Originally Posted by
FDXFLYR
Had one of our dispatchers on our jumpseat a couple of years ago who said in conversation that they are incentivized with bonuses to shave fuel. Our jumpseater said there was one dispatcher in particular (PL, not sure if he's still there as I haven't seen his name on a release in a while) who pushed back against us adding fuel because he was trying to re-build his savings. (YGTBSM)
I had two incidents with this guy PL, who tried to shave fuel. Once, I was operating CDG to DEL and the captain wanted to add fuel because of India's unpredictible ATC. The ACARS reply from PL came back "Why adding fuel, what's changed." This went on for three exchanges which included an attempt to negotiate down the amount the captain wanted, "Instead of 3,000 lbs, how about 1,500 lbs." We finally got the amount of fuel my captain wanted but only after he said he wasn't closing the doors until 3,000 lbs of fuel was added. I thought it would be interesting to see PL's reply if the captain had said, "since you've questioned my request, I now want 4,000 extra and this increases everytime you ask why." The second incident was ANC to somewhere in Asia but this captain didn't reply to PL's attempt to not add the gas he wanted. This captain never replied, we just waited with 1L open until finally at push time PL sent an ACARS message with time and initials for the added gas and suddenly a fuel truck arrived. This captain told me: "Nothing happens here unless it costs them money." I thought that was a great reply.
My jumpseating dispatcher said that a couple of captains had submitted PORs on PL which earned him some unwanted attention by management so maybe he's backed off. It also indicated to me that someone does actually read those things.
PL is still around, had a run in with him back in July. Very unprofessional. I was flying MEM-ANC and requested 2k lbs uplift. He argued with me saying I didn't need it. I was taken aback, because in the 10 years I've been a Capt, I've never had an issues with a dispatcher about adding fuel. He wasn't happy, but the fuel was added. 5 mins before push, no fuel. He thought I would go without my fuel. I acars'ed him and told him we were ready to go and where is my fuel. He did not respond but 10 mins later a fuel truck arrived. WE took a 25 min delay because of him. BTW, we used all the extra and more. WX in ANC changed and we were not able to climb to planned FL.Later in the trip I heard another Capt in CAN going to DEL arguing with PL because he didn't want to add fuel. I've talked to several Capt's now who have had a run in with PL and his antics.