If you’re going to be a success in your heavy equipment career, then you should seek formal training as soon as possible. The more equipment you are trained on, the more employable you’ll be in love with the money you’ll make. Associated Training Services (ATS) offers prospective heavy equipment operators several types of equipment training. Here are 5 types of heavy equipment training you can enroll in right now, today.

1. Mobile Crane Operator Training – This includes lattice boom cranes, hydraulic cranes, fixed and swing cab trains, and articulated cranes. Get your National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) certification today and start making more money.
2. Commercial Truck Drivers Training – You can get your CDL license through ATS. Train to take the test or train to improve your skills.
3. Rigger / Signalperson Training – Get 12 full hours of OSHA-compliant training in one of the most important specialties of the heavy equipment industry.
4. Bulldozers – Learn to operate a bulldozer the right way. Construction sites always need a good bulldozer operator. You can start your career in heavy equipment easily if you can operate one of these machines.
5. Loaders – There are all kinds of loaders – front end loaders, skid steer loaders, and much more. You can learn to operate a wide variety of loaders, making you a more versatile heavy equipment operator. You can start right away.

The best heavy equipment operators on the workforce are those who have some type of formal training. Join the ranks. Start today.

Associated Training Services is one of the oldest and largest trucking schools in the U.S. If you want to become a trucker – local or long haul – then you’ll need to be trained and certified. ATS can help you with that.

Here are six reasons you should choose ATS as your truck driving school:

1. Age – ATS is the oldest truck driving school in the nation. We have perfected the training model and put out some of the most successful truckers in the industry.
2. Size – We’re also the largest trucking school. We have more students, more instructors, and more room to maneuver your equipment on our training grounds. We’ve been doing it for so long that we continue to lead novice truckers into successful careers.
3. Quality – We’re not just stuck on quantity. How many students graduate from our training is not as important as the quality of training that we deliver. We focus on delivering the best truck driver training in the business.
4. Integrity – We go through a lot of trouble to stay true to our word.
5. Pride – We take pride in the ATS name, and we instill that pride in our students. When you graduate from ATS – whether you receive your CDL license, learn to operate a crane, or take our general heavy equipment training course – you can be proud that you were trained by the best.
6. Family-owned – ATS has been family owned since its inception. Started in 1959 by Robert Klabacka, ATS is now run and operated by his children. The current CEO and president is John Klabacka. We wouldn’t let each other down, and we’re not going to let you down.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training School is the oldest and largest training school in the nation, and we put out the best heavy equipment operators. Start your career with us.

One of the things you’ll learn in a good heavy equipment school are the different types of loaders you’ll find on the job. And you’ll learn how to operate them too.

You’ll learn the difference between a bucket loader and a payloader, for instance. Important questions like “Why do some loaders have wheels and others have tracks” will be answered. Plus, you’ll learn why some loaders have scoops and some have shovels. And you’ll learn how to use these tools in a safe, effective manner on the work site.

Front end loaders, skid loaders, swing loaders … the list goes on. Why do we have them and what do they do?

When you enroll in the ATS Heavy Equipment School, you’ll learn the answers to all of these questions and more. More importantly, when you graduate, you’ll be well qualified to operate any type of loader on the job site, and you’ll be employable in your state, ready for hire. ATS will even help you get your first job.

One of the things that students say they like about our training is that they get plenty of practical field training. We don’t just sit you in a classroom and lecture you.

Don’t get me wrong. You’ll get your classroom lectures too, but that’s not where you learn to operate heavy machinery. You learn by doing, in the ATS Heavy Equipment School you’ll get plenty of opportunities to ‘do’. That includes all types of loaders.

When it comes to salaries and highest paid, heavy equipment jobs are a lot like many other career paths. You start at the bottom and work your way up. Still, your career salary will depend on a lot of factors, including

• Location
• Your skill level
• Your employer
• Your training and credentials
• Employment longevity
• Experience
• State of the economy
• Union vs. non-union

These are just some of the factors that can influence your heavy equipment career salary.

If you live in Hawaii, the median salary for heavy equipment operators is $68,120. New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey aren’t far behind. The median wage in the U.S. is $41,870. Operators trained on the backhoe, crane, bulldozer, and grading equipment can make a little more.

