Have you ever seen a skid steer loader hard at work? From a distance it looks like a bee darting about everywhere. Some people question whether or not a skid steer loader, or any of the other smaller earth moving machinery, really are classified as heavy equipment. In reality, the term is “heavy earth moving equipment,” so the term refers to their ability to move a lot of earth, not their physical size.

With that definition, skid steer loaders are definitely in the heavy equipment classification. They can and do move a lot of earth each day, but what makes them special is their size – they can get into areas where other equipment wouldn’t fit. Just as importantly, they can work in areas where larger equipment could do a lot of damage to the ground. Landscape gardening is an area where skid steers and similar small equipment are able to work while doing minimal damage.

While skid steer loaders may be small beasts, they still require a skilled operator to get the most out of them. Skid steer loaders work on a similar principle to larger loaders, just on a smaller scale. That doesn’t mean you can jump from a loader to a skid steer if you haven’t had any prior experience, and that’s where a training body like ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools comes in handy.

The heavy equipment training program at ATS includes a range of heavy equipment amongst which are loaders and skid steers. Attend their training program and you will receive experience across the full range of heavy equipment – this means you can then swap between large loaders and skid steers whenever you need to.

One of the most popular vehicles in any municipal fleet is the grader – or should I say graders. This is especially so in northern regions where winter snow is an annual occurrence. Graders aren’t as versatile as many other vehicles in the heavy equipment department, but they are certainly the best machinery when it comes to snow and snow damage.

If you ever drive through mountainous country, especially some of the county backroads, one feature will stand out – there are a lot of sections that are made using gravel. There’s a good reason for this – gravel allows free drainage of water, doesn’t get muddy, and vehicles rarely get bogged down in it.

Winter snow and ice can do a lot of damage to roads, however, once the thaw sets in, gravel roads can be returned to full use fairly quickly by just having a grader level them out again. In winter, those same graders will be seen working as snow plows to clear the roads of snow and ice.

Learning to become a grader operator requires two steps. The first step is to develop a basic set of skills through heavy equipment training. That enables you to take the second step, and that is to refine your skills on the job. Some careers require years of study before you are competent to begin work. Grader operators only require a couple of weeks of heavy equipment training. However, it then takes years to hone those skills with every job teaching you something new.

If your local region suffers from regular snow and ice in winter, then graders are most likely the most popular vehicle in your county’s fleet. In fact, they are probably out right now repairing roads damaged from winter snows.

You can go and learn to be a backhoe operator, or you can go and learn how to be a bulldozer operator, but what if I told you could learn to be both in one training program? In today’s world, being multi-skilled is a must. When it comes to heavy equipment, if you can operate a front end loader and an excavator, then you can most likely operate a backhoe as well.

What’s more important is that today’s world is changing quite quickly. Today, there may be a high demand for grader operators; next month, it could be excavator operators; in winter, the demand could be for bulldozer operators that can also handle a snow plow. What we do know is that demand for heavy equipment operators is growing – the demand for each type of machinery will depend largely on what direction new operators take. If you are a multi-skilled heavy equipment operator – you can follow the winds of change to what best suits you.

Rather than undertaking equipment-specific training, finding a training organization that delivers training across a range of heavy equipment makes logical long term sense. Your training provides the platform for you to become a general heavy equipment operator rather than the narrow single equipment operator.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools provide training on a range of equipment such as backhoes, graders, loaders, bulldozers, and excavators (just to name a few). Training includes both in-class theory and safety aspects along with in-the-cab actual operator experience of a range of equipment. This prepares you to either specialize in one area, if that’s your decision, or to become a general operator across a range of heavy equipment.

Heavy equipment – the term conjures up images of big bulldozers, excavators, and perhaps even backhoes or loaders. You need to be big, strong, and tough to operate this equipment, so women are going to struggle – right? Wrong, wrong, and wrong. You don’t need to be big; you don’t need to be tough; and women are certainly not going to struggle when it comes to operating this machinery.

The fact is, there are hundreds of women operating heavy equipment – perhaps more. If you include truck drivers, then you can certainly start to number them in the thousands. It’s still not enough. Women have proven to be very good operators, especially when it comes to tasks that require attention to detail. Heavy equipment used to be a man’s world, but today’s technology means that almost anyone can operate them.

