I was wondering if a Fedex pilot could tell me what new hires can expect after training. Assuming they are trained on the 727, how long will you sit reserve, and what kind of schedules do new hires get. Also being from the midwest do many pilots commute in from Chicago or Detroit and is it possilble to eventually to fly to one of those cities once you're off reserve all the time, part of the time, or do they go senior or flown by larger aircraft. I've heard there is no pref bidding at Fedex, but there is a computer program available to accommodate such needs. Thanks for any info...
Welcome to Flightinfo.com
- Register now and join the discussion
- Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
- Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
- Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
- Share the passion for aviation
- Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun
Fedex QOL Question
- Thread starter jjet
- Start date
- Watchers 12
Welcome to Flightinfo.com
- Register now and join the discussion
- Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
- Invite your friends
- Share the passion of aviation
- Friendliest aviation community on the web
Goose17
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2001
- Posts
- 528
who knows?
Now for the longer answer:
You will be trained as a 727 s/o. After training is complete, you will only be able to hold A-reserve in Memphis (midnight to noon). Next you will be able to hold B-reserve (noon to midnight). As you work your way up the ladder, you will start holding lines, junk lines at first. If you stay in that position long enough, you get the sweet lines. HOW LONG YOU ASK? Know one knows. For some, they were on the panel 8 months or so. For others like me, it will be close to 3 years before right seat training is complete. We are hiring now and looks like we will be hiring for awhile, so I think the worst part of the slump is behind us.
As for Detroit and Chicago... mostly widebody cities. I have been to ORD in the 727, but it is mostly covered by the big boys. DTW, never flown there in the 727 and I really don't know anything about it.
As for being able to fly "there" regularly, we have guys that live all over the country that fly to and from their home town. If the 727 goes there, you can probably work your way up the list in the second officer position fairly quickly and then be able to fly to and from your desired city. If it is a wide body that serves the city in question, be prepared to wait many, many years before you can hold the line.
As for commuting, we have tons of commuters. ORD has a bunch of flights each day/night and you should be able to get on without a problem.
Our monthy bidding is done by bidpack. It is shipped to each pilot, after reviewing, you submit your preferences on the web and the computer sorts out the wishes of the seniority list and then you are awarded your monthy schedule. There are some programs available to help you sort your preferences, but we do not have "PBS" or Preferential Bidding Software". That is a hot topic here at FedEx.
Goose17
Now for the longer answer:
You will be trained as a 727 s/o. After training is complete, you will only be able to hold A-reserve in Memphis (midnight to noon). Next you will be able to hold B-reserve (noon to midnight). As you work your way up the ladder, you will start holding lines, junk lines at first. If you stay in that position long enough, you get the sweet lines. HOW LONG YOU ASK? Know one knows. For some, they were on the panel 8 months or so. For others like me, it will be close to 3 years before right seat training is complete. We are hiring now and looks like we will be hiring for awhile, so I think the worst part of the slump is behind us.
As for Detroit and Chicago... mostly widebody cities. I have been to ORD in the 727, but it is mostly covered by the big boys. DTW, never flown there in the 727 and I really don't know anything about it.
As for being able to fly "there" regularly, we have guys that live all over the country that fly to and from their home town. If the 727 goes there, you can probably work your way up the list in the second officer position fairly quickly and then be able to fly to and from your desired city. If it is a wide body that serves the city in question, be prepared to wait many, many years before you can hold the line.
As for commuting, we have tons of commuters. ORD has a bunch of flights each day/night and you should be able to get on without a problem.
Our monthy bidding is done by bidpack. It is shipped to each pilot, after reviewing, you submit your preferences on the web and the computer sorts out the wishes of the seniority list and then you are awarded your monthy schedule. There are some programs available to help you sort your preferences, but we do not have "PBS" or Preferential Bidding Software". That is a hot topic here at FedEx.
Goose17
Last edited:
donger
Union member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2002
- Posts
- 112
What is Preferential Bidding, in general terms, and how does it differ from what is currently used at FedEx.
May seem to a stupid question, but having never been out of government flying I have no idea about any of this stuff. I will be learning all of this soon enough, but just curious now.
Donger
May seem to a stupid question, but having never been out of government flying I have no idea about any of this stuff. I will be learning all of this soon enough, but just curious now.
Donger
Falconjet
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2002
- Posts
- 1,586
What Goose said!
There are way too many variables to accurately predict how long you will have to plumb on the panel before you can jump to a window seat. I would guess, however, that if hired today it would be at least 3 years and possibly 5 before you would move off the panel. That could change if you are hired next month and the 150 or so vacancies in the back are filled right after you get here. That is why it is just about impossible to say how long you will have before upgrading.
I have been here almost 2 years and still can't hold a line period, let alone a "garbage line". Then again, there are guys who hang out in the back for 5-7 years by choice because they enjoy the relative seniority in that seat. There are a lot of different types of flying lines at FedEx and what is good for someone in Memphis may really bite for somebody commuting out of Allentown, PA or Spokane, WA.
As for reserve lines, there are 3 types. 'A' reserve (generally the most junior) is for mostly am flying, and you are on call from midnight to noon. 'B' reserve is mostly for pm (FedEx pm anyway) and you are on call from noon to midnight. It tends to go just slightly more senior than 'A' reserve. Both of those have 1.5 hour report times, but can be shortened to 1 hour if you are given late call parking right outside the AOC. 'RSV' reserve has a 24 hour report time and tends to go the most senior and is naturally favored by commuters, who can wait until assigned a trip to start their commute into Memphis. Once assigned a trip you are pay (with substitution) and discipline protected if you have a reserved seat on a company flight for your commute.
