Train Employees for New Skills
BY Volvo Construction Equipment
Editor’s Note: You’ve seen simulators at big trade shows. Now see how a heavy civil construction and materials company has outfitted a mobile training center with two simulators to train workers on-the-job. Management at Allan Myers is thinking outside the box to recruit folks to the workforce and to enhance the workforce we have.
Inspired to give employees the skills to move ahead and confront the demand for an available workforce, contractor Allan Myers, Worcester, Pennsylvania, has launched a new three-year mission called Stepping Up. A fundamental tool of the program is the Myers Mobile Training Center, the result of a collaborative effort among Allan Myers, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) North America, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and Volvo Financial Services (VFS).
Allan Myers has more than 20 locations in the Mid-Atlantic and 2,000 employees. It consistently ranks among the top transportation contractors in the region and has been recognized for outstanding safety and performance.
This Volvo CE advanced training simulator is stationed in the Myers Mobile Training Center where employees can try out new skills with lifelike 3-D graphics coupled with an electrically controlled full-motion platform.
“When we look to the future, one of the biggest challenges we see is having trained craft professionals,” Director of Craft Development Bob Capps said. “With the United States’ renewed focus on infrastructure, the work is going to be available, but the problem is having a trained workforce—specifically heavy equipment operators, truck drivers and carpenters.”
A.Ross Myers, chairman and CEO of Allan Myers, explained how Stepping Up fits into the company’s culture: “We have ambitious plans that will require talented people across the organization—more operators, field managers, superintendents, safety professionals and everything in between. We believe that the best people in the industry already work here and our goal is to fill the new seats through training and promoting within.”
The Myers Mobile Training Center is a custom 38-foot Featherlite trailer outfitted with two Volvo advanced training simulators for excavator, wheel loader and articulated hauler operations.
This Volvo CE advanced training simulator is stationed in the Myers Mobile Training Center where employees can try out new skills with lifelike 3-D graphics coupled with an electrically controlled full-motion platform.
Allan Myers researched training simulators across all major equipment manufacturers and found the Volvo CE simulators to be realistic.
“The Volvo simulators have the best motion base to really give you the feeling that you are in a machine,” Capps said. “We put some really experienced operators in those seats and they were truly surprised at how realistic it felt. The simulators put you into the situations you will encounter with a real machine.”
Allan Myers is one of a select few private contractors in the United States to bring this caliber of simulator training to their operators in a mobile format. The mobile training center is a substantial investment for the company, and to handle this unique finance need, it turned to the financial expertise of VFS, which it has trusted to finance equipment purchases.
“While the center was an atypical finance item, its purpose exemplifies what Allan Myers stands for and VFS stands behind,” said Matt Deloglos, regional sales manager of VFS. “We finance excavators, haulers and wheel loaders for Allan Myers, so it made sense for us to help the company ensure that it has the best trained operators to make it more efficient and safer.”