Crew lane for arriving crew, not!

[blueloo]

twiggs: what planet are you on? you appear to have some sort of tunnel vision, or are detached from reality.

[surfside6]

The Minister:Anthony Albanese

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport Regional Development and Local Government
Contacts
Parliament House Contact
PO Box 6022
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Electorate Office Contact:

Location/Postal Address:
334A Marrickville Road
Marrickville NSW 2204

Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Email:[email protected]

[email protected]

[jungle juice]

It's important to get both the FAAA and AIPA in on this as well.Although I don't know how much help we would get from the company on this matter.They would or should be asking the minister on our behalf but don't bet on it.
also it would not hurt to approach your local MP and express your viewpoint.

The passport control is not the issue so don't get distracted by it.
It is annoying to get caught up there and when you are looking down at the lines snaking around the customs hall but the machine will get fixed sooner or later .

It's a dedicated crew channel to clear Customs and AQIS at every Australian airport that we need not one that we can share with passengers.

[mach2male]

Contempt

Unfortunately most AQUIS personnel consider crew to be "up themselves" and treat them accordingly with contempt.
Without wishing to be elitist most AQUIS employees fall into a particular demogaphic.

[farrari]

Ok, rang the Ministers office and spoke to Mr Sacks who told me he looks after this area. He then went on to ask me what did they do at Sydney, Melb and OS. I told him most places OS have a deicated lane for both C and Q.He said he would look in to it and agreed with me that crew should have such lanes. I have ask him to ring me back when he has looked into it and I will certainly keep on it. I would suggest others ring him as well if you want change!

[Worrals in the wilds]

He then went on to ask me what did they do

So he didn't know? Why does that not surprise me...

Well done for being proactive, farrari. Expect a run-around and lotsa duck-shoving, best of luck.

mach2male,

most AQUIS personnel consider crew to be "up themselves"

With a certain amount of justification, too. SOME crew (note that I didn't generalise) are revolting, and would still be revolting if provided with their own door, blanket clearance and a key to the airport.

AQUIS employees fall into a particular demogaphic.

Yes they do, until the Foot and Mouth threat in 2001 all AQIS employees were required to hold a university degree in a relevant discipline. Many officers still do, a number have Honours degrees or doctrates. Does that apply to cabin crew?

The strong bogan element in AQIS (note spelling, it's U-less like QANTAS) has nothing to do with their intelligence or demographic, whatever that may mean. Much of their indifference is because they are short staffed and demotivated, which is the quickest way to achieve a group wide lousy attitude.

This seems to have happened to (a certain) airline's staff too.

[blackguard]

University Degrees ?

The blokes on the ground would be lucky to have a school certicate let alone a Uni degree.Those that do have Uni Degrees made an absolute mess of the Equine Flu episode.
Watched one bloke yesterday snap his fingers at a Chinese National to get him to switch his phone off.Poor Chinese guy spoke no English and certainly didnt understand the snapping of fingers.So AQIS guy rips into him in English.
Welcome to Australia Mr Chinaman.
As for Cabin Crew having degrees and doctorates the answer is a resounding Yes.
Worrals in the Wild you have just displayed your ignorance in a very public forum...Congratulations

[Worrals in the wilds]

As for Cabin Crew have degrees and doctorates the answer is a resounding Yes

I don't doubt that many crew do, but the last time I looked at the various recruitment sites it wasn't an employment requirement. In recent times the requirement has been dropped from the AQIS application process as well, since they needed to increase their numbers quickly when F&M threatened. I was not intending to suggest that Crew were stupid, and apologies if that was the impression that I gave.

However, it is equally unfair to suggest that AQIS officers are all stupid, or any occupation you care to name. Cabin crew fought long and hard for well deserved recognition of the importance of their job (versus the 'trolley dolly' image that dragged on for too long) and I believe you should extend the same courtesy to other occupations and not generalize.

As for the inter-cultural exchange you witnessed, this was sadly all too common when I was hanging out in baggage halls (and I spent some serious time there, whatever jibes you want to make about my ignorance). However, as some of the most culturally ignorant, rude and obnoxious individuals I have met have been lawyers and doctors (supposedly the academic cream of our society) I don't think your correlation between good people skills and intelligence is valid.

I have always believed that AQIS need to spend some serious time and money on training their officers in inter-cultural awareness and basic customer service skills, as this is something many of their staff are lacking. This would make the whole process a lot more pleasant for everyone (pax, crew, officers) and probably speed it up considerably. However, IIRCthe organization doesn't see it as a priority, and basically believes that as long as their officers remove and examine organic imports, that's all that matters.

It's been a couple of years since I discussed entry requirements with anyone from AQIS, but my statement was true at least until 2007 or so. If someone else can tell me about more recent developments (without slagging me off) I'm happy to retract the assertion!

If you are encountering grunty people you may be interacting with the green shirted X-ray loaders that are employed by AQIS. They are manual labourers (whatever that requires) and not AQIS inspectors, any more than aircraft cleaners are cabin crew.

