DJ OOL

[Cactusjack]

It will be announced very very shortly, most likely this week that Aerocare have won the DJ contract in OOL to provide the ground handling.

[Dog One]

What happens to Oceanic now, do they handle anyone else besides DJ?

[gobbledock]

Mr Hat - Negative. Oceana have held the contract with DJ.

Dog one - Oceana have been around for a while, they wont dissapear from the face of the planet.

Contracts are cyclic.

[topend3]

Goodbye to any hope of improved otp in that port.

early in the piece to be claiming this, and what factual info would actually back this up?

[Sunstar320]

Oceania handles AirAsia in the mornings too. So will they keep the Tiger Aerocare part separate or will staff from DJ and TT move around like they do in Canberra?

[topend3]

Spot on Hammer, Aerocare has gained a worthy reputation for excellent OTP and service across the carriers they handle, thats why they are growing so fast, and I don't work for either Aerocare or DJ...

[Go West]

Not in Perth

[Goat Whisperer]

nor Cairns

[tasdevil.f27]

Oceania also handle all Jetstar flights at OOL. This will be a blow to them but not unexpected, things have not been good in the stable for a while. It was expected that QAL's Aviation Ground Handling would get the contract as they have been going all out to get Virgin on side so will be a big blow to them.

Be interesting to see if Aerocare do get it which way the Oceania staff will jump. They were a great bunch of boys & girls to work with.

[maccaj73]

In my dealings with Aerocare in one of Australia's biggest port I unfortunately don't have many good things to say about them. I'm sure this commercial decision was made due to the fact they are the cheapest option. Oceana was maybe operating at $350 per turn while Aerocare have fudged some figures to proove to DJ they can do $320 turns. Now they have the grueling tasks of actually prooving it, and dont forget you get what you pay for!

It seems that many carriers don't care much for the OTP these service providers will output or the service levels they will provide, but rather how cheap the cost per turn is.

I have found their staff to lack training (costs to much to train people for more than a few days!), be frequently short staffed and lack the experience to perform their duties. I'm sure there are some talented employees with Aerocare but i can assure you many have skipped McDonalds and ended up on Checkin with Aerocare for $18/hr with no shift penaltys and unfortunately their performance and ability to cope during disruption or irregular operations really shows.

No offence intended for those who work for Aerocare im sure there are lots of great ex QF, DJ or JQ staff who have ended up with Aerocare.

[Jethro Gibbs]

They are being paid next to nothing thats the problem when will companies wake up and start paying decent money the managers don,t work for bugger all why should the frontline staff.

[puff]

I find it amazing that they actually find anyone of any decent quality to work for these orgainsations especially in the regional ports. I saw a job advertised recently that was for 15 hours a week but in those 15 hours a week included split days !

A lot of these places pay crap money, minimal training - they expect staff to do 2 hours AM and 2 hours PM, but be available at the drop of a hat and be available 24/7.

The race to the bottom in aviation ain't just for the pilots and FAs !

[VBPCGUY]

Puff you will find that should all change after Feb the 1st under new government workplace rules that bring contract company labour wages equal to those hire direct by the airlines, best outcome for bothe senrios and protects directly employed people by airlines as there is no advantage to having contract labour as the cost is pretty much the same and gives the folks that work for contract labour companies a fairer wage.

[puff]

Good to hear VB - surely then it would be in the best interests of the airlines to go back to having their own staff employed in the outports, at least they surely you have a better chance in controlling the quality of your standards of customer service and OTP etc.

[ANstar]

Nor Cairns

Came though last week from CNS and the check in supervisor was chewing gum as she was checking me in - charming! :}

[Worrals in the wilds]

Spot on, Puff (post 14). Then the same airlines that are happy to hire sub-sub contractors (becuase they're cheap) whinge and moan that their aircraft get hit by equipment, the unloading is slow and bags get lost.

The decent guys that work for these companies generally get cheesed off with the conditions and either leave the industry or score a better job with QF/VB, leaving the morons behind. Eventually even the morons get sick of it, as shown by some of the cut price GHS here that have entire crews with less than a year's experience, which shows in their skills and their :mad:up rates. Ramp handling's certainly not rocket science, but it requires a reasonable level of competence and training to avoid frequent 'incidents'.

