I thought I would ask you guy's what you think the future for heavy equipment operators will be like about ten years from now, do you think it will be hard to find people who would like to do this kind of work for a living due to the fact that we are in a world where people would rather have a 9 to 5 job inside at a computor than being outside for atleast 12 hour days in the sun,rain and snow? I know there is a shortage for operators out west right now but will it just get worse as the years go on?
I see many operated jobs being replaced by automated or "smart" machines. R.C. (remote controlled) machines have been in use in extreme conditions. One grade checker doing the work of three? Haul trucks that run on "auto pilot" as well as the excavators loading them. One must be safe, efficient and productive to make a profit. Remove the human factor, you have fewer (problem) employees with their bad habits, personal problems, bad attitudes, poor decision making, ect... Common sense, a good attitude and the ability to produce is what will keep you busy. :cool2
While I agree that in some cases automation will likely be taking over in the not too distant future, there are a good number of roles where I am pretty sure it won't work......our operations for example. I don't think there will be too big of an impact by automation in the next ten years. I do wonder how lack of operators will impact things. I think the younger generations have been getting softer and more lazy, so finding anyone to fill jobs that will require real work will be getting harder in general. Please don't jump all over me for that comment. I didn't mean to direct it at everyone, there are some very motivated young people entering the workplace everyday. It just seems the number of them is dwindling rapidly, so I don't see it an neccessarily being just heavy equipment operators that are in or are going to be in short supply. Sorry to ramble, I got a bit off topic. I think there will be a heavy demand for equipment operators all over. I think the shortages are going to grow with time unless more contractors are willing to start training people from scratch. I do however see their reservations against doing so since once trained, new people tend to want ot move on to bigger and better things. Loyalty seems to be a thing of the past and people are far too willing to drop things at their butts and walk away. I could be way off on this, but I guess only time will tell. Brian
Hey Brian, What you have said there is so true!! I agree entirely with your comments. In the UK it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good quality operators which is very sad for the industry as a whole but great for self employed individuals like me, I am starting to find that I can almost name my price now owing to the shortage!! There are plenty of guys who have been on a short course get the ticket and then think they are drivers (Instant operator just addwater!!) as I call em!! They are normally sussed out within 10 minutes and in a majority of cases "up the road they go" I do wonder myself where it will all end, I reckon things will become more & more automated as time goes on, but it will not be in my working lifetime I don't think...but who knows?? Here in the UK the current card scheme + the PC brigade not allowing young guys to get any practice on site has only added to the problem don't know if this is the same in the States??
We see this problem today here in Norway. The jung ones don't want to get dirty on their fingers, grown up with a PC and gameboy.:bash Result is that the wages for an operator has gone up, and the firms is not bidding on projects. Local community and the state has to put new projects aside untill the market has cooled down.(There is no capacity) And you can't solve this by starting a new business, there is no free operators. You cant by new machinery before you got the operators in your firm. And of course if you want somebody to work for you, he demands a firm car with all expences paid and a free cell phone.++ This is especialy for the construction projects. For straight machinery projects there is a limited number of capacity left.(still not much, no free operators in the market) I don't see a future for the remote controlled machines. Somebody's got to watch them, and if he aint controlling more than one, its no profit. I beliewe the machines will change, to be more computerized and tecnological than today.(incrising productivity) Thinking then of gps systems, joysticks, increasing comfort, electronic systems helping the driver, less fuel consumption, more effective pr operator and so on. We se all of theese symptoms here, because of the lack of operators. The firms by bigger machines, mount GPS, only new machines in the companies, the drivers often decides what product he wants to drive. And there is no discussion; AC, cup holders, cell phone holder and so on, all the drivers demands it. Some producers now look at scandinavia, because we are some years ahead of the rest of the world. These demands from the drivers will come. It is comming to you also. :drinkup
MKTEF, I enjoy reading your comments you talk a lot sense!! Keep up the good work, I hope to see you joining the Swedish site that I cannot mention here at some point !! PM me for details Nick.
I think one thing that is hurting the industry is that the younger generation is not exposed to it as much as we were when we were kids, remember Tonka's, it seemed every one had them and loved playing in the dirt all day, I now I did cause I had around 25 of them and this was what first sparked my interest in heavy equipment, and now it is rare to see any kids today playing with them. I, like many others got my first seat time on farm equipment and enjoyed it very much, and different farmers I know have a hard time getting any help for the summer months for haying season cause no one is willing to sweat for a dollar, last fall the potato farmers were having a hard time hiring help and a local t.v station asked two young guys why dont they go work in the fields and the two guys said "that's hard work, I would rather work in a call center". Fact is there are some young people that are ready to roll up there sleaves and get dirty but are greatly out numbered by those who want to make a living doing very little.
