Wanting A Job Driving Excavators?
Im currently 17 doing year 11 and id like to get a job driving excavators. So where do i start, whats involved in the job, id preffer the job to be full on excavator driving, as little manual labour as possible. Can someone please give me some info on this job?
Tags: Driving, Excavators, Wanting
September 12th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Hi (uk answer), to drive vehicles on a site you should have a driving licence, and you must then be ‘competent and trained’ in the use of the machine you want to use, no minimum age is required for just the site area. A lot of people start by taking the ‘dumper truck’ training as it is fairly basic (no hydraulic levers etc).
There are lots of different construction site vehicles, some you need to be aged 21 to drive (as they are classed as a large vehicle) but most can be driven on the road with a car license (assuming they are road legal/taxed and have number plates).
Personally if I was you, I would do the following things.
1) Take the CSCS Health & Safety test (you need this to get onto a construction site in the first instance). Once you have passed this test, you have 2 years to get a ‘plant’ operators CSCS card. At WH Smiths, ask for the CSCS health and safety test book. It is about £9. Study the blue section and call the number in the book to arrange the test sitting. Your first CSCS card will cost £25 and last for 1 or sometimes 2 years.
2) You need to then pass at least one ‘test’ in the use of a machine (or train to use a machine or piece of plant). This test result will be put onto the back of your CSCS card to say you can operate that specific machine. With the CSCS test you took in step 1 (this card is your licence to practice and is a 5 years card). It may be called a CSPC Construction Skills Plant Card. Or similar.
3) Now that you can get onto site, contact what is known as a LSC Funded OSAT Centre (google one in your area) Carillion are one such Centre, or a company called ‘Construction Learning World’ they will assist you to get trained on the various pieces of plant you want to use.
4) Private training providers will teach you and assess/qualify you to drive machinery, ‘JCB’ digger etc. These cources can be expensive, around £1500 for the JCB, and I think you should be 21 to do it.
5) Whilst you are not 21 yet, you can learn Fork Lift, which is not too expensive, around £300-600, and there are several types. Side loader front loader etc, dumper as I mentioned, Skid Stear (bobcat) and you may even be able to learn to drive a Cherrypicker, before you are 21. So do the one’s you can now, and then that wil prepare you for what you can do later when you become 21.
The age restrictions are only due to the road legal age limit for the type of vehicl, and DVLA will be able to confirm the details.
The JCB is great fun to drive by the way, with automatic transmission, a lever to go forward and reverse, and about 7 forward or reverse gears. The hard part is controlling the ‘back actor’ as it has several levers.
You also need to understand the roll of the banksman, he stands around looking out for cables, gas pipes and alike. You could also train to do that job, which is an important one.