I would like to add about 'extra' duties that have crept into the working day of flight and cabin crew, which mean reporting earlier and reducing rest.
They have been mentioned already, but things like airport operators moving the staff car parks further away so that the passengers can use the ones by the terminal building. Then they put on a shuttle bus to ferry the staff to the terminal(s). Take Manchester as an example. Staff West car park is a brisk 15-20 minute walk from T2. The car park is vast and depending on time of day it can take you 5 minutes to find a space, which of course will be the furthest possible distance from the car park entrance. A bus service to the terminals is provided, but guess what? It doesn't stop at T2 - it goes to the railway station (10 minutes walk to T2 in the overhead walkway), then on to T3/T1. It stops there for a certain period before returning to the car park via T2. So if it isn't pouring down most people will walk. Like I said, good 15-20 minute walk to the terminal and then you have to actually get to the crew room, which can be another 5 minutes. So you plan to arrive in the car park at report time -30 minutes to be on the safe side? Well if you do that there is a good chance that on occassions you may be late if you have to wait for the bus!
Add to that the pre-flight duties which include synchronising a company laptop to get the latest updates to manuals etc, adn then as mentioned by others printing off your own papaerwork as the true dispatchers were axed years ago to save money. This paperwork can take 15-20 minutes to get (depending on just how 'good' the companies IT systems and network are). Then you have to read and inwardly digest all the info as part of your flight planning. Add to that the fact that some airlines have removed the Jepp/ Aerad hard copies (as they are all available over the inetrnet), it can take some time now to view your destination/alternates and find the operating minima if the weather is marginal or a factor. If I needed to look up one destination, one en-route alternate and up three destination alternates, this would take me about 10-15 minutes using the internet and the software available. Our report time is STD -1hr and that is pushing it. Add in the fact that we are supposed to be at the aircraft at STD-30minutes, and at a big airport that can require 10-15 minutes walk or possibly even a bus ride and you can see that reporting at STD-45, with bad weather forecast can mean that you have no chance of getting away on time. So what do pilots do? They turn up earlier than report time to get the job done. None of this counts towards duty. ANY pre-flight duties should be accounted for in the duty day. Are pilots making a rod for their own backs? You bet they are. Why? Because they tend to be professionals who take a pride in their job and doing a good job, especially a SAFE one, so are willing to stretch to ensure this. Trouble is this action in itself can start eroding margins elsewhere when it comes to fatigue.
PP