slickshoes80

Foqa https://www.icao.int/SAM/Documents/2..._agreement.pdf


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TangoIndiaMike1

I’m sure someone smart could figure out how much it costs to run, store, carry, and fly around the equipment to monitor the crew and convince the company of the savings without it. I bet the crew will just put Mel stickers on the camera like they do with their iPads.

Reactivity

I don't think we're talking about cameras and crew monitoring. We're talking about operational monitoring - altitudes, cruise speeds, APU, fuel consumption - things of that nature. And that is already happening.

I'm curious about whether DHL will take action when they see how much fuel they're buying for us to sit and wait 15 minutes for a block-in crew to show up or to clear cans out of the alley.

maxjet

DHL has been monitoring those things for years. 2 carriers flying same flight on different days. One more efficient .(Atlas). K4 get an email asking why our fuel burn, or in route time, or any number of things is less efficient.

skywatch

Yea, no they would not. Just the "owner/operator" of the aircraft would have to approve.

skywatch

I doubt they do it using FDM - more likely they are just looking at your fuel burns/flight times (since those are pass through costs) and looking for an explanation if one is better than the other. If they had the FDM, they wouldn't need to send the email.

maxjet

You are exactly right. I thought that was assumed by the reader. Sorry. The thing about the emails is that it was never threatening. It was always phrased in a way as a gain towards more efficiency. Usually at the cost of pilot pay unfortunately. DHL was never that upset about on time departures, (K4 waits for freight), but they were big on getting as close to on time arrivals as possible. They would drop a little payload for extra fuel and cruise at .87/.88 to try and make the sort. The UPS/FedEx model seems to be less efficient and they also seem to have bigger sort windows in my experience during CNET.

nitefr8dog

Its interesting you say "K4 waits for freight"...
are you saying other companies tell DHL when they are departing whether the plane is loaded or not? Maybe even departing empty? In the past 17 yrs flying DHL freight, I have yet to leave before the loading was done. It has always been DHL's call as to an on time or a delayed departure.

Reactivity

This is the second time I've seen this implication that other companies simply close the doors and leave at push time, regardless of whether or not they have their planned load. Where does this come from? DHL is the customer, so if they're late, that's on them. Other than the annoyance that comes with having your 13-hour layover reduced to 12 because the sort is 60 minutes late, nobody on the ramp cares about on-time departures when DHL is the reason they're late. And given that DHL plans the load and does the loading, it's difficult to push "on time" when the doors are open, the K-loader is still planeside, you don't have weight & balance numbers, and there's no push crew because as far as they're concerned, they're not ready for you to leave yet.

maxjet

Yes carriers do close their doors and leave. The 777 DHL carrier in Europe whose name escapes me is an example. My information comes directly from a DHL VP who rode back with us to CVG one day. He was the one who explained the analysis to me and said that they pick a carrier that will be late waiting for freight. They fuel extra on that aircraft and fly high speed. He told me that KalittaAir was the most cooperative airline to work with on this strategy.
This conversation was about 3 or 4 years ago. Who knows maybe all of the carriers are doing that now. Couple of other things he said that was of interest. He was very proud of the fact, that at that time, due to Southern’s route structure, you could send an overnight package around the world out of LA 6 hours later than any other carrier. He said that he sought out K4 BCF aircraft to ride back and forth on because he loved the extra room and the crews seemed happy. He also mentioned when asked that DHL has no plans to ever do domestic service in the US. He said that it was kind of ironic that they cannot compete domestically in the US given the origin of the company.