Good news, VBPCGUY. :ok:

[Gas Bags]

There seems to be a misconception in the posts that if you have not prviously worked for either QF, DJ, or JQ then you are inferior.

I remember when DJ started and the thought train was the same.....All the people working for them were inferior to QF, AN. Then JQ started and it was the same mentality with those employees!

Give the guys and girls at Aerocare a chance. They only applied for and were awarded a job they wanted. They dont write the T's and C's.

[Worrals in the wilds]

Nor do they write the training manuals, unfortunately. It's not a question of being inferior as a person or being incompetent, but in my observation people who join non-airline ground handling companies cold lack the proper training ex airline people usually received.

This doesn't mean the ex airline staff are any good at applying that training, but it does put them a step ahead of the poor shmo who joined a cut price contractor and was never taught how to do their job properly or given decent equipment to do it with, because training takes time and costs money, and you can't possibly undercut other operators if you take time and spend money:yuk:.

This is by no means a general criticism of the people doing the work for Aerocare (I have several work pals who are employed by similar companies). It is a criticism of the 'bottom line rules' attitude that drives most of the non-airline ground handling companies, at the expense of quality performance, servicable equipment and decent T&Cs for their workers. I would be interested to see the national rates of ramp incidents (spills, minor accidents etc) since this trend began, because they're certainly up around here, largely due to the independent operators.

[tasdevil.f27]

Announcement may be this week coming.

[SilverSleuth]

Announcement may be this week coming


Or next week or the week after that...or the..... :)

[clearone]

Getting paid next to nothing!!

Look at whats going on around you ..

Check In Agent...JQ/DJ..

Take all of 30mins to train in basic check -in, $18-$22 per hour on a loaded rate ..not bad..what is the comparison..hospitality,what do they get?? Travel Agent ..what do they get?? Requires just about the same skills,check out at Woolies,I bet they dont get anywhere near that..

[romeocharlie]

Lets just get a few things clear.

1. Check-in staff take at bare minimum 4 days to train, this may well be death by power-point, but going through the systems, rules etc. and safety procedures takes time. Admittedly yes you could learn the computer program in 30 minutes, but it's not that easy, otherwise it would be even cheaper.

2. The pay. You can compare anything really - but to be honest my girlfriend earns more at a shoe store, and she certainly doesn't have to go to the expense of renewing an ASIC, training etc. Anyway you look at it though you can't tell me between $18-22 hour is good when you only do an absolute maximum of 38 hours per week? Some people do these jobs because in the GFC they have become redundant in other fields of Aviation like myself, and when QF and JQ and even DJ direct staff get paid almost double what I'm on, yes it is a little hard to understand. Which brings me to 3.

3. Money. If the bean counters see that they're saving $30 on a turn, they are going to hire the competitor. Pure and simple.

[clearone]

I reckon your Girlfriend is on a casual rate,also does she get a Uniform supplied?

$18.00 to $22.00 with S/L and A/L ,add approx 20 to 25% % on that for casual.

Well we could go back to the good ole days ,Check-In,Ramp Etc gets $100k per year with no or little productivity,air travel unaffordable for most of the masses, then everyone would be happy.Except when you want to take your family on a holiday ,cant afford an air ticket..wow..lets take a bus or train!!

Air Transportation today..

Move massive amount of mass from A-B the cheapest, safe and quickest way!

[romeocharlie]

We're both on casual rates, but she doesn't get uniform. Didn't mean to get on the backfoot, but in good old YBCS we run our arse off and for the most part the aircraft have quick turns and OTP is ok. I can't speak for other bases, but the new design of the airport couldn't be more rubbish. I know workers shouldn't blame their tools, but when it takes passengers 5 minutes to walk from the gate to the aircraft you begin to wonder what they were thinking....

[clearone]

Heard Aerocare got it but unable to confirm

[apacau]

Yes, from the horse's mouth today - Aerocare got it.