Originally Posted by
Check Airman
"That's the way we've always done it."
Joking aside, in some contexts the way we've always done it, is that way for a good reason.
If the airline has different types, some without a tiller in the right seat, people would have to make a transition every time they bid into a new type. Even worse, if there are planes with and without the right seat tiller of the same type, this is now jumping back and forth on a day-to-day (or even leg-to-leg basis) instead of once every few months or years.
Now different people are starting the engines, doing different flows on the ground, etc. Where, if you just keep everything simply CA-FO, everything is the same all the time, you stay in the same habits, etc. Easy-peasy. I see no reason to fix what isn't broken, by jumping back and forth unnecessarily.
And I see plenty of reason to
not do it. On the ground at a zoo like LGA or ATL, it would be begging for problems, to put an overwhelmed newhire in charge of taxiing where they'e constantly literal seconds away from making a wrong turn, missing a quick instruction, hitting a ground vehicle or other airplane that's in the wrong place, etc. Leave it to the CA. (In the air, this is much less of a problem as there is always far more time for the CA to react, before hitting anything hard.)