Hello! I'm writing as itnis happening right now. I work as a ramp agent in a regioanl airport in Europe. We've beem suffering a workers shortage for years now, bit it has finally become crtical: we do not have anymore the personell to operate all the flights. Our most paying customer is a famous cargo company, who is really picky about rules and such, plus they want a really specific amoumt of workers under the flight. In order to cover for that our boss told us "if you are called for the cargo, just drop what you are doomg and run to the cargo! They are our top customers, we have to give them priority" You got it boss! Today we have some sickeness so we had to pull everybody from all the other flights. The flight I'm currelty under could have been finished in 3 minutes and now it will be delayed by i don't know how long. Have fun with all the complaints from the other companies!
P.S. english is not my first language, sorry for the mistakes!
Update! As of 06.28 all doors as closed. "Sadly" the aircraft was suppose to leave at .20, so the slot was lost. New slot will be at 7.04 LT. 1h delay!
Update 2: it is malicious because what we used to do was to leave a guy behind with the ramp agent (me) to finish the loading. We are not doing that anymore, because management said "just drop what you are doing" And honestly, both the guys and me are pissed to always run and make an effort for garbage pay and to see more and more seasonal colleagues left at home because "there isn't enough work" so that we have to always run and work unsafely
Is it DHL? I bet it's DHL.
Fair assumption, but no!
Every time I've done business with them, they were demanding as hell, so it would have tracked š¤£
Yeah, the company next door is their handler and they are picky as hell, you are on the money there!
Not necessarily that malicious, but nice to see a real story...
Please let us know what happens!
They could have used common sense and quickly finished the one plane, thus allowing it to leave on time. But, the boss said āDrop everything.ā so they dropped it and the plane full of people suffered.
There would have been no pats on the back either way, but I think OP is getting very frustrated and this was pretty malicious.
I would also love for the OP to update us with the fallout.
The fallout may be delayed.
Take your bloody upvote.
Thanks, I've collected many angry upvotes, but this may be my first bloody upvote. š§āāļø
Any idea if it is an O positive or a more rare blood type?
They all taste the same.
Interesting? I assume you have problems with daylight and perhaps garlic? Nice to know
Coincidentally, my blood type IS O positive.
Google's AI says you are part 36% of blood types.
Garlic acts as an anti-coagulant, making it easier for them to drink us. Also, it seasons us. The idea that garlic repels them is part of a dis-information campaign by Big Suck.
I see....all those vampire movies, I watched it as a kid.. are you saying that Hollywood lied to me?
"What blood group are you"
"A"
"I said what blood group are you"
"O. B."
By who knows how long!
Well, i might not necessarly see it first hand, since i'm fairly low in th command chain, but in case i will let you know
Well, the sensible thing that we use to do was to leave a guy behind to finish the load with the ramo agent (me) so that the flight would be on time
thatās such a frustrating situation, running around for little pay while thereās no support sucks
sounds like a rough spot, just hoping they figure it out before more flights are delayed
"we have to always run and work unsafely."
No, you don't. Any unsafe procedures should be reported to the airport authorities if local company management don't do anything about it.
Local airport autority run in the same issues. And the time we tried to fight back with doing nothing beside what we were actually suppsed to do by contract it didn't end well for us. People fired, left home at end of contract, pay almost to zero, because the most money we get from the extra time, no approval for shift swap, change in policies... the works. I'm actually looking for a different job, but it will take time
Gee, I can't imagine WHY they are having a hard time finding people to work for them. /s
I used to work for a company that gave preferential treatment to their main customer to the detriment of other customers. I left because it was certainly a bad business model that was not sustainable. Later on that main customer abandoned them for someone cheaper, since they could not develop and keep other customers the company folded.
I work for a company that used to do this, we had our main client that did 70% of our business. We told the owner we have to diversify, because if they were no longer our client, we are dead.
So we still gave preferential treatment of course, but on contract renewals we gave them less favourable terms (but made it cheaper in return). They wernt the most thrilled but they needed our stuff. We got them down to 20% of our business.
And what do you know? 3 years later, they got bought up by another company and dropped a significant amount of our services. Luckily we survived. Obviously still a hit losing 15% of our business, but we made that up within a year or two.
I was a contract vendor at a manufacturing company for 10 years. Before doing business with them you had to open your books for an audit. They wanted to ensure they were not more than 50% of business so if they pulled out the company would not go belly up. This was to ensure you were still around to supply parts and support when needed.
Thatās not malicious compliance at all. It is management having a clear priority of the most important customers when things are tough. Years ago I worked in the business. We had a Japanese airline, who asked! to pay 10% more than our opening bid (which had room to come down)
But in return, they had the right to āblacklistā our staff from their flights (if they decided that certain staff werenāt up to their standards, even if they were up to ours) and in tough situations (storms, long delays etc) absolutely expected us to prioritise them over other customers.
TLDR they paid more for priority service, and we delivered
When I was young I worked on a cargo ship. In most of the ports the chief officer would give the stow manager a bottle of spirit or cigarettes as a welcome gift, every time on a fixed two week cycle.
Union strike comes along, and only one ship a day is allowed to be unloaded. We come in on our schedule, and leave normally, while other ships waiting for days already are left to wait further while the whole team is working on our ship.
huh ram with the delays, hope the cargo company appreciates the chaos they create
The chaos was created by the union, not by the company.
No, the chaos was caused by the company the union works for not negotiating. You don't strike for shits and giggles.
No, because that particular strike was outside of the period of rights to strike, i.e. while an active agreement was in place. It was a political statement that lasted 10 days, so literally for shits and giggles.
Not exactly. Read update 2!
Wait... This isn't AI, am I in the wrong sub? A real person with a real story! It is possible!
Ok, this made me laugh xD
Gosh, sounds like you work for swissport.
Yes, i heard is common across europe. I know for a fact that in germany run in those isseues a lot as well
They do this same shit in North America too. Used to sell to them. Itās a race to the bottom between ground handling companies.
Worked for a company that had good business at a few points. Absolute head office requirement was that we never were more than 20% of any one points total business. This meant we never had to close if one point went down.
Well done!
Thank you, and please continuing updating us!
If anything comes up I'll let you guys know!
Sounds like you're just complying. Not maliciously
Read update 2!
Spent 20 years air freight p and d.
The cargo is more important
And i agree with you. But a few mijutes with a songle guys woukd ahve changed nothing and everything woukd have been on time. But no
You should probably be working and not typing on your phone. You are the reason why people are delayed
he might be taking a break he is fully entitled to.
What no? They're also being delayed, they have nothing to do but wait.
Nope. I and definitely not loading the aircraft by myself. And not because i don't want. It's just not possible alone