Question for Rampies

[Kip Powick]

Do you guys/gals work one day, one week, one month, as a 3 or 4 man team............ or do you switch people around everyday, (In other words, you never know who you will be working with each day).

In particular, I am looking for and answer for the guys/gals who bring in and push out the aircraft...

[Guest LeadYYZ]

That depends Kip.

Some of the crews are set while others are thrown together every day. Different people on different days. It has to do with particular days off and the like.

Rgds

[Kip Powick]

Thank you. I guess it wouldn't work in this industry.

In the Forces, many of the squadrons I was on had their ground crews wear an identifying feature, ie: distinctive ballcap, colored armband, etc and we, as pilots kept track, by utilizing these different attributes, as to who was the best crew for "start - finish".

Parameters were, safety, efficiency,on time, attitude, voice calls on the radio etc. Each outgoing and inbound crew submitted a small form after every flight, back at home base, and rated each outbound and inbound ground crew.

I think it was once a month the crew that rated the highest won a few free beverages of their choice and that particular crew got to wear gold baseball caps with the number "1" on the front until the end of the next month.

Initially, our ground crews were reluctant to "play the game" but when they saw the rewards, (they got better as time passed), they all became involved, morale went up,"in-outs" became more professional and the competition became very popular.

I remember scoring a few crews at 5 out of 10 and about a couple of months later there wasn't a crew that you could rate under 8 -8.5.

It was good clean fun and seemed to make the "ground people" much more aware, as well as proud, of their contribution to the equation of getting an aircraft and the crew "out and in" with a great deal of professionalism and pride.

[Guest Orange Gloves]

For the most part, ramp crews are a bid unit. As far as I know, all stations in Canada except YYC use 1 Lead and 2 Station Attendants per ramp crew. YYC is 1 Lead and 3 Station Attendants. There are always a few crews that get put together ad hock or shortages may or may not be backfilled with relief people. Generally the Leads on the crews stay the same.

If you wanted to see what crew worked your flight, check it in OPS. Do the following transaction….

=;DDV AC123..O (the last digit is the letter O)

A line will come up with flight number, arrival/departure times, gate and on the far right tasks. This is where the crew assignment is. The first letter (or number in YVR) is the main crew and that Lead is in charge. A second or third (rare) crew may be assigned to “assist” the “main” crew.

This transaction will only work in the station that that flight operated. In other words, If you operated AC150 YYJ/YVR/YUL and checked this transaction in YVR, you will only see the YVR info. If you checked it in YYZ, you’ll get an error. The .. between the flight number and the O indicate todays date. If you used – (minus minus) you will get the previous day and ,, (comma comma) will give the next day.

Unfortunately YYZ uses a different system, so this will only work at mainline stations other then YYZ.

PS If you see 2 crew assigned to your flight in YVR, it’s a 2 out of 3 chance it’s me. 2 out of 3 because I work a 6 on 3 off.

Mark

[Kip Powick]

[Guest Orange Gloves]

Sorry, I just thought of this. You may get an error message saying, "time option disabled". If that happens, your OPS would need to be upgraded. If you get the error, any "authorizer" on station can fix it for you. No security issue here, just different departments have different standard profiles in OPS.

In the meantime, do a =;DDV O to get the standard OPS screen. Read it the same as the other transaction. When you do a =;DDV O 30 minutes, or less, after arrival… your flight will still be there.

[Frosty]

Kip:

In YYZ as said before some crews are adhoc.....most do bid together.

It would be nice to see some kind of incentive, but again like alot of things in YYZ it would be unfair to some crews. I say this because some crews because they are very good at what they do always get the worst flights, while on the other hand some crews that are not very good get the easiest flights.

One day after a "GREAT" morning of doing YVR flights with the odd 319 thrown in I asked about maybe getting the same type of block as a certain lead....I was told no......it would be a waste of talent.

[Guest sputnik]

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