provided by a well known and respected organization
• Training that follows national guidelines
• Training that includes hands on experience
• Training that includes heavy equipment safety as a core component

In fact, if your training is delivered by a well known and respected organization, then the chances are all the other boxes will get the automatic tick – that is why they are respected. As a student, it is still up to you to check on what is offered prior to signing on to the course. Heavy equipment training is a serious undertaking – heavy equipment safety is even more serious.

Take an excavator and an experienced excavator operator and you have the perfect demolition team. There are plenty of youngsters the world over that practice being a demolition expert every day of their lives. If they chose a career as a heavy equipment operator, they can do it for real.

The following video clip shows an excavator demolishing a home. While watching, take note of several points. The first is how the excavator operator folds the roof and walls of the home in on itself. There are several reasons for this. One is safety, there is no debris falling out onto the roadway; and the second is convenience, the debris is all collecting within the home. When the home is totally demolished, the debris is there ready for removal.

The second thing to notice is the neatness of the entire operation. The excavator operator tidies up as they go about their job, even stopping to load a truck with debris. Spend a couple of minutes watching the video – it takes two or three minutes to replay what has taken an excavator a couple of hours to accomplish.

Demolition work is a normal part of an excavator operator’s job. In the above video, the excavator operator is using a special attachment that works almost like a hand to pull down the home. Excavators have a range of attachments that can be used for a variety of tasks. They are certainly not restricted to just digging trenches. If you feel that you’d make a good demolition expert, perhaps a career as a heavy equipment operator is worth considering. We can deliver the necessary heavy equipment training in as little as three weeks. With a little on-the-job experience, you could just find yourself pulling down a home like that shown in the video.

If you are considering a career change, one of the best areas to look at is the requirements of a future employer. One trap that many people fall into is to decide on a career, fly off and do a quick training course, then expect to start work in their new career. There may be a few industries where that will work, however, heavy equipment requires just a little more. Not much – but there is more. A typical job description for a heavy equipment operator may include:

• The ability to operate a range (or a specific unit) of heavy equipment
• The ability to work with others as part of a team
• The ability to work alone and unsupervised when required
• The ability to maintain equipment and report issues before they become problems
• The ability to carry out daily inspections of heavy equipment
• The ability to work safely and to follow all regulations and safety protocols
• The ability to work as directed

Notice that every requirement is an ability. These you can learn through a thorough heavy equipment training program. You develop and enhance these abilities with time and experience on the job, however, an employer will expect you to arrive on their doorstep with those as the very minimum abilities.

It stands to reason then that when looking for a training school you look for a school that will instill those abilities through a combination of classroom and in-the-seat training. Knowledge goes so far – it’s that in-the-seat training and the hours of practice you can put in that will eventually make a difference as you develop your career.

Associated Training Schools delivers heavy equipment training programs that have been developed in line with industry. We know what employers are looking for, so we endeavor to train new operators so they meet the needs of employers. If you decide on a career as a heavy equipment operator, we hope your training school helps you to build those abilities. Iif not, come and talk to us because we will.

Like many occupations, heavy equipment has a strong emphasis on safety. Like driving a car, most operators develop a safe working habit over time. And just like a car, the real danger is often not what you are doing, but what others are doing around you.

This is generally labelled as safety awareness. Using the car as an analogy again, it’s difficult to be taught road safety awareness since there is so much going around you at any given time. The same is true on a construction site. Being able to develop that safety awareness is as equally important as learning to operate your heavy equipment. If you’re accident prone, no matter how good you are digging trenches, or moving earth, you won’t have a long career in the industry.

Construction sites are a real hub of activity. There are people moving around everywhere; trucks and other vehicles constantly coming and going; cranes constantly raising and lowering loads, and heavy equipment like yours trying to maneuver through and around what is often described as organized chaos. To be successful, you require either eyes in the back of your head, a sixth sense, or a strongly developed sense of awareness – the ability to quickly look around you and to take it all in. Not only do you take it all in, but you factor it into your decision making.

We only ever hear about the serious accidents that occur involving heavy equipment. Here’s a little known fact – 95% of heavy equipment operators work year after year without ever having a serious accident. They will have minor accidents, but then, almost everyone has had a minor incident with a car. If you can develop a sense of awareness while operating heavy equipment, you’ll have a long and safe career. Heavy equipment training will give you the skills required to operate your equipment. We can also give you all the safety knowledge required to stay safe. Awareness is something that comes with time and experience.

