Farming, fishing and forestry
Logging equipment operator
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.
Median pay
$49,740
Growth to 2035
−4%
declining
Openings a year
3,700
Time to qualify*
6 months
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Logging equipment operator
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Outdoors in all weather
Logging equipment operator: 84% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- 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.
Also called: Delimber Operator · Feller Buncher Operator · Harvester Operator · Loader Operator · Log Processor Operator · Logging Equipment Operator · Logging Shovel Operator · Skidder Driver
Outlook and AI
Logging equipment operators held 29,300 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 28,200 by 2035 (−4%, declining; all jobs: +3.5%).
Occupational substitution - share increases as logging equipment operators will continue to take over some of the tasks performed by fallers and other logging workers who perform tasks by hand, given increased mechanization in the industry.
Compare with
- Logging equipment operator vs. Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators
- Logging equipment operator vs. Continuous mining machine operator
- Logging equipment operator vs. Loading and moving machine operators, underground mining
- Logging equipment operator vs. Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining
- Logging equipment operator vs. Hoist and winch operators
- Logging equipment operator vs. Industrial truck and tractor operators
- Logging equipment operator vs. Agricultural equipment operator
- Logging equipment operator vs. Faller
- Logging equipment operator vs. Crane and tower operators
- Logging equipment operator vs. Log graders and scalers