It is very important to have a skilled and at the same time flexible machine operator when you are dealing with earthwork intensive jobs. You will be kind of at the mercy of your machine operator so make sure that this individual is a skilled person and will accommodate your requests on site. There will be countless of unforeseen conditions to do ranging from underground stuff to moving things around with his machine and you WILL need his help all the time. It also does make a big difference whether this individual is an average or a highly skilled operator.