ORD AWAC Rampers

[maddog805]

Why do the AWAC rampers in ORD suck so bad? It is always asses and elbows and nobody can figure out what is going on.

 

[efiscompmon]

I think you could rephrase your question as:

"Why do XXX regional's rampers at YYY suck so badly?"

I don't think it really matters where you are. In MEM, we used to wonder why anyone would be an EXA ramper when you could work at the FedEx plantation on the other side of the field for 50% more to start and better bennies with an opportunity to advance somewhere.

One of our (EXA, now PCL) former Assistant Chief Pilots (Jack!) told the CEO (P.T.) in a public meeting that paying the rampers (or anyone) minimum wage meant "we WOULD pay you less if it were up to us, but we'd go to jail."

You really do get what you pay for.

 

[Beer&Brauts]

Actually, from what I hear ORD is that bad. Some of the guys who fly out of there can provide more details.

Now the AirTran rampers in ATL are fantastic! If I were a senior ORD captain I'd transfer there in a second! Never mind the lousy commute, the ramp runs (mostly) smoothly so bid ATL. Non-stop GSO overnights are lots of fun, too!

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

With the ORD situation the rampers can only be paid so much. Money ins't everything. They lack resources and leadership. Plus the weather is bad. After being disrespected for working your a$$ off..why work there when one could find a better job...

 

[maddog805]

Right....

I think I've seen 2 maybe 3 guys who are bustin ass, the rest....slugs. The one and ONLY time I thought we might get out ontime, we were 20 minutes late because we couldn't find a ramper to take the paperwork. Where were they you ask.... they were standing in the APU exhaust bullsh!ttin. It has NOTHING to do with the bad weather and EVERYTHING to do with attitude. If they did nothing at all, things would only be SLIGHTLY worse.

 

[Tug Driver]

$8.25 is a great incentive to bust your butt. ORD rampers with 6 months under there belt are considered senior, so they get bumped to supervisor positons.

And I agree, they need to get rid of those guys that just stand there and let the other 2 guys do all the work. Maybe bus up some migrant workers.

Since AWAC took over the uax bag running, everything has gone to he11. Tuesday we had all our flights cancel(mw), expect for our terminating inbound at 930pm. It had a full 50 pax with about 25 on standby. Opened the pit door...had 10 bags and 25 bags of ballast. Took 45 delayed bag reports. Nice one.

The real problem with AWAC is their dispatchers. What a group.

 

[Mongolikecandy]

The real problem with the ramp situation is that United handed all the responsibility to AWAC but wouldn't sign a contract for the work. I can't blame the AWAC owners for not wanting to spend a couple million on tugs, equipment and personnel without a signed contract. So they were way behind the ball in terms of having the necessary people on board. Hopefully it will get better soon. ORD sucks right now. I will aggree with the previous poster... bid ATL.

 

[Wiskey Driver]

I swear, the more things change over there the more they stay the same!!!

WD.

 

[J32driver]

Whats your beef with the dispatchers? There are some that are a little better to work with, but they all seem to be pretty good to me.

The ramp s*cks a*s!!! AWAC use to run a really good operation in ORD, that stopped about the same time TSA, SKYWEST, and MESA showed up. Now, our ramp operations are nothing more than an embarresment.

This really is United's fault. UAL transferred alot of AWAC flying from DEN to ORD, then added departures by the other 3 express carriers and never even thought about adding gate space. The biggest problem however has been the contract for ground handling. UAL told AWAC to handle the ground ops for all the new departures, but drug their feet in awarding a new contract to AWAC. Therefore, AWAC operated for more than a month drastically short of people, equipment, and space. For that month, most of the rampers were doing mandatory double shifts 6 and 7 days in a row. If I was getting sprayed by glycol during my 96th hour of work for the week, I'd probably move a little slow too. I also know that several of the rampies were sleeping in the airport between shifts because the 6 hour break in between shifts was only getting them 2 hours of sleep by the time they made it home.

AWAC is working hard to solve the problems. Now that they have a signed contract, equipment and people are starting to show up. They have secured overflow gates from UAL that we will have access to starting in February. The next initiative is to add ALOT of managers to the ramp. The mandatory double shifts are going away. People are getting some sleep and a little more time off. I look for things to steadily improve over the next couple of months. I'm hoping by the time spring sets in, we will be back to the AWAC of old.

OH yeah, when I'm sitting in the box, just rememberring that I get paid "block or better" does alot to calm my nerves.

 

[Beechnut]

....talked to the Den Pilot manager the other day. Supposedly those new gates will be used as "hot gates" that we can dump our passengers and run. This is my greatest frustration right now, the passengers stuck on the plane with me. With hot gates I'll enjoy sitting all day, empty and reading Maxim, in the box waiting for UAL to get the Sh*t together.

...gonna wait a loooong time for that.

S.


Sup Whiskey, enjoying the Arizona winters? You're missing out!

 

[Wiskey Driver]

Sup Whiskey, enjoying the Arizona winters? You're missing out!

My man S. what's happening bro??? It was nice there yesterday. Had an o'dark thirty show for my PC and had a ball. All bus checked and qualified baby yeahhhhh!!!!

Missing AWAC ahhh NO!!! miss the people though. I have contact with a large number of people there so we stay pretty much in touch. I see Denver is becomming a fond memory huh??
Well look at the bright side only 7years 9mos to go!!!!!

Keep your head up bro!!!

WD.

 

[pljenkins]

The real problem with AWAC is their dispatchers. What a group.

Huh? How is this whole goat rope OUR fault?

 

[avpro91]

I worked at UFS ( when they were still in business) and I have to say that we had the laziest bunch of monkey fu*#ers working the ramp for us. When we went out of business, AWAC hired almost all of them right away. I haven't been around ORD for a while, but I'm sure nothing has changed. You'd think they had put up a sign that said "lazy, slow and stupid apply here" at the job fair when they hired all those guys

 

[Machdog1]

I am sooo glad that ACA will be pulling out of there what a mess ORD is it will never get any better there. Good luck to the AWAC guys out of chicago!! To the other express carriers aren't you glad you got that UEX contract with all that flyin and benefits, don't worry you upgrade quick and be outa there right?