This is why training is so important. If you seek crane operator training, for instance, from a highly respected training school, then you can start off with a better-than-expected salary. Just being trained by one of the best heavy equipment training schools in the U.S. can increase your salary expectations right off the bat. If you stay on the job, and stay with the same employer for a few years, you can expect salary increases.

The heavy equipment industry is one industry that will always need qualified employees. Get the proper training and have the proper employee mindset then you can earn good money.

Sometimes an employer needs specialized training for their employees. Associated Training Services is capable of providing that training on-site or at our location.

Since 1959, ATS has been training truck drivers and heavy machine operators on a variety of equipment. Our reputation is based on our long-standing success in delivering this training and meeting the needs of employers in the industry. We provide skills-oriented training for employers in the following areas:

• NCCCO Crane Operator Training, Testing and Certification
• OSHA Compliant Rigging & Signal Person Training, Testing and Qualification
• NCCER Heavy Equipment Training, Testing and Qualification
• Class-A CDL Commercial Driver Training, Testing, and Licensing

Employer-specific specialized training can take place in a number of ways. Our training programs include training on backhoes, bulldozers, wheel loaders, excavators, scrapers, articulated dump trucks, motor graders, all-terrain forklifts, mobile hydraulic cranes, lattice boom cranes, articulated boom cranes, and commercial motor vehicles. We also provide CDL testing for employees who want to become truck drivers. This training can be rolled into your employer-specific specialized training curriculum.

In essence, ATS builds a curriculum around your employee’s needs. Our training initiatives are designed to improve their skill levels while meeting your needs as employer.

For more information about the ATS Employer-Specific Specialized Training package, visit our website.

It’s amazing how brazen some people can be. The construction industry is full of technology stories related to workers turning up for work and finding that someone had, overnight, stolen equipment, tools, and building materials. Imagine turning up for work and finding a large bulldozer was missing. That requires a truck to transport it away from the construction site, and let’s face it, moving a bulldozer is not a quiet job – yet people do it. More importantly, they steal large heavy equipment and they are often never found – at least, until now.

The introduction of GPS units into modern heavy equipment has had an upside, GPS units can be used to track vehicles if and when they are stolen. Recent news stories highlight how effective this technology is. I remember reading one news story that reported the successful location of stolen heavy equipment just one hour after it was reported stolen, all because of the GPS unit located inside the equipment.

GPS is just one of the new technologies that are being used to make life easier for heavy equipment operators. Computer-aided systems are everywhere now – from those designed to ensure the smooth and economical running of an engine to complex units designed to help operators finely adjust the settings on their blades.

New heavy equipment operators have it easy. They learn to operate heavy equipment using this new technology and can then update their skills on the job as new technology is introduced. Older drivers who return to the industry after a lengthy lay-off are often amazed at the changes in heavy equipment and sometimes struggle to come to terms with these changes.  Heavy equipment technology is making life easier for operators, safer for workers, and protecting equipment from theft – all positive for those involved in the field of heavy equipment operations.

Employers are often caught in a difficult situation when it comes to having employees who have been trained to a standard required in that particular workplace. Employers can opt to employ trainers themselves, however, this can be a lengthy and expensive process since trainers will need to develop training programs and organize testing processes that result in formally recognized qualifications. The alternative is to engage the services of a training company that trains in specialized equipment training.

The benefits of engaging a training company like Associated Training Services (ATS) are many. ATS already has a wide range of training programs developed. These can often be developed to suit your workplace. If not, our experienced staff can quickly develop a training program suited to your workplace. We have a long history of working with employers to deliver training designed specifically for their work environment and the equipment or work required. We deliver training in areas such as:

• Crane Operator Training, Testing and Certification,

• OSHA Compliant Rigging & Signal Person Training, Testing, and Qualification,

• Heavy Equipment Training, Testing and Qualification, and

• Class-A CDL Commercial Driver Training, Testing and Licensing.

It is important to have instructors who are certified and who utilize the latest training methods. We can deliver training on-site or in our training facilities. Contact us if you require specialized training for your workplace. We have fifty years of successful service to the industry and during that time has built a strong reputation for quality and delivering what the customer needs, not what we think you need. We work closely with industry, national accreditation organizations, and regulatory authorities to ensure our standards exceed those expected within the industry.

