One of the big differences between a mobile crane operator and a fixed crane operator is the need for extra skills. Crane operators in general need to know how to stabilize their cranes, and they need to know how to operate their cranes according to local conditions and with a shifting load. Mobile crane operators in most cases also need to have truck driving skills backed up by a commercial drivers license.

As the name implies, mobile cranes are just that – mobile. The crane is a separate unit that has been fixed to the top of a truck. These trucks generally exceed the limit for a standard drivers license, so a commercial drivers license is needed before the crane operator can move their crane from job to job. Whilst an employer could employ two people to do the job – a crane operator and a truck driver – it makes economic sense to have one person who has the skills to do both.

Mobile crane operators may find themselves doing two or three or more different jobs each day, and these jobs will be in different locations. Being able to drive the crane from job to job is therefore a required skill, as is being able to quickly set up their crane so it can safely undertake the job. Setting up includes placing the truck in the best place, anchoring the crane using special lifts – this may lift the truck off its wheels to prevent any rolling and to ensure the crane is working from an even plane. The smallest tilt in the crane will be magnified at the end of the boom, making for a potentially dangerous situation.

When training to become a mobile crane operator, be sure the training includes the skills necessary to gain a commercial drivers license. Without that commercial drivers license, you could well be an unemployable mobile crane operator.

This weeks jobs highlight the growing demand for heavy equipment operators with commercial drivers licenses. Employers are finding it is more cost effective to employ one person who is able to transport their equipment to and from a jobsite as well as operate the equipment onsite. If you are a heavy equipment operator who doesn’t have a commercial drivers license, you should perhaps consider adding one.

Training can be completed in as little as three weeks and you will improve your future employment options. If you need more information on heavy equipment training and/or truck driver training then visit our training website.This weeks jobs include:

Excavator Operator with CDL
Waldo, WI
Employer requires an excavator operator who has a CDL-A and willing to move equipment to jobsites.

Equipment Operator/CDL Driver
Milwaukee, WI
Looking for an Equipment Operator/CDL Driver. This is full time and NOT just seasonal employment! For landscape construction and maintenance for residential and commercial clients.

Heavy Equipment Operator
Huron, SD
2 job openings, Full Time, Education Required, Drivers License, Salary: $15.00 Per Hour

Crane Operator
Experience operating a 50-ton rough terrain hydraulic crane

Mobile Crane Operator
Darien, WI
Employer requires a 60-ton Mobile Crane operator.

Be sure to visit our job site if you need more information on any of these positions. . If you’re looking to build a career as a heavy equipment operator, then check out our training options on our heavy equipment training website.

If you have your commercial drivers license (CDL) then you may want to consider adding a crane operators certification to your range skills. This will certainly improve your job prospects and can offer a diversity of employment options. Employers today are looking for potential employees that are are multi-skilled and can work in various areas.

You may wonder the association between crane operators and truck drivers. There is one. For starters, mobile crane operators require a truck driver’s license anyway. However, moving away from mobile cranes, if you can operate an overhead crane then you can potentially help to load or unload your own truck. Having skills to operate a fork lift places you in a similar situation.

Adding a crane operator’s certificate only takes three weeks – yet it adds a life time of opportunities to your resume. I won’t try and fool you. There are not employers jumping out of the woodwork looking for multi-skilled truck drivers. Having said that, it’s not until an employer sees your resume and understands that you can drive a truck, operate a crane (as a certified operator) and perhaps drive a fork lift that your true worth will show through.

Employers don’t always see the associations until it is there in black and white in front of them – suddenly a host of possibilities opens up. Your first step is to find a training provider that is accredited to deliver crane operator training and who is also accredited to undertake the follow up assessment and certification. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have both of these accreditations – in three weeks you can add a crane operator certification to your truck driving skills.

Truck driving is one of those skills that never goes unnoticed in the work place. Most businesses will generally employ specialist truck drivers to do the work required. It’s common sense. However, truck drivers are human, (at least I think they are) so they fall victim to all the human ailments that are around at the time. We are now heading into winter and that brings with it coughs, colds and winter flus. How does a business cope when one or more of their regular truck drivers falls ill?

