Airline Pilot Central Forums - FDX - Reserve improvements next contract

Hey All,
I just wanted to throw out some ideas for discussion with respect to contract improvements. Specifically reserve. I’ve sent these ideas to the negotiating chairman and my block rep. I apologize for the lengthy post but I’d appreciate your time to consider these suggestions.

I’m throwing these out to get some feedback, possible additional ideas or