The future may be going towards contract employees or owner operators as to keep expenses by general contractors down.Most office work now is hired out to temp service companies and that principal will most likely adapted to the construction trades.Only negative on that is have 20-50 subs for one company at one site which could get interesting. I think still R/C equipment is still 10-15 years away from being seen on job sites,I had a New Bright R/C Cat D10? I think as a kid does that mean I'm already experienced I'd like to set myself up as a contract employee someday,charge a GC $XX.XX per hour and run their equipment or become an owner operator on a road job or pipeline the oppertunities are endless.
The future is looking good for me. Since there are less people entering the field, there will be less competition. I'll continue to stay small and be able to charge more
I think overall the future looks good, but it is very dependent on where you live. In my area it's not great for a professional operator because of low salaries and high cost of living.
People go where the money is, and where the work for the money is easiest. I said this at Kiewit's annual maintenance meetings twelve years ago, and I still say it today. In New Mexico we could not get good (or legal) laborers or good operators in 1995. Anyone could make as much money as Kiewit was paying for a laborer -- delivering KFC chicken or pizza in Albuquerque at the time. Why get all hot and dirty running a scraper, shoveling asphalt, or hanging on to a jumping-jack in a trench, when all you had to do was drive around in a little car dropping off good smelling food and making cash tips on the side for the same or better money. In California my employer could not get the same trades-people from 1996-2005. Better than half could not pass a drug screen, but they could all make as much money or more working at a convenience store or McDonalds with no worries about a drug screen and easy clean work. But no construction employer in New Mexico or California wanted to start paying more to attract employees, and many just said fine, we'll employ illegal's. Most just sat on their butts and complained about it and got by as best they could. Trucking for years now has suffered a driver shortage. It took forever for the transportation employers to finally throw in the towel and begin paying better wages and benefits to attract and retain qualified and safe drivers. They still have a shortage, but it's not as bad as it was and I don't believe, myself, that drivers wages and benefits are where they should be yet. But many are close to the same as construction workers, plus drivers get some bonuses and profit sharing that many dirt stiffs do not. Same wage situation for construction and mining. I did some math a year or so ago with some inflation tables and looked at the prices of some everyday commodities that everyone uses in the home. I did the same with wages and this was all just concerned with individuals purchasing power. At the time I did the figures, an operator making 6 bucks an hour in 1972, should have been making about 45 bucks an hour in 2005. Adjusting for inflation, this would have just kept that person even with rising costs for everything else. When I looked at the last year of my then salary, adjusted for inflation, it was less than what I earned my first year out of college in 1973. That was with thirty years of experience and training. It's rare today to find hourly non-union operators doing better than 18-22 bucks and union fellas are mostly around 25-35/hr. Some do better or worse depending on their locations of course. Benefit levels are all over the place, but the responsibility for health insurance is being put more and more on the employee's back, in this country anyway. A huge expense. So, where does that leave us? Certainly equipment owning and using employers are not going to roll over and start paying 40-50 bucks an hour for operators, not all at once anyway. But if the industry wants and needs good people, it's going to have to move out of the box and start paying much better money with better benefits. One thing to remember, operating jobs here can not be outsourced to a foreign country. Another is that employers are increasingly being squeezed against using illegal labor, a trend that must continue. And while a lot more work is being done by a smart machine, that can only go so far. As it is now, heavy equipment costs a fortune, especially the very big and very technical stuff. If an employer wants a skilled and experienced person to operate that machine, he needs to offer a prospective employee more to attract him in the first place and then keep him. Trying to compete with other jobs that are cleaner and environmentally more friendly for the same money isn't going to cut it. Even if the entire world finally got it's crap in one bag and decided to stop "growing," there would still be a need for machine operators to perform infill and maintenance work in construction and mining, demolition, transportation, and environmental cleanup. I do not believe there will ever come a time when some level of operational expertise with heavy equipment will cease. The situation with operator shortages could get worse if remuneration packages do not get much higher, or it could become better as the industry adjusts to better wages and more people decide that 40 bucks an hour running a Cat trumps delivering pizza or answering phone support calls for 25.
Interesting thread -- Bobcat and Cat both face the challenge of luring innovative minds to rather uninnovative headquarters.
:notworthy :notworthy
I will second that remark as I live in the same county as him only up the road a bit, but here is my comment on this subject. I know in ct it is almost impoosiable to get on with any company running equipment unless you have years and I mean years of experince, No one around here that I know of is willing to train someone on the ground floor and build it from there they all want experince, but you need the job to get experince, sounds like a problem dosent it? But then we have the schools that teach you the basics on how to run equipment, they themselves state clearly that you are taught the BASICS! not come to our school and you can run everything under the sun, even though some people think when they come out they can which is the type of person, but just the basic stuff to help you get a entry level job. I for one am attending one of them schools because untill someone shows me diffrent I have tried the banging down doors routine will little or no luck. I feel for my situation school is my only option to being able to get started in this field, Which I plan on staying in as long as i can.