Heavy equipment operators often lead dual lives. One day they are out on a block of land, all on their lonesome clearing the way for other activities. The next day, they are part of a team, working side by side with other machinery. This is the life of most heavy equipment operators. Excavators could be digging a trench for pipes one day then working loaders and bulldozers to demolish a building.

The following video demonstrates how a bulldozer and scraper work together. In the video, you’ll see the scrapers carving through dirt and taking it away. As soon as they pass, the bulldozer will move in to push down the sides of where the scraper has just been. The scraper will then collect that on its next pass. Often, you’ll have a team working together – this video also show this. Check out the double scrapers – this is effectively two scrapers joined nose to tail to act as one.

Being able to work both as part of a team and alone is an important part of the heavy equipment operator’s repertoire. When working in a team, an operator needs to know when it’s safe to move and do its job, and when it’s time to move out of the way to allow another piece of equipment to do its job.

Whilst we can train operators on how to use their heavy equipment, it takes experience to know exactly when to play your role as part of a team. Your initial heavy equipment training should include safety components that will prepare you for these roles. As an operator, working in a team is one of the most interesting parts of the job – it’s certainly never boring.

Bulldozers are the real brutes of heavy equipment. The amount of power contained in even the smallest bulldozer is amazing. They can push tons of earth around very quickly; for example, they can totally clear a home building lot in half a day – trees and all. Bulldozers gain their power through a combination of a tough engine and a set of tracks instead of wheels. The blade at the front is designed to both cut into the earth and push it to one side.

Most people think of bulldozers in that light. They push dirt around. While that is their primary role, I wouldn’t want to be standing behind one when fully rigged. You see, bulldozers have attachments that can be added to the rear. These are mean looking attachments too, and come with the apt of name of ‘ripper’ attachments. Traditionally, these attachments are either a single claw, or a triple claw.

The single claw, as the name suggests, is a claw-like attachment that is used to break up the ground. You can think of a ripper as a larger and much tougher farmers plow, pulled by a machine that is far stronger than a farmer’s tractor. Rippers can make short work of hard clay soils, areas where tree roots are still present in the ground, and rocky terrain. The bigger the dozer, the bigger the ripper, and so the bigger the rocks and tree roots it can handle. Rippers are also handy for breaking cement blocks as part of a demolition job.

There is far more to a bulldozer than just pushing dirt around. Some bulldozers have specialized blades attached to the front that can ‘grade’ an area in pretty much the same fashion as a dedicated grader. Bulldozers are often called upon to deal with snow clearing in winter, fire breaks (and fire fighting) during the fire season, and demolition work. The life of bulldozer operator is far from boring, so if you’re interested in a career operating a bulldozer, check out your training opportunities through our heavy equipment training site. A rewarding and interesting career as a bulldozer operator awaits you.

Heavy equipment safety is vitally important to the smooth running of any work site. Let’s face it, heavy equipment machinery are generally large rather cumbersome vehicles that are capable of doing a lot of damage when something goes wrong, or in the wrong hands. Workplace safety has a number of areas that operators need to be aware of. There are the work practices, in other words, how you use your heavy equipment. There are maintenance issues such as ensuring that each unit of heavy equipment is inspected and serviced according to a schedule.

The most important person when it comes to heavy equipment safety is the operator. Whilst safe operations are obvious, there are tasks that need to be completed, before an operator starts the engine. External walk around inspections are important. An operator can visually inspect all working components (including tires and tracks) for wear and tear and developing problems. A heavy equipment operator also needs to complete a quick safety check from inside their cab. The following video from Caterpillar demonstrates an internal safety check.

An internal safety check like the one demonstrated only takes sixty seconds. Failing to do so can lead to serious problems, including serious injury and death to both the operator and those working around them. Our society now demands that workers observe OSHA practices whilst in the workplace. Legislators have listened and have made safety training a compulsory component of most training programs, no matter what type of workplace.

When it comes to heavy equipment, safety training, is not just a requirement, it’s a set of skills that are designed to protect operators from serious injury. Ironically, once trained, most operators go through the sixty second internal safety check almost on auto pilot – it becomes second nature to them – and so it should.

Are you well versed in a range of heavy equipment? If you are a professional heavy equipment operator then you do need to have more than one piece of equipment in your skills set. We are frequently getting job vacancies from employers, which have as a major requirement the ability to operate a range of heavy equipment. We are also getting vacancies that ask for heavy equipment operators who have a current commercial drivers license.

