Philly Bag problem

[sdavis29]

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On 6/28/2003 1:03:23 PM MarkMyWords wrote:

Why does that have to say something about management? Couldn''t it also say something about parts availability for an old baggage system? Couldn''t it also say something about the ability of the airport authority to give an accurate estimated repair time for the system? Why is it always about Dave and the executive office?


it would start at the local level....but obviously the inmates run the asylum in phl, otherwise local magement would have at least attempted to fix this before it got to this point. who is local management accountable to....i would guess the regionals who would in turn have to answer most likely to A.C....someone posted that their manager offered to send help, and was shot down by both phl management and the regional....so obviously higher ups have knowledge of this problem, but what is being done...loading trucks instead of planes...makes sense to me....
bottom line is senior management hired local management and if local management cannot handle it...then senior management should fix the problem..so yes they are or should be accountable...





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[brandnewsin1]

Hey Philly, thank you for 2,200 bags on the two trucks last night and we look forward to the two trucks that are coming tonight. We really enjoyed sorting, coding, and carting your bags last night and we can''t wait to do it again tonight!!!! It is nice that only 4 mainline guys stayed for it. So express got to do all the work that could have went to ML employees!!!! We appreciate the work and are happy that you guys are finally accepting our rise to the top and allowing us to do your job!!!!!

Love

PITExpress

 

[phillyguy]

But is the baggage belt breakdwon a U Problem or PHL (i.e. City of PHL) problem?

 

[sdavis29]

there was a response to this thread about no one in phl working any ot to help this out..granted it is hard to go to another station and help, but it may have been offered in desperation....
lift out of phl should have been no problem...flts to clt every 2 hrs ..767.A321s, and asst 734.....relatively short flts. should have been no problem bulking out a/c...
bottom line is it should have never gotten to this point..city or no city..if it is broke fix it..if it cant be fixed shut it down. sending passengers all over the system without their luggage makes no sense at all....

 

[MarkMyWords]

SDavis -

let me ask you this.....what good would it have done for out stations to send their people to PHL to "pick out" their bags? First off, those employees would not have SIDA access in PHL and would have to be escorted. Second, just how do you propose allowing someone from CHS or SAV to go up and just pick out their bags from the thousands of bags that were there? Third, once the bags were found, what were you going to do with them? Every PHL-CLT flight was maxed out and they ran extra section ferry flights, in addition to the trucks to try and move the bags. Adding outside people to the problem would have only compounded the problem, not help solve it.

I agree that Rick and Al need to be dragged across the coals a few times for allowing the problem to get this out of hand. Perhaps the two of them need to work a few shifts in baggage service to refresh their memories of what it is like.

Phillyguy -

It is my understanding that the bag belt system is the airport/cities problem but had a huge direct effect on US. The Airport MTC personnel first couldn't find the motor that was suspected of smoldering, so the entire system was shut down. As they began to attempt to fix the problem, the ETR was continually bumped and pushed back due to parts availability, accessability, etc. We and our customers are paying a huge price for this blunder. How it got that out of control to the tune of several thousand misconnected bags will need to be addressed. To not have a contigency plan up and running in hours is an embarassment to the local station management and should be dealt with accordingly.

 

[gilbertguy]

Maybe it''s time to take another 5% to buy new baggage handling equipment, Dave....

 

[MarkMyWords]

[url="http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6188895.htm"]http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6188895.htm[/URL]

 

[tug_slug]

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On 6/29/2003 1:17:37 PM MarkMyWords wrote:


http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6188895.htm

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After reading the news article pertaining to Philly''s baggage problem I have a couple of questions.

Beings its the City''s system why didn''t the Inquirer interview someone from the department of airports?

If the City neglected upkeep on their own baggage handling system shouldn''t they be held responsible and have to pay restitution to the passengers for the inconvenience and US Air for the added expense this has caused?

 

[ual06]

Can't help but wonder if perhaps the State of Pa. is not "stressing a point" to US about certain leases, etc.

 

[ClueByFour]

The fact that US did not have a plan to deal with such a contingency is inexcusable. The fact that they let it go on for two or three days without putting together an emergency action plan is equally dumb.

I work for an $8 billion a year company. We plan for and game a whole myriad of business operational interruptions. That US does not says a lot about the operational acumen (or lack thereof) of the current upper management.

 

[tadjr]

Things are starting to improve a little. Down to only 38 open claims this evening from a little over 210 last night......

With all the ill will from this fiasco, I would hope that someone in CCY would take the effort and initiative to send a note to all of those whose bags got "delayed" in PHL this past week. We have everyones address from the delivery notice. Would make a nice touch to explain just what exactly happened. It wont help those who missed weddings or funerals in their nice clothes, but it might put some of those who are po''d at us for not getting bags for a couple days in a little better state of mind when they see numbers for just how massive the problem was and it wasnt because the out stations were incompetent or lazy.

 

[crushed]

I''ve been trying to log onto this board for days to respond........
Here it is from someone who lived it!
First of all, the Philly bag chute is only about 5 years old - very new by PHL standards. Also, it is my understanding that US ground maintanence fixes the belt, however, since 9/11, there has been no 3rd shift so no preventative maint. has been done...on anything!
Second, Management had no "plan B" their answer to the problem was to keep putting bags in carts...not sorted...just in carts. We even had Managers from other cities here...but still no new ideas.
As for blaming the ramp...that seems to be the easiest thing for everyone to do. But here''s the truth.... Philly operates with a skeleton crew...there is more ot than people want to work (today at 11am - already 48 agents short second shift - only 6 sick calls)....agents are being forced to work mandatory ot several days a week just for normal operations....on Thursday, we had 3 man crews on every gate with NO bag runners... those 3 agents would, offload the flight, run the local bags, run the connecting bags, swing through the chute and pick up what few bags they had sorted to go out, load up the flight, and then they had to sort a carts of mixed bags from the chute in their spare time and run those bags to the next avail.
Is it any wonder that no one wanted the 3rd shift overtime? "JOB ACTION - MY ASS! We are getting our asses handed to us everyday on the ramp. Management has finally admitted that we need more people but calling people back off of layoffs will take six weeks!! -new background and fingerprint checks-
We have 10 guys on the street for having less than $100 in disputable hours on their time cards in the last 6 months. Who is going to roll for this? US dropped the ball big time...and this time #### should roll UP HILL!!
Wouldn''t have believed this week if I hadn''t seeen it.

 

[Hope777]

Only 3 employess per gate seems to be the companys number. Durring certain hours, our station has 4 agents for 2 gates and we have to clean the aircraft. Our Station Manager can''t understand why we are taking cargo delays. Also we have a new belt system, about 3 years old which also does not get any preventive maintenance. What a waste of money.

 

[phllax]

From what I have been told by numerous baggage agents in PHL when complaining about how long it takes for the bags to get down, they have only 3 people work each flight, regardless of aircraft size and load. For example, if there is a relatively empty 300 next to a fully loaded 757, the guys working on the 300 cannot go over and help the guys working on the 757.

 

[MarkMyWords]

Can not, or will not?