After putting your career on a new path and completing the necessary training, it is imperative that you put those newfound skills to work immediately. There are a number of reasons. Obviously, you need to recoup the cost of your training, and for many people, training has meant leaving employment – and unemployment is not going to help you recoup those costs. There are other reasons that, long term, are more important.

If you think your heavy equipment operator training is going to make you an expert operator, think again. Training will give you the skills required to enter the workplace. Like most jobs, experience on the job is the final teacher, and it’s a lifelong teacher at that. By putting your new skills to work quickly, you can steadily build on them to become an expert operator.

We make job placement an essential part of your training here at Associated Training Services, and we want you to put your skills to use in the workplace as soon as possible.  Training, despite the best attempts, is really an artificial environment – we give you real work skills, however, it’s not until you get into that real environment that you can develop them.

Associated Training Services has connections to a lot of different businesses around the nation. Our training is well recognized to the point that employers often come to us looking for new operators – just check our jobs website occasionally (a free part of our service to students). Contact us at Associated Training Services if you want more information on training to become a heavy equipment operator.

Whilst some heavy equipment operators work by themselves, most are part of a team, and being a team player is of vital importance. Employers are really interested in one thing – getting the job done on time. If possible, they want the job to finish ahead of schedule, more so if there are contract bonuses for early completion. What they don’t want is to get behind schedule since this could lead to contract penalties. Construction companies generally engage project managers, and it is their job to work with everyone else to ensure that a project is completed as quickly as possible. As a heavy equipment operator, your role in any project is to work as part of the team to meet anytime goals.

Construction projects are quite complex. There are a lot of factors that go into scheduling each goal – for example, costs, location (how far the construction site is from raw materials such as cement suppliers, bitumen suppliers and quarries), and how much time is required to complete each step.

As a heavy equipment operator, you will need to work in conjunction with other heavy equipment operators, truck drivers, and other factors such as weather. If you’re not a team player, then the project could grind to a halt whilst they are waiting for you to complete your role. Having idle workers is dead money for any employer and will often result in a project falling behind time.

Employers then are looking for heavy equipment operators who are skilled in what they do, can get it right first time (every time), and who can work as part of that overall team. There is no longer a place for mavericks who want to do things their way, especially if safety factors are also ignored. Your work ethic in this regard starts with your heavy equipment operator training. Ideally, your heavy equipment training should be in a class environment where other students are also learning to operate heavy equipment. By learning to work together, you are laying the foundation for a successful career in heavy equipment operations.

If you’re interested in a career as a heavy equipment operator, you have a number of choices. You can learn to operate heavy equipment through friends or family, or you can learn as a part of a group – today’s successful operators learn their craft through recognized schools as part of a group of students since they also gain those all important team player skills.

Ask people what they thought an excavator did and they would most likely say they dug trenches. Modern excavators do far more than that; in fact, they are one of the most important units of heavy equipment on a demolition site. Excavators are also some of the primary units of equipment in mining, although the machinery itself bears a passing resemblance to your basic construction excavator – nevertheless, they are still excavators.

Training to become an excavator operator is fairly straightforward, however, it is recommended you learn to operate a variety of different heavy equipment. This broadens your work opportunities whilst giving you a better understanding of how heavy equipment works. Excavators are actually simple machines when it comes to their constructions. The equipment houses an operator’s cab that sits on tracks. The digging arm extends forward with the digging motion being towards the operator. Learning to operate this equipment then is based on an understanding of what each of the levers and pedals does and learning to coordinate your hands, feet, and eyes. Add in workplace safety training and you’re ready for employment.

That training only takes three weeks to complete (and includes instruction on a range of equipment). Once you have completed your excavator operator training you will be proficient in a number of different machines, including bulldozers, graders, loaders and of course, excavators. You can then look for employment where your skills can be refined and where you can learn to use many of the different attachments that an excavator can use.

Like the idea of working as an excavator operator? Can you spare three weeks to undertake the training? If you can answer “yes” to those two questions, then you’re well on the way to an exciting and well-paid career as an excavator operator.