It should be noted that even on B reserve, all they have to do is have you report between 1:30 pm and 1:30 am, so there is still a fair amount of backside flying on B reserve. Some trips start on a Sun afternoon, fly to an outstation, layover for 24 hours and then fly am hubturns for a week before going back to the planet. And when schedules gets really devious they can expand the am flying by having you report at 1:15 am, which sure feels a lot like backside flying (because it is) but falls within the 'B' reserve report time.
All of the lines are bid upon each month based on seniority. The lines are published in the bid pack, you throw your choices in on the computer, and it spits out your award about a half hour after the bid window closes. After the awards are out, the computer starts dropping trips for people with vacation and training, creating open time for secondary lines and plain old open time. So you can bid a week on, week off line during a month in which you have vacation in order to have those vacation days knock out one of those weeks of flying, which gives you 3 weeks off in a row.
With a preferential bidding system (as I understand it) you would bid which weeks you wanted off and the computer would build you a line around your "vacation" or training and so you would still have to work 2 weeks that month around your "vacation". In other words, you would just be getting time off that you would have had anyway based on your line and not really getting any benefit of the vacation days. PBS will not fly with the crew force at FedEx in my humble opinion.
I hope that info helps. Other purple people feel free to weigh in on anything I goobered up.
FJ
There are way too many variables to accurately predict how long you will have to plumb on the panel before you can jump to a window seat. I would guess, however, that if hired today it would be at least 3 years and possibly 5 before you would move off the panel. That could change if you are hired next month and the 150 or so vacancies in the back are filled right after you get here. That is why it is just about impossible to say how long you will have before upgrading.
I have been here almost 2 years and still can't hold a line period, let alone a "garbage line". Then again, there are guys who hang out in the back for 5-7 years by choice because they enjoy the relative seniority in that seat. There are a lot of different types of flying lines at FedEx and what is good for someone in Memphis may really bite for somebody commuting out of Allentown, PA or Spokane, WA.
As for reserve lines, there are 3 types. 'A' reserve (generally the most junior) is for mostly am flying, and you are on call from midnight to noon. 'B' reserve is mostly for pm (FedEx pm anyway) and you are on call from noon to midnight. It tends to go just slightly more senior than 'A' reserve. Both of those have 1.5 hour report times, but can be shortened to 1 hour if you are given late call parking right outside the AOC. 'RSV' reserve has a 24 hour report time and tends to go the most senior and is naturally favored by commuters, who can wait until assigned a trip to start their commute into Memphis. Once assigned a trip you are pay (with substitution) and discipline protected if you have a reserved seat on a company flight for your commute.
It should be noted that even on B reserve, all they have to do is have you report between 1:30 pm and 1:30 am, so there is still a fair amount of backside flying on B reserve. Some trips start on a Sun afternoon, fly to an outstation, layover for 24 hours and then fly am hubturns for a week before going back to the planet. And when schedules gets really devious they can expand the am flying by having you report at 1:15 am, which sure feels a lot like backside flying (because it is) but falls within the 'B' reserve report time.
All of the lines are bid upon each month based on seniority. The lines are published in the bid pack, you throw your choices in on the computer, and it spits out your award about a half hour after the bid window closes. After the awards are out, the computer starts dropping trips for people with vacation and training, creating open time for secondary lines and plain old open time. So you can bid a week on, week off line during a month in which you have vacation in order to have those vacation days knock out one of those weeks of flying, which gives you 3 weeks off in a row.
With a preferential bidding system (as I understand it) you would bid which weeks you wanted off and the computer would build you a line around your "vacation" or training and so you would still have to work 2 weeks that month around your "vacation". In other words, you would just be getting time off that you would have had anyway based on your line and not really getting any benefit of the vacation days. PBS will not fly with the crew force at FedEx in my humble opinion.
I hope that info helps. Other purple people feel free to weigh in on anything I goobered up.
FJ
PastV1
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2003
- Posts
- 106
Hey Falcon,
I think you might be a little confused on the vacation and PBS thing. If we allow PBS we would probably still maintain our current vacation policy. i.e. If you have a week of vacation (7 days) then your line would be built to BLG paramenters minus the credit hours of your 7 day vacation (42 hours). So you would get about 32 credit hours assigned to your line on a 4 week month (like a vto does now). Our vacation policy is not like some where if you do not conflict you don't get any trips dropped.
Past....
I think you might be a little confused on the vacation and PBS thing. If we allow PBS we would probably still maintain our current vacation policy. i.e. If you have a week of vacation (7 days) then your line would be built to BLG paramenters minus the credit hours of your 7 day vacation (42 hours). So you would get about 32 credit hours assigned to your line on a 4 week month (like a vto does now). Our vacation policy is not like some where if you do not conflict you don't get any trips dropped.
Past....
JJet,jjet said:
I just finished training, and I was awarded a custom line for the remainder of the bid month. I was also able to bid for the next month as well. All the senior guys say I was REALLY on "autobid" b/c I was only a few names from the bottom of the bid seniority list. My custom line was a combination of "A" reserve and trips. The trips have been ok. Unfortunately, when you get a custom line, you may or may not get exposed to some trips that you will not be able to hold for many months.
Senior FedEx guys help me out; is 25 hours layover in Reno a relatively good trip? As long as I'm working, I say it is, but others may disagree.
BTW, as the 3rd-to-the-last bidder for JUL, I did not get the double-deadhead line I had requested!
Hope this helps!
Share this page
Latest resources
-
-
-
-
-
AC 90-89C - Amateur-Built Aircraft and Ultralight Flight Testing HandbookAmateur-Built Aircraft and Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook
- Neal
- Updated:
