If you’re a little tired of your current career (and many people change careers three or four times during their life) then a career as a backhoe operator may be the perfect choice. Backhoes offer a diverse range of tasks, sometime using the hoe and at other times using the loader. That is the one appeal to many people, the backhoe is more than one piece of equipment.

Add a couple of dozen different attachments and the backhoe becomes a jack (and master) of many tasks. Backhoes don’t just dig trenches, they are capable of much more, including drilling, jack hammering and loading or unloading trucks. They have become a common piece of equipment on construction sites and are becoming popular tools when it comes to landscaping.

The real beauty in selecting a career as a backhoe operator is that the training is fairly straight forward. Take three weeks out of your life and you will be trained and ready to start work. You will have a wealth of new knowledge and the skills required to operate a loader, excavator and, of course, a backhoe since that combines the skills of the previous two.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have been training people to operate heavy equipment for over 25 years. They have the experience to know what employers are looking for when seeking to employ new backhoe operators. Because of the experience, employers rate ATS highly when it comes to the quality of the training and the quality of the students that graduate from each training program. If you are tired of your current career and considering a change – consider a change to a career as a backhoe operator.

The demand for heavy equipment operators is steadily rising with forecasts for 2010, indicating a much heavier demand in spring and summer, especially when it comes to excavators and loaders. Bulldozers and graders follow closely with other heavy equipment operators also in strong demand.

Excavator operators will be in heavy demand in spring with new building projects scheduled for spring starts. Excavators and bulldozers are the two machines generally called in first for a building project. Many projects have already had the clearing preparation completed and ready to turn the soil. This involves excavator operators and, to a lesser extent, loaders and backhoes.

Foundation work and service trenches is the area that will see highest demand although road construction will create a demand across most areas of heavy equipment. Excavators also play a role in road construction – this is why the demand for excavator operators is expected to surge – both areas of construction requiring operators at the same time.

Undertaking a heavy equipment training program early in 2010 is advisable if you are looking to enter this field, particularly if you are considering specializing in excavators. The number of operators in the work place has diminished over the last 10 years. Many older operators have left the profession whilst others have simply moved on to other trades.

Excavator operators will be in demand in 2010. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools are gearing up for a busy year training new operators to meet this demand. If you are considering a career change and moving into heavy equipment, contact us to find out what training are available in your area.

Heavy equipment operator training has many different formats with some training bodies specializing in one piece of equipment, like a bulldozer or excavator. A thorough heavy equipment program should expose the students to a variety of machinery for both practical experience and for familiarization. A student may decide to specialize in bulldozers, however, knowing how a grader works and its limitations, for example, can help the bulldozer operator when working around a grader.

Having exposure to a variety of equipment is important. It is also important to have some hands on experience in the popular machinery in use today. This includes bulldozers, excavators, graders, loaders and backhoes. When it comes to employment, these are the areas of greatest demand and the areas where most students will find employment.

Large reputable training organizations that have been around for many years have one very important attribute over many of the newer training organizations springing up and that is experience. Not so much the experience with training itself, although that is important. Their experience is in knowing what employers are looking for when looking to hire new operators – an attribute that many new training organizations haven’t as yet developed.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools have been around for over 25 years. During that time they have developed a reputation for providing industry with quality operators who have been trained ready for work – in other words, they have the skills that employers are looking for. The heavy equipment training program offered by ATS includes excavators, graders, backhoes and, of course, the bulldozer. No training is complete without experience operating any of these machines.

It seems the next big trend in heavy equipment will be excavators and their attachments. More importantly, some of these attachments can do the work of other more specialized equipment. Using the attachment can reduce costs and reduce time. According to GradingAndExcavation.com – a trade magazine for graders and excavators:

The right crushing, breaking, and pulverizing attachment paired with an excavator or loader creates a powerful, portable, and profitable green machine that is ideal for demolition, in-place recycling, and reclamation.

An excavator that can dig up an old road then, by switching attachments, break up and crush that asphalt would be a huge plus to contractors. The crushed asphalt can then be reused as a base for the new road surface. Recycling at its best. Excavator operators that have skills using these attachments will be in high demand as more contractors realize the huge cost benefits of multi-tooling their excavators.