Can a woman make a successful career as a heavy equipment operator? Many have and they thoroughly enjoy the work. Perhaps there’s a little something about stepping into that ‘men’s world’ that appeals. It could be that many of these women have been fascinated by heavy equipment since childhood. It doesn’t really matter. If you are a woman and you are looking for a challenging career, working outdoors, and controlling heavy equipment like bulldozers or excavators, then a heavy equipment career is right for you.

When it comes to gaining employment, your search starts by undertaking heavy equipment training. If you undertake your training through ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools, then you will not only receive well-recognized training, we’ll help you find that first job – a job that will start you on the path to a career as a heavy equipment operator. Don’t let anyone tell you a woman can’t do the job – they can, and are, successfully – and so can you.

Computers have been good for a number of things. Communication, storing information, and playing games. In fact, gamers probably make up about half of all computer use in homes around the world. Serious gamers develop a lot of skills, and some of those skills actually make them a perfect fit for heavy equipment operations. If you look at today’s heavy equipment technology, there are similarities to playing games – just on a bigger scale.

There is a lot of machinery today that operates using joysticks. However, one of the biggest advantages that gamers have when it comes to operating heavy equipment is the almost perfect hand-eye coordination that they have. Admittedly, the close-up screens are not the same as the window of an excavator or grader, for example, but hand-eye coordination is still very much the same. There are many gamers that can adapt from playing games on their PC or laptop to playing on a console using a television screen very easily.

Are you a computer gamer who’s looking for a change of career? If you’re one of these people whose parents said that gaming was a waste of time, perhaps you can prove them wrong by putting those well-ingrained skills to good use as a heavy equipment operator. You can receive training and be ready for employment in just a few weeks. Heavy equipment operators have an interesting, varied, and reasonably well-paid career.

Heavy equipment operators can choose from a variety of equipment to work on including excavators, bulldozers, graders, loaders, and backhoes just to name a few. Gamers have great hand-eye coordination, working to precise measurements, and using light fingertip controls are what is necessary today – not the brute strength that was required many years ago.

Heavy equipment is often thought of as being strong tough machinery that is used to power through dirt and rock. In most cases it is. The bulldozer’s main claim to fame is its brute strength when it comes to pushing dirt around. Excavators are renown for their ability to dig trenches in the toughest conditions. Graders, on the other hand, while tough and powerful, are also known for their ability to sculpt the ground under them – and it’s that ability that we rely on for most of our roads and highways.

I marvel at today’s graders. With the use of computer-aided technology, a grader can be finely set to grade the ground under them to precise measurements. This includes both height and angles – or grades. If you regularly drive the highways, especially when it’s raining, you’ll notice the water running off the road easily and quickly. This is because of the very slight slope or grade given to the highway – and it’s all the work of a grader.

There are other areas where you will notice the effect without understanding why. Sweeping bends on highways, especially those that have to wind their way around hills or mountains, all have a slope, known as a camber, that is designed to help the car ‘stick’ to the road rather than trying to veer off. Engineers can determine the precise angle needed, and graders can prepare the road to those precise measurements.

You can learn to become a grader operator in just a few short weeks. Heavy equipment training programs will have you trained and ready for entry level work in next to no time at all. At ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools, we’ll even work with you to try and find you that first job. Grader operators, they don’t power through the ground – they gently sculpt that ground.

It’s a bit of a cliche I know, but bulldozer operations is a real “down-to-earth job.” Let’s face it, what do bulldozers do best? They push earth around. You could probably use a more poetic description – bulldozer operators spend their days carving the earth. The end result is still the same. The have to push dirt around. That sounds fairly simplistic when the reality is that a large bulldozer can push an awful lot of dirt around – tons of it in a day’s work.

Bulldozers are one of the most important pieces of equipment on a construction site. Engineers, builders, and other plant operators all rely on the skill of a bulldozer operator to carve out that landscape according to the plans. If a building is going to be constructed, that firm and level base is what is going to help hold that building up. If a highway is to be constructed, then the road building crews are relying on the bulldozer operator to provide them with a level and accurate road base to start on.

Our farmers still rely on bulldozer operators. Farm roads are often bulldozed, especially after snow or heavy rains have made them impassable. Farmers also rely on bulldozer operators to help in the construction of small dams, vital for those periods during the year when rainfall is minimal. These jobs all require the skills of an experienced bulldozer operator.

When you and I look at a piece of land, we may see some vegetation and dirt. When a bulldozer operator looks at that same piece of land, they will be looking at the soil type (sand, clay etc), tree stumps, large rocks, and anything else that may make the job difficult. Once they have scanned the area, they are ready to go to work.

