Logging Equipment Operators

What the job really is

Drive logging tractor or wheeled vehicle equipped with one or more accessories, such as bulldozer blade, frontal shear, grapple, logging arch, cable winches, hoisting rack, or crane boom, to fell tree; to skid, load, unload, or stack logs; or to pull stumps or clear brush. Includes operating stand-alone logging machines, such as log chippers.

At a glance

• Sector: Farming, Fishing & Forestry
• O*NET-SOC code: 45-4022
• O*NET job zone: 2 — some preparation
• Work sample tasks on file: 9
• Tools and technologies listed: 12

What you actually do

Work sample tasks recorded for this occupation:

• Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.
• Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
• Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
• Drive straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush.
• Drive crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading.
• Fill out required job or shift report forms.
• Drive tractors for building or repairing logging and skid roads.
• Drive and maneuver tractors and tree harvesters to shear the tops off of trees, cut and limb the trees, and cut the logs into desired lengths.
• Calculate total board feet, cordage, or other wood measurement units, using conversion tables.

Tools and technology

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, SAP software, BCS Woodlands Systems The Logger Tracker, Cable skidders, Delimbers, Desktop computers, Digital tire pressure gauges, Drive-to-tree feller bunchers, Equipment trailers

What employers expect you to already be comfortable with.

Where this job leads

Related occupations — the usual moves up and sideways:

• Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
• Continuous Mining Machine Operators
• Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
• Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining
• Hoist and Winch Operators
• Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
• Agricultural Equipment Operators
• Fallers

Getting in

O*NET assigns this occupation job zone 2 (some preparation). The related occupations above are the realistic routes in and out.

Find openings

Browse the verified job sources directory, or explore more occupations.

Check this against the source

O*NET OnLine: Logging Equipment Operators — the authoritative public-domain profile this page is derived from, including the full task list, reported skills and the wage estimates for your region.

Derived and rewritten from the public-domain O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor / Employment and Training Administration). Figures are observations, not promises — always confirm salary, licensing and visa requirements with the employer and the relevant authority.