It is not just road construction that is starting to use this technology. Concrete breaking and crushing is another area which is becoming popular for onsite recycling. Perhaps the biggest impact will be felt on new housing estates. Here the material, including rock, that is dug out is crushed down to a suitable size to reuse on the site. This is removing the need to truck out this material and, in some situations, truck in replacement soil. There is a similar situation developing with demolition sites where the bricks and mortar are being crushed and reused on site.

Learning to operate an excavator is the first step and to do that, you need to undertake a heavy equipment operator training program. Once you are skilled at operating an excavator, you can look at many of the attachments that are available and start to gain some skills using them. Excavators and their attachments are becoming an important component in the recycling of building materials. Learn to use them effectively and your skills will be in high demand.

I keep an eye on the heavy equipment employment market watching for trends or indications of what sort of direction demand is going to take. Despite it being winter, a quick search of job vacancies for grader operators listed over 150 current vacancies. This is actually up by about 30 vacancies compared to a month ago. There is one trend that I think is worth noting if you are looking for a career as a grader operator.

The current trend is an increase in the number of vacancies listed that ask for grader operators that are multi-skilled. The predominant requirement is for grader operators with experience operating excavators and bulldozers and to a lessor extent, angledozers. I should point out that I was searching for grader operators and motor grader operators only. A look at other jobs within the heavy equipment field returned the following statistics:

heavy equipment operators – 200
construction equipment operators – 190
bulldozer operator – 61
excavator operator – 54
backhoe operator – 81
loader operator – 200
skid steer loader operator – 46
frontend loader operator- 63

In some cases job vacancies appear in more than one search result because of the way the vacancy notice was written. It is also interesting to note that loader and grader operators are the two most in demand at present. I use several different data sources to investigate job vacancies with these results only coming from the one site, Careers.org. If you search around you will find there are many more vacancies advertised online. What is interesting is that many employers prefer word-of-mouth, local newspapers and local employment specialists to help them find new workers rather than using an online source.

Extrapolate these figures and you may find as many as 300-400 vacancies for grader operators currently available. Employers have always had a liking for heavy equipment operators that are multi-skilled. Before starting any heavy equipment training program, make sure they provide training on a range of equipment. As you can see, you will be far more employable.

The backhoe has often been seen as a thrown together cross between a fully fledged excavator and a full size front-end loader. There is probably a little truth in it as well since the backhoe can do some of the work of an excavator using one end of the machine, and do some of the work of a front end loader using the other half.

Looking a little like a scorpion, backhoes have their place in construction, particularly when the jobs require the services of a smaller machine. Over the years new technology has made big inroads into the capabilities of excavators, road graders and to a lesser extent, bulldozers and front-end loaders. The backhoe hasn’t been forgotten with new attachments coming out all the time.

One attachment that came out several years ago really changed some of the capabilities of backhoes. There are times when a sidewalk needs to be torn up and the best machine for the job was the backhoe. However, there were times when the only way to complete the job involved damaging the areas either side of the sidewalk. A new tool called a Rototilt was introduced that completely changed the way a backhoe tackled the job. Now, a backhoe can dig up a sidewalk and cause little or no damage to surrounding areas.

This is just one attachment, there are hundreds of others. What has it meant to the backhoe? It is no longer a cross between an excavator and a front-end loader, it is a legitimate machine in its own right. Whilst the combined skills of an excavator operator and front-end loader operator are ideal, the backhoe now demands skills specific to the machine. If you are looking for a career in heavy equipment that is challenging and involves a lot of variety, consider undertaking backhoe training – it’s a career that continues to evolve and challenge operators – you will never find yourself becoming bored.

Heavy equipment is generally associated with construction and whilst most heavy equipment careers involve the construction industry, you could also work in mining, forestry, oil drilling, farming or, in some cases, production. The construction sector is by far the single biggest employer of heavy equipment operators.