Training to become a bulldozer operator is fairly straightforward. Three weeks of classroom training and in-the-seat training and you’re ready for entry level employment. Experience comes with time, but you would be surprised at how quickly a new operator learns their craft.

Heavy equipment has been the focus of attention when it comes to safety for several years now. While operators require training that includes safety, onsite workers also have an obligation to act safely around heavy equipment. Work place health and safety training is now mandatory in many industries and where employers have failed to ensure their employees are trained, big fines are on offer.

When it comes to heavy equipment safety, there are several areas that are important to understand. These areas include:

Preservation of self – This is fairly obvious, the last thing any operator should do is act in a way that could put themselves in danger. An obvious example of this is when working around power lines – come into contact with one of those power lines and you could be in real trouble.

Safety of others – The majority of heavy equipment accidents involve injuries to people other than the operator. In some cases, it is the worker on the ground that hasn’t taken care. However, operators should be aware of everyone around them and be trained sufficiently well that they can take avoidance action should a situation become dangerous.

Safety of property – By far the number one result of accidents is damage to property. This includes buildings and vehicles. These accidents generally occur through sloppy work, often because an operator has misjudged a distance. Heavy equipment can cause tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage just through one simple error of judgment.

These accidents are all avoidable. Heavy equipment safety training is designed to cover all aspects of safety. This training is generally included as part of a person’s basic heavy equipment training program. In some states, an employee cannot start work onsite unless they have undertaken this training. If you are looking at heavy equipment training programs, be sure they have a good safety component – you may find it necessary when looking for employment.

Is there a clear definition of heavy equipment in today’s workplace? According to Wikipedia, heavy equipment is defined as:

…. heavy-duty vehicles, specially designed for executing construction tasks, most frequently, ones involving earthwork operations. They are also known as, construction equipment, construction plant, earth movers, engineering vehicles, or simply equipment. They usually comprise five equipment systems: implement, traction, structure, power train, control and information.

Now that’s quite a definition, especially the latter part which names the equipment systems. What should be noted is that the word ‘heavy’ is not mentioned in reference to weight. In fact, weight is not the issue in today’s workforce as can be seen by the use of skid steer loaders and mini excavators. While relatively lightweight, they are still classified as heavy equipment. Generally speaking, the follow vehicles are typical of what could be described as heavy equipment:

• Backhoes
• Wheel Loaders
• Scrapers
• Excavators
• Bulldozers
• Road Graders
• Rock Trucks
• Skid Steers
• All-Terrain Forklifts

These range in size from small vehicles up to massive vehicles (if you can still call them a vehicle) the size of small buildings, often used in the open cut mining industry. You should see the size of the dump trucks that are used alongside them – a single wheel stands almost twice as tall as most people and requires a special forklift when a tire change is required.

Size is irrelevant when it comes to determining heavy equipment. What is interesting is that training for a mini excavator is virtually the same as training for a standard excavator and for one of the giants used in the mining industry. Training is the key to using this equipment. If you are interested in heavy equipment as a career, then start by gaining your skills through a reputable heavy equipment training organization. That way you will be sure of having all the base skills required to launch a successful career as a heavy equipment operator.

There are only three things between you and a heavy equipment career. Desire, training, and a job. When it comes to desire, that’s between you and your inner self. When it comes to training, ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can have you trained and ready for work in three weeks. That just leaves finding that first job. We’ve even got you covered with that.

The moment you start your heavy equipment training at ATS, we’re working with you to try and find that first job. Our aim is not to just pump out work-ready heavy equipment graduates. Our aim is to help people to build a new career as heavy equipment operators. That career doesn’t start with your training. It starts with your first job.

At ATS, we have staff members dedicated to helping our graduates find work. Our career services personnel work with students, first by identifying what their work preferences are, particularly when it comes to region and type of employment. We also assist students to build a resume that best represents them to employees. Finally, we sift through our database of employees, and we have thousands of potential employees in our database, in order to match graduates with potential employees based on their preferences.

This is a complete service that works hand in hand with graduates in order to give them a head start into a career. We’re not satisfied until you have become established in a job that matches your training. We have over sixty years of training experience and a reputation that is second to none when it comes to heavy equipment training. If you’re interested in a career as a heavy equipment operator, take a look at what we have to offer. All you need now is to find that desire.