From a business owner’s perspective, it makes sense to employ individuals who can be utilized where the need is greatest. If a project is running behind schedule, they can move employees to that project to help move things along. If they don’t have multi-skilled operators, then their options are limited, short of engaging short term contractors at a higher cost.

As an operator, you are gaining two benefits from multi-skilling. You are opening up more employment opportunities as your skills set will appeal to that wider group of employers. From a workplace perspective, you are also giving yourself variety – your not stuck operating the one piece of equipment day-after-day. Employers also respect that philosophy – variety does help to keep employees on-the-ball.

For new operators, our suggestion is very simple – when undertaking your initial training, find a heavy equipment training organization that will train you on a variety of machinery. Once you enter the work place, look for an employer who will give you ongoing experience on that machinery. For existing operators, we suggest you review your current skills set, and if necessary, consider adding to new skills, especially a commercial drivers license. You’ll reap the benefits long term, and so will your future employers.

Multi skilled heavy equipment operators and crane operators are again a feature of the job vacancies this week. It’s becoming a trend so for operators who have been a little one dimensional in the past, now could be a good time to increase your skills base. Learning truck driving skills and acquiring a CDL is almost always a good move in this industry as is learning heavy equipment closely associated to those you now use. If you do need to boost your skills mixed, check out your heavy equipment training options (and truck driver or crane operator) at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools.

Distribution Operator
Gunnison, CO
Installs, maintains and repairs natural gas lines, meters and regulators. Turns natural gas lines on and off, as necessary. Responds to customer requests for service including connections, disconnections and leak investigations. Operates and maintains heavy and/or specialized equipment and tools in order to dig and backfill ditches, load and unload pipe, meter fittings and other materials. Reads meters and records consumption for billing.

Heavy Equipment Operators with a (CDL) Commercial Drivers
Pennsylvania
Client is currently looking for Heavy Equipment Operators with a (CDL) Commercial Drivers License! We will train qualified candidates in oil well cementing and acidizing services. We have several openings across the United States.

Equipment Operator and Driver
Rifle, CO
Performs more than one of the following units: Vacuum Truck, Hydrovac, Water Truck, Pressure Truck, Steamer, Hot Oiler, Sour Seal Unit or Chemical Cleaning Unit.

Heavy Equipment Operator
Paris, KY
Searching for equipment operators who have a minimum of 8 years experience in operating a D6 or larger Dozer and or a PC300 or larger excavator. GPS experience a plus. Applicants must have a safe work record and able to pass a physical with drug tests.

Heavy Equipment Operator
Moorhead, MN
Position Summary:
Performs overhead and underground line construction duties, as directed by the Field Superintendent. All operators are required to help out when and where necessary – with operation of other equipment and/or manual labor.

Heavy Equipment Operators
Tyler, TX
Client is hiring Heavy Equipment operators for new openings

Crane and Boom Truck Operators
Deforest, WI
Client is hiring crane and boom truck operators.

You can find more information on these and many other jobs through our dedicated job site.

Of all the heavy equipment operator jobs, that of a grader operator is often the most demanding, especially when it comes to working to a plan and precision. If you look at a finished stretch of road, the line, the angles, and even the slight slope (or camber) is there because of the finishing work of a grader operator. Bulldozers will level out the ground, gouging out a stretch that will eventually become a road. A range of heavy equipment could be involved in either removing or adding material to that bare strip of road, but it’s the role of a grader operator to prepare the surface for finishing.

Grader operators of today have it a little easier than those of generations past. Laser leveling and GPS help to keep their equipment on track while the laser leveling also helps to keep the blades at the right angle. The grader operator’s role is highly important – once they have completed their task, the finishing equipment like asphalt layers and rollers get to work turning that prepared surface into a useable road.

While building roads is a major role for grader operators, it is not their only role. Leveling ground for construction and clearing snow are two areas that see operators in high demand at different times of the year. There are two components that go in to making a first class grader operator – experience and their initial training – and the two do go hand in hand. You can have years of experience, however, if your training was of poor quality, you may find that you have developed very poor skills in key areas.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools are committed to delivering quality training that future operators can depend on as a base to build on. When you enter the work place, you will have the skills required to undertake entry level work, and as you develop those skills through experience you will be developing good skills that will help you establish a long and successful career. When it comes to heavy equipment training for a career, never accept second best. If you do, you’re developing second best skills.