[blackguard]

Crew Education

The last 5 years QF has dropped its standard for CC recruits enormously.Prior to that many applicants had degrees and many have done them since beginning flying.
Having a degree was never a requirement having a higher school certificate was
Allow some credibility for knowing the difference between AQIS officers and the guys who load the belt for the scanner.
Many of the Immigation and AQIS officers at Sydney airport posess a vocab of less than a hundred words all of which are one syllable.
The biometric readers meant not having to deal with them.
Quarantine screening of crew requires one scanner loaded by the crew themselves and one operator.
Worrals noticed you edited post 91 to remove the assertion that made you look foolish.Well done

[blackguard]

Spelling and Intelligence

Spelling and intelligence are mutually exclusive.
Just a reminder this is about a crew channel and not a tedious spelling lesson.
Appears Twiggs has removed the offending post

[Worrals in the wilds]

complaints and compliments form

Compliments and Complaints form - DAFF

These are links to the Customs and AQIS complaints forms. The standard Canberra response to any suggestions from people on the ground about how to improve the service was "well, we haven't received any complaint forms" so filling these in may make a difference.
Or maybe not.

Allow some credibility for knowing the difference between AQIS officers and the guys who load the belt for the scanner.

There has been continuous confusion through this thread (not from you) about who does what in the clearance process. I wasn't sure if this applied to your experiences, and I know some of the greenshirts used to give the impression they were more integral to the process than they actually were. Even many people who work in the terminals have a very fuzzy idea about the roles of ACS, AQIS and DIMIA, which is not surprising as they all do each other's jobs to a certain extent. This cross contamination also makes it very difficult to achieve anything in regard to clearance, as each agency has to agree on a process.

Quarantine screening of crew requires one scanner loaded by the crew themselves and one operator

The only problem with that is that while you (and any reasonable person) would be happy to load their own stuff in the interests of speed and efficiency, someone (or someone's company) would undoubtedly complain and demand loaders. I know this contradicts my previous post, but I've thought more about it.

I still think AQIS /ACS/ DIRTARS would provide crew processing if they were lobbied effectively. Particularly from the fatigue angle.

[blackguard]

Worrals in The Wild..Identified

You are one suspects a Federal Copper
Solution...dont load your own bags?
Dont use the facility..simple
Worrals good to see that you have the ability to re evaluate.
Not apologize but re evaluate.

[Worrals in the wilds]

Negative, just like the image
Darn, another accidental discharge

[blackguard]

A Result...Perhaps

Would be great if a thread and a cogent and reasoned discussion actually achieved something.
If the crew line did eventuate it could be called the "PPrune Line"
You could proceed through faster than a PPRune through a colon.
Sorry..its late or early.... not sure which

[Worrals in the wilds]

Absolutely. Colon is the best way of describing a busy baggage hall except the true excrement (hopefully) gets caught.

The only way to achieve something out of the government is to convince them that to not act will achieve loss of votes and/or negative publicity. They're not interested in efficiency or customer service for their own merits.

Caution... beware my possible SIPS (Shiraz induced posting syndrome)

Oops, nearly missed your edit. They would require Policy... ie one procedure for all. It would either have loaders or not. If not, probably no go.

[farrari]

Mr Sacks from the Ministers office rang me back to say he had checked with SYD and they told him there is on the far left, a deicated lane for crew and cetain Govt people. He did acknowledge there that there is not one for Q. The more people that lobby for the latter via his office the better,I think

[blackguard]

Immigration Line

The immigration line is not for the exclusive use of crew and has been mentioned the biometric readers have been out of action for over a month.
Looks like we have a move in the right direction I will be ringing Mr.Sacks today.

[framer]

What would happen if you rang ops on your mobile when you finally got out of customs and said " please ammend my duty time to reflect that I have just finished now at 2234hrs " I used to do it at a smaller airline, I wonder what would happen in a big outfit?

[DutchRoll]

QF have an arbitrary "sign-off" time written into the contract. Duty finishes no later than 30 mins after on blox time.

This sucks - a lot - when you are screwed around on arrival, or when there are crew transport issues. For slips, your only defence is pulling CAO 48.0 para 1.4, but in my first-hand experience the company can get a little sh*tty and can be a bunch of right-royal ar**holes when you do this despite their protestations of being "fully supportive" on fatigue and rest issues etc. This does vary between flight ops and management individuals though.

For turnarounds or int-domestic transfers, you just depart late. Too bad, so sad.

That's certainly how it's been from my point of view anyway. Fellow QFers may have different opinions.

[framer]

yeah I thought that may be the case. Ok then, how about every time you are held up more than 15 mins you submit a SIF or QIR (system improvement form or quality improvement form) or whatever the qantas version is. If enough guys/gals start doing it then the management person who has to explain the number of them at their weekly/monthly safety meeting to the next rung of management, will have to do something. The first month they may be able to talk their way around it but after three or four months of having 20-30 of these things to explain all on the same subject ....something might happen? At the worst case scenario he/she is going to get mighty sick of having to process each and every one of them and will then look more seriously at the issue. Get all three or four of the crew to submit one each and if you have a seperate fatigue form then double up with that one. Paper war basically.
Any chance of that working?