Heavy-equipment operator feels like he has run a million miles

For the Enquirer

Tim Swader loves working for Morgan County so much he wishes he would have started 15 years ago.

The Somerville resident operates heavy equipment from the District 2 Morgan County shop in Hartselle. After 3½ years at it, he is already a senior operator.

“They tell us what they need done, and I try to make sure it happens,” he said.

He loves the four-dayson, three-days-off work week.

“It’s nice spending three days a week with your family,” he said.

“The county has great benefits, too.” Swader was a shoo-in for the job because he has been around heavy equipment his entire life and he and his father owned a logging company for 15 years. Hauling logs can be very dangerous work, he said. The loads can shift and the truck cannot be stopped quickly when traveling down the roadway. Before being a logger, he was in the Army for five years, where he wrapped up his career in South Korea, then in the reserves.

“The structured environment I’m very familiar with,” he said, noting it serves him well in the workplace.

He figures he has several million miles under his belt. He knows how to run a bulldozer, a track hoe, a mini excavator, a skid steer with a milling head and mulching head, a stump grinder, bucket truck, dump truck and other equipment.

“I’m kind of a jack-ofall-trades,” he said.

He also tries to careful-ly mentor the new guys coming in. “A senior operator trains the newer guys,” he said. “Maybe we see they are not safe so we teach them the right way, make good equipment operators out of them,” he said.

He comes in at a quarter to 6 a.m. and gets his assignments. David Dudley, the shop foreman, hands out the jobs.

“I like it because it’s something different every day. There’s no repetition.” Recruitment When the county is looking to recruit a heavy equipment operator, they advertise and go from there, said District 2 Commissioner Randy Vest.

“Obviously, we have a job description for that so when they put in applications, HR looks over those and deems who is the most qualified,” Vest said.

Depending on how many applications are received, Human Resources usually gives Vest the top three to five candidates.

“Then we will call each one of those in for an interview,” he said.

During that process, the county finds out if they have a CDL (commercial driver’s license) or not. They also try to find out what their experience is as far as operating equipment.

“We figure out which pieces of equipment they can operate and balance that with the type of equipment we have,” Vest said. “They may have operated equipment in a construction field that might be different than the equipment we operate.

“So, we actually see how many types of equipment they’ve had experience on that we use. Before we end the interview process, we will take them outside and have them take a front-end loader and load a dump truck and try to spread some gravel, put them on a track hoe or a mini excavator and actually see how familiar they are with those types of equipment. We don’t just take what we see on paperwork. We take them outside with the equipment to see how familiar they are with those.” They also consider how the employee conducts himself during the interview process to see if he can work well with others.

“At the end of the day, we don’t just want someone who can operate equipment, we want someone who can work with the team members we already have to enhance that team and help us improve on what we do,” Vest said.

Education also plays a factor. Sometimes the mechanic may not be available so knowing a little bit of maintenance and repair is a plus.

“So, we look all the way across the picture and determine who we have who will fit the job,” Vest said.

“If you just ask them, do they know how to run a tractor with a bushhog, they may say ‘yes’ but it may be they operated their granddad’s tractor on a 2-acre farm with a bushhog,” he said. “Even though that is experience, it is a totally different kind of experience than a 100-horsepower, fourwheel-drive tractor with a 15-foot cutter just getting it on and off the right of way versus a wide-open field.”