It isn't the crews that put the "scum" in "scumbag" operators.
It's the managements that have little to no regard for maintenance, safety, crew pushing, compensation, on-time pay, or leadership that are the SCUM. And, I know, because I worked for one of these pirates for a couple of years before I got fed-up with the bad maintenance, crew pushing, and not getting paid on time.
You'll find that the Captains for these outfits are generally pretty darn good. They have to be. They get little or no help from the idiots that run maintenance, flight following, scheduling, or even the chief pilot. The entire load is on their shoulders to safety move the cargo. There are a some, however, that have got no cajones and take bad airplanes and allow themselves and their crews to be pushed into very long and unsafe duty days.
That said, there is a small, but disproportionate share of drunks and just plain losers in their crew rosters.