Some companies are smart and have a list of casual drivers on file. If a regular truck driver is unavailable, they just call on one of their casuals. Smaller businesses don’t always have that luxury. Their only approach to the problem is to quickly ring everyone and tell them their deliveries will be late. It’s not great for customer service particularly if the delivery winds up being a week late.

What about the truck driver? They have been off sick for a day or two now whilst still feeling a little off color. They have to do twice as much work to catch up as soon as possible. It’s probably not fair on them and could lead to a relapse.

As a business, you do have another alternative and that is to ensure you have other workers who have the necessary truck driving skills. They could be storemen, shipping clerks, general office employees. In fact, as a manager, you could benefit from additional skills as well. With that sort of approach, you will always have a regular supply of drivers on hand. Your business will not suffer through lack of driving skills and your workers will appreciate the added skills. Truck driver training is a quick training program that only lasts three weeks. It is certainly worth consideration.

Our country was built using the skills and labor or migrants. In fact, most of us come from migrants, even you can trace your ancestry back to the first arrivals – they were still migrants. We are still accepting migrants into the country and sometimes those migrants need to adapt their skills to our work environments. Heavy equipment is no different.

Heavy equipment skills recognition is not always as easy as looking at your foreign qualifications. Crane operators, for example, require certification in many states. Truck drivers will need to pass local commercial drivers license tests. The biggest hurdle facing many migrants is that need to be able to read, write and speak English reasonably well.

If they are able to communicate, the rest becomes a lot easier. Taking part in an accredited heavy equipment training program, an accredited crane operator training program, or an accredited truck driver training program will provide the migrant with the necessary skills and workplace safety knowledge that is required to work successfully in this country.

Yes, their skills are transferable to a certain extent. However, there are many countries that are not quite as advanced as ours. Their heavy equipment is not as advanced as ours – in fact, some are absolute dinosaurs. New technology such as GPS and laser will be quite strange to many migrants – hey, they are quite strange to some of our own older operators as well.

The good news for migrants who are entering this country is, they don’t have to look for new careers. If they have worked successfully as heavy equipment operators in their own country, they can update their skills here and continue in their chosen profession.

I bet you didn’t know that dump trucks built roads. In a way, they do. Sure, they don’t smooth out the road base and they don’t lay the seal, but they do play a big role in building our roads. In fact, if you care to stop and watch a team as they build a new road, you will be amazed at how involved a dump truck is.

Without getting too technical in how a new road is built, there are steps which are pretty obvious. The stretch of land where a new road is to be built has to be cleared of vegetation. A road crew will often remove the top foot or so of soil – sometimes much more. This is generally the role of a bulldozer and a front end loader. The loader of course dumps the cleared waste into – a dump truck.

From there, graders get to work leveling the new road. Once they have a smooth platform to build a road on, the assembly of a new road begins. And that is what it is – an assembly project. Dump trucks bring in road base, a material used to make the foundations of the road. This could be a gravel and cement mixture, for example. The dump trucks don’t just dump and run. If you watch them you will see they start the tipper action and as the base starts to flow out, they drive slowly down the new road evenly spreading the road base. This makes life easier for the grader who follows and smooths out the material.

There are several other processes such as driving rollers over this area, which compact and level out the road base. It is then ready for the final seal. This could be cement or a hot mix. Either way, a special machine is used to lay the seal. Once again, dump trucks are used to carry the mix – they dump it in to the machine laying the new road. Wave after wave of trucks come in and they are able to empty their contents without the machine stopping. This enable a completely smooth road to be laid without any seams.

Dump trucks are involved in some way in every step of road making. You can work as a dump truck driver once you complete a truck driver training program. The pay is good, the hours are great, and the job never boring. At the end of the day, you can look back on a piece of road that you have helped build – a permanent record of your hard work.