The classification of heavy equipment can be difficult with gray areas covering some of the smaller machines used. However, if you accept that heavy equipment is used to move heavy material then you would be close to the mark. A career in heavy equipment then is the operation of machinery that falls into this category. This machinery includes equipment that:

• clears and grades land
• digs trenches
• hoists heavy construction materials
• assists in constructing oil rigs
• applies asphalt and concrete

This is just a small example of the type of work performed. Machinery that could be used in these tasks include:

• Bulldozers
• Road Graders
• Wheel Loaders
• Excavators
• Pile Drivers
• Mobile or Fixed Cranes
• Paving Machines

This list doesn’t include specialist machinery such as forestry equipment, mining equipment or equipment such as the specialist gantry cranes used in ports and harbors. Most heavy equipment operators start their careers operating equipment you see everyday. Bulldozers, excavators, loaders and mobile cranes are the most common entry level positions. Operators can also enter the workforce through road graders although for major construction work like road building, the preference is for experienced operators.

The one key ingredient to a successful career as a heavy equipment operator is the initial training received. Quality training across a broad range of heavy equipment is the best start you get. This provides you with hands on experience and a thorough understanding of workplace safety. With the basic skills under you belt you can move into the workforce and experience a long and lucrative heavy equipment career.

When you sign on with the experts at Associated Training Services you’re sure to get the best in heavy equipment training whether tractors or loaders are what you want. Of course these are difficult times and the professionals at ATS know that, so they’re always ready to go the extra miles to help their clients get the best service possible from what they offer.

And when you see what they offer you’ll be sure to want to know more. First off, there is an element of ATS that really likes those old fashioned values of hard work and loyalty since the firm was first started by the father in 1959 and then passed on to his sons. And you know right away that a place that has all the experience of being run by the same family all those years will have perfected what they offer to their clients.

And what they offer is first class. The heavy equipment training that you’ll get here involves not only the classroom but hands on experience as well. These are the experts that can take you into the real life situations where you’ll get the kind of real experience that will put you ahead on the job site.

When you need to get the right training on tractors and loaders, you need to get together with the professionals at ATS. These are the experts that have the practical experience and pride to make sure that you get the very best training that ytou need.

For many people, big front loaders are special pieces of heavy equipment. They are impressive to look at, as they tend to dwarf a lot of other machinery. Many people confuse front loaders with bulldozers, but they are a very different piece of equipment that performs an entirely different function. First lets look at the similarities between the two and see why they are so commonly mistaken for one another.

Bulldozers and front loaders are both available in a range of sizes. The tractor part of the equipment looks almost identical. You can find closed cabin and open cabin configurations of each, so here they are almost the same. Front Loaders can sometimes be fitted with bulldozer blades to allow them to do light dozing. They are not as good at dozing as bulldozers but they can do an acceptable job when the requirements are not too heavy. Seeing front loaders with bulldozer blades only deepens the confusion for most people. The attachment that is regularly used for front loaders is a bucket. It is designed to scoop and carry loads from one place to another. It looks a bit like a bulldozer blade, but is actually very different. Yes, bulldozers can also be fitted with a bucket.

The difference is a little closer to the ground. If you look at comparatively sized bulldozers and front loaders, the bulldozer will always sit lower to the ground. Front loaders tower over everything because of the enormous wheels that are attached to them. Bulldozers run on tracks. Wheels mean that you can use front loaders almost anywhere. The tracks of a bulldozer can damage paved surfaces, but they give great traction and allow them to drive over very rough terrain.

If you are interested in learning more about front loaders or bulldozers, please feel free to contact us at Associated Training Services.

Loaders provide outstanding career opportunities for many people. What makes loaders special is the fact that they are so widely used. If you have your loaders certification, you can find work in construction, agriculture, mining, forestry and many other exciting lines of work. Loaders are a versatile type of heavy equipment that provides flexible career opportunities.

Operators of loaders enjoy great working conditions. Most loaders have a closed cabin and air conditioning, so drivers are out of the elements. You can work in comfort whether it is hot or cold. Beyond the obvious creature comforts of loaders, loader drivers also have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they have a job that is reasonably low impact. Working in construction, especially if you are an unskilled laborer, you are exposed to risk on a daily basis. The work can be fun, but injuries do occur and they take their toll over time. Not everyone has the physical characteristics that allow them to perform such a demanding job for any great length of time. If you are working in loaders, the machinery does most of the hard work.

Loaders offer interesting challenges. There is a large range of attachments that can be fitted to loaders. They are used to perform all manner of tasks and providing that you get the training, you can find yourself enjoying a wide variety of jobs. If you are interested in learning more about loaders or obtaining loader certification, please contact us at Associated Training Services.