A story this week from the Orange County Register is a timely reminder that even bulldozers face situations that are dangerous and require skilled operators. Bulldozers are often thought of as muscle machines that just get in and get a job done. They are strong and its their strength that is relied upon to complete jobs quickly, but this news story adds a high level of caution.

There are houses around the Anaheim Hills area that are threatening to slide down the hill and onto a busy freeway. As a home owner, I guess the last thing you want is to find your home on the freeway and the living room now the fast lane. Houses were bought, residents moved out and now it’s time for the bulldozers to move in and demolish them.

Being subject to landslides, heavy earth moving will be tricky. They may only be knocking down the homes, but that is not a simple task under these conditions. Bulldozer operators will need to be vigilant, not just in watching the ground around them, but also in ‘feeling’ the ground as they slowly pull these buildings down. These skills cannot be taught; they can only be gained through experience. However, if you read this blog often enough, one philosophy we always promote is that of your skills base. If you don’t have a good grounding in operating heavy equipment, you will never truly become a proficient operator.

A good skills base is a little like a building and its foundations. Weak foundations and the building will eventually fall. Good strong foundations and the building will be around for a long time. You can develop a good skills foundation by ensuring your heavy equipment training is delivered by accredited training organizations. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools is accredited and delivers training that has been accredited to national standards. If you are looking to become a bulldozer operator, contact us now to start developing your skills foundations.

One of the benefits of a truck driving career is that you get to choose the type of trucks you want to drive and where you want drive. This is important to many people who don’t want to wander too far from home each day. However, local truck driving jobs are not restricted to just local deliveries of goods. There are other options. Likewise, distance driving doesn’t have to mean interstate, you can also drive intrastate, that is, from one city or county to the next. Here is a list of the types of jobs and trucks you could be driving:

Local – deliveries, parcels and packages, food items, building materials. Trucks used include refrigerated trucks, specialist trucks, large vans and open trucks.

Regional – grain handling, heavy equipment, furniture, building materials and cement. Trucks used include specialist trucks, flat beds, large vans and dump trucks.

Intrastate – grain handling, petroleum products, furniture and produce and may involve specialist trucks, tractor trailers, large flat bed trucks and large delivery vans.

Interstate – petroleum products, motor vehicles, furniture, produce. This work traditionally involves large tractor trailer rigs although specialist trucks, flat beds and large vans are also used.

There is a large cross-over of trucks used and materials carried. I have really only touched the surface since every single product used has to be transported at some stage. That is one of the great things about truck driving as a career – the type of work and the type of vehicles available is so varied you will always find something that suits your interests.

You can start a truck driving career with as little as three weeks training that readies you for both the workplace and the mandatory licensing processes. Call ATS Truck Driving School for more information on truck driver training programs.

Graders are perhaps the gentle giants of the heavy equipment industry. It’s not brute strength that gets the job done with a grader; it’s finesse. Their role is to do the final sculpting of a surface, particularly when it comes to road building. You can often see them working up and down a stretch of new road and they seem to be moving a tiny amount of material. Like a good sculptor, it is those small amounts that make a huge difference to the finished surface.

Learning to become a grader operator is actually quite easy. Like many professions, the finer points of the operating a grader can only come with experience and to be truly proficient, you need to base that experience on a solid training foundation. When it comes to training, you can watch someone else then copy their bad habits; you can get big dollars for training from an unqualified or non-accredited trainer; or you can find a local training company that is accredited as a heavy equipment training business; and that delivers training that has been accredited to national standards.

Now consider who you would employ if you were in the construction business. I don’t think I need to say any more. Accredited training is now a must when it comes to heavy equipment. In some states, you cannot work on a site without at least the safety component on this training. When searching for a training company to undertake grader training, look for a business like ATS.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools we make grader operator training easy. In fact, along the way you will pick up skills and knowledge on a variety of heavy equipment – this gives you a wider range of equipment to work on after training. Our heavy equipment training programs run for three weeks and include in-class and behind-the-controls training. We also include safety components as required by many states. In fact, our training is accredited to national standards. This means your skills are going to be recognized nationwide. Grader operator training – do you want the easy way or the hard way?

There is a lot of activity in and around many of our towns and cities now with landscapers repairing winter’s damage and preparing for summer. Skip loaders have become a weapon of choice for many landscapers. They can get into tight areas, are versatile when it comes to the type of work involved and very economical, particularly when you compare the cost of doing a job by hand.

One area you will see skips loaders and skid steer loaders at work these days is in the area of re-turfing lawns that have been damaged over winter. Skip loaders can be handy tools for these jobs. They are able to get under the old turf and slice through it like you would a cake. The old turf can then be dumped into trucks for removal. Skip loaders are also handy when it comes to moving new rolls of turf ready for laying in place. If you have ever manually laid turf, you will know how heavy each roll can be. The skip loader makes short work off carrying a load to the area to be laid.

Loaders are versatile machines and, in spring, in high demand. Operators that run their own business often find that spring brings so much work they are booked out for weeks in advance and have to refuse new work. Whether you’re operating skip loaders or full size loaders, the demand for operators is there and with training only requiring three weeks of your time; you could be ready for work well before the end of spring.

If you want to join the landscaping profession as a loader operator, consider a heavy equipment training program that provides skills across a range of light and heavy equipment. With skills across a range of heavy equipment, you will be surprised at how many landscapers snap you up for work.

Sometimes news stories have ramifications that go beyond the initial story. An article in the Equipment Trader Online magazine from early March discusses the proposed move by Caterpillar of their excavator construction arm from Japan to the States. That, of course, will be a big plus for local workers in the manufacturing sector with production expected to triple. What does it mean for local excavator operators?

Local production could lead to an increase in the number of excavators being sold and with it an increase in the number of operators required. Local production should lead to lower prices, or at least more competitive prices. With local manufacturing, parts and servicing, their products will certainly create greater interest. There is a real possibility that Caterpillar will also require a small team of operators to test equipment as well. That could make for an interesting job, trying all the new models before they hit the market.

Excavators are becoming extremely versatile in the number of different roles they can play in construction. They are by no means restricted to just digging trenches these days. For operators, staying up to date with the latest in technology is almost a necessity and online magazines like Equipment Trader Online (its appears it will be free from May 1) can be ideal places to see what is happening in the world of excavators and heavy equipment in general. Of course, you could just keep coming back here as well.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have always kept an eye on what is happening in the world of heavy equipment and the new technology that is being released. Our heavy equipment training courses are designed to ensure that graduates are able to move straight into employment after graduation with most graduates having long and successful careers. If a career as a heavy equipment operator sounds interesting, contact us for details on training options available.

A truck driving career offers one thing that many other careers can’t match – constant change. At least, a constant change in scenery. Truck driving covers a broad spectrum of jobs ranging from your local delivery driver to tractor-trailer drivers that transport heavy equipment and on to interstate transport drivers. You can find a career that really suits your personal situation.

For many family oriented people, being home each night to help tuck the kids into bed is important. Local delivery drivers often start early in the morning and finish early in the afternoon. You’re not only in time to tuck the kids into bed, you’re home in time to spend some quality time with them. Local delivery truck drivers transport everything. You could be driving a refrigerated truck carrying frozen foods, perhaps carrying timber to building sites, or delivering parcels from the local freight depot.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who are single, or whose children have grown up, or who feel the need to escape the bedlam at home. They drive the interstate transport trucks and can be away from home for several days at a time. Like local truck drivers, interstate drivers carry a wide range of products. You name a product and you can almost guarantee a truck has been involved with it somewhere along the line.

All these truck drivers have one thing in common – they had to undertake training in order to obtain their truck driving licenses. ATS Truck Driving Schools has been a leader in the field for over forty years, having trained thousands of drivers during that time. Our truck driver training program is comprehensive and includes both behind the wheel on the road training and classroom based training.

If you feel your career is going nowhere, why not consider a truck driving career? You can be sure it will take you somewhere.

When you look at machinery like bulldozers, excavators and mobile cranes, they look very complex and hard to understand. Whilst the principles behind each machine is fairly basic, the components that go together to make, say, a mobile crane, are very complex. However, just like a car, you don’t need to know how it works under the hood, you just need to know how to operate from inside the cab. And that is fairly straightforward. Did you know that mobile crane operator training only takes three weeks? That’s all you need – three weeks.

Becoming a certified mobile crane operator does take a little longer. After all, you do have to be assessed before being certified. So let’s add another week for the certification process. In total, four weeks to become a certified mobile crane operator ready to start work. It may sound like a whirlwind training regime, however, it’s not. If it was, you would struggle to get through the certification process.

Actually, ATS Crane Operator Training Schools have one of the best reputations for delivering well trained graduates to industry. Our training is thorough and includes in-the-cab training and practice and classroom-based learning in areas such as workplace safety. Our training has been accredited through the National Center for Construction Education Research (NCCER) and our training schools are licensed in their respective states. Crane operator certification is provided through the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO).

In short, our mobile crane operator training provides skills that are required by industry along with certification of those skills for those who pass the assessment process. Are you looking for a career change? Consider a career as a mobile crane operator. The pay is good, the work conditions great, and you can start in less than a month.

Are you a heavy equipment contractor? Do you employ heavy equipment operators? Have you considered encouraging your heavy equipment operators to gain a commercial drivers license? As a business owner, having employees that are multi-skilled makes a lot of sense and can, over time, save your business a lot of money.

The heavy equipment industry is a classic example of where multi-skilled employees can be a real boon. How many small jobs have you had over the past 12 months, is my next question. These are the jobs where you send out a piece of heavy equipment to do a job and then retrieve it at the end of the day, or at some stage during the day, with the job done. For most contractors, they load up the trailer and have it driven to the work-site then the tractor and trailer (sometimes only the tractor) return to base only to have to go back out at the end of the day.

This takes two employees, one for the tractor trailer and one to operate the heavy equipment. It also means a heavier use of fuel with an extra return trip added to the job. If your heavy equipment operators have their commercial drivers licenses, you can send them out with the tractor, trailer and equipment and they can return when the job has been completed. There is no waiting around, only a single employer required, and a significant saving in fuel – all costs that affect your bottom line.

In fact, the amount of money saved over a twelve month period could well truly cover the cost of training. As an employer, you could sponsor the training of your employees and still show an increase in profits at the end of the year. Training through Associated Training Services only takes three weeks – three weeks that could significantly boost your bottom line.

Some people love them, some people hate them, but without a doubt our highways make traveling long distances quicker and easier. Every single highway had, at some stage, a grader or two working to prepare the way for the seal. In fact, graders have made the job of road building so much easier.

What most lay people don’t realize is that the grader is the one machine most responsible for ensuring our roads are flat and built at the right slope. This is important for water control in the wet (the water needs to be able to drain away quickly rather than just lie there) and for general road safety. Cambers on corners help to keep the car on the road.

Engineers of course have the task of designing our roads, designing the slopes and cambers, but it is the grader that is employed to deliver the results – all based on the plans put together by engineers. Grader operator training therefore needs to include training on how to read plans, and how to read soil types if the operator is going to be effective in their job.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools we don’t just teach how to drive a grader, you are also trained on other aspects including reading plans, understanding soil types, workplace safety and basic maintenance procedures. As a graduate, you will have good general knowledge of your equipment and, of course, the skills required to actually operate the equipment.

Do you want to leave a permanent mark on society in one of the most helpful ways? Consider becoming a grader operator. Training only requires three weeks of your time and then you’re ready to hit the road!

Dump trucks are one of the busiest vehicles on any construction site. If they are not bringing in truck loads of building materials they are carting truck loads out. At times, they will do both, bringing in, say, a load of sand and then filling up with a load debris that needs to be removed.

The role of a dump truck driver is never boring. In fact, you are on the go almost all day. The only time you get to pause is when your truck is being filled. These days, that doesn’t take very long at all. There are many areas that utilize hoppers – you simply drive your truck under the hopper, the hopper is opened and within a minute you have a full load. At the construction site, loaders. backhoes and excavators can quickly fill a dump truck with material that needs carting away.

Career prospects for dump trucks are good with demand for drivers fairly steady all year round. The peak in demand around the middle to the end of spring as construction companies take on new drivers to help meet contract deadlines. Now is one of the best times to gain one’s qualifications as a dump truck driver since that recruitment drive for drivers will soon start in earnest.

ATS Truck Driver Schools can have you trained and ready for work in as little as three weeks. Dump truck driver training is undertaken using both in class and behind the wheel training sessions. Behind the wheel sessions involve you doing the driving, not watching someone else doing the driving. Every kid wants to be a dump truck driver when playing in their sand pit, but is the big kid in you still wanting to drive a dump truck in a real life sand pit?