DHL Lifestyle

[thako]

Please, please, please, please, pur-lease don't shoot me down for not doing a search. I have but the search engine does not seem to recognise and word of three letters or less in length.

I am interested in finding out about the DHL lifestyle. I am considering a job with them, but want to find out more about the lifestyle of night freight.

I was wondering what a typical tour involves? Do you visit the same airports every night or is each day a different destination. How long are the duty days? How much sitting about do you do and what are the facilities like? Is there there possibility of sleeping between flights? How much flying do you do on an average year?

Sorry if this has been done before, but I did try and search, honest :o).

[birdstrike]

Hi Thako
There is no currently no fixed roster with DHL Air, sometimes you might do only a couple of nights away, sometimes upto 7 (normally with a weekend break, usually in Brussels). If a fixed roster is introduced, it is likely to be of the week on - week off variety. You will average 10 -11 days off per calendar month under the present system. Rosters come out well in advance, the April roster is due out anytime now.
Duty nights vary in length, the max currently allowable is 10hr15mins but the average is probably c.9 hrs. Start time can be anything from 1800 onwards, and finish time as late as 0715. You don't tend to visit the same destination on consecutive nights. Hotels are very good, usually in city centres though how much you have time to see depends on how well you sleep!
We do a lot of sitting around during the night, anything upto 5 hours at worst. A multi-sector night (upto 4 sectors) may last 10 hours but perhaps only 3 hours is actually airborne. Resting facilities are available at some locations but are not wonderful, nor particularly quiet.
In an average year you will only log around 300 hours.
In about a year's time the main DHL operation in mainland Europe is moving from BRU and CGN to Leipzig. This may well cause significant changes to the operation on a night to night basis, but no solid information has been given out.
Hope this helps you make a decision, feel free to pm me.

[dboy]

What i don't understand is, why only 300h a year. With TNT it was also between 300 and 400h a year. Is this something typical for cargoflights??

[CargoOne]

dboy

It is typical for intra-european intergrator networks, not for cargo flying as such. On a longhaul 747 or MD11 cargo you can do 800+ no question.

[Best foot forward]

You can do a max duty day but only a few hours flying, more time can be logged in the BRU crew room than flying. quite a lot of standby, airport, hotel, and home. When you start a series of duties the first day is often a rest day and you start late at night or early in the morning, and if you finish early the morning then the rest of the day is considered rest so it doesnt count as a day off. The up shot of it is short sectors, hub and spoke operation, and time in the hubs while they sort out the freight means it is hard to fly more than 3-400 hrs a year.

[Don_Simon]

Is it a good company to work for, and is the flying enjoyable?

I saw on pprune something about 'touchdown' staff discount - what is this?

Thanks.

[huckleberry58]

what is the pay like?

[Min Drag]

It was (a couple of years ago) a fairly informal chat with the Chief Pilot & HR manager. More about you and your background than technical/have you ever found yourself.....etc. Remember an interview works both ways, so quite a lot of info for you on the company, routes, lifestyle, rostering etc. One "Psychobabblythingytest" afterwards and if successful, a sim assessment.
From memory, pay starts at about £37K for year 1 and after that jumps up to about £44K plus £2.30ish per hour allowances.
Touchdown - airline discount holiday shop, occasionally useful but really you may as well shop around on the internet!
The flying is fun, lots of short sectors, shortest for me so far - 23 mins airborne time. In the winter some pretty demanding weather up in Scandinavia. The longest sector you'd do would be about 2.5 hrs and that seems like ultra longhaul!
You'll often be away at the weekend but not much goes on so expect to be in the hotel or out on the p**s!
There are some issues at the moment, there is a bit of unrest/uncertainty due to the Brussels hub moving to Leipzig. New contracts are likely to be Leipzig based which would need careful consideration, the implications are unknown at present.
Overall, it's fun shorthaul flying with a longhaul lifestyle, reasonable pay, quite a lot of time away, quite a lot of time sat around doing not much, no SLF but not somewhere to be (IMHO) as a youngster trying to build hours & shag hosties. It suits a lot of people for the lifestyle and I personally wouldn't be anywhere else.
I hope this helps!
MD:ok:

[Blue-Footed Boobie]

What is the commuting to work aspect like?

Given the Leipzig move would it be workable to live in Spain/France for example and not cost too much of your free time or money to get to work?



Blue Foot

[bermudatriangle]

friend of mine drives 757,enjoys the flying and the company.that's after a career with one of the major passenger airlines.if you are attracted to the freight dog lifestyle,this is the best outfit by a long shot.

[sapco2]

There is no bidding system although the crewing manager is probably the best in the business and manages to keep most crew content, from a rostering prospective anyway. His very efficient 'finger on the pulse' type approach is highly popular amongst crews, which I suspect has saved DHL a shed load of money over the years too.

[neil armstrong]

there are lots of people leaving DHL air at the moment for various reasons!
I have to agree with Sapco that the rostering/ crewing is top notch ,and if the manager would leave lots of pilots would leave with him

Neil

[sapco2]

3 weeks summer leave, and 3 weeks in the winter.

8 days off per month or thereabouts. I had 105 days off in 2006, which equates to the standard 2 in 7 that office staff enjoy.

In respect of requested days off, I said it all earlier. You'll find the crewing manager and his deputy very accommodating and you can be absolutely sure there'll be valid reasons if they cannot help you...there's no bloody mindedness as far as these two are concerned and as far as I'm aware they've always done their level best to keep the pilots, and the company happy. Rosters have been published as early as 3 months in advance which is useful for personal planning but it does mean getting any requests in early.

On a slightly negative note; pilot turnover in the company is currently high. The reasons vary but I'm fairly certain the pilots would magnanimously agree - rostering per se, is not a causation factor!

[coopervane]

How ya doing Van Der Plummit! ???

Come and work for Virgin Atlantic. Thats where I have finally come to rest. I say work for them..............use the term in the loosest sense!!

Come and enjoy the A340-600 or the old 747-400. All those girlies too!!

More perks than any other outfit. What ya waiting for!!

All the best Coop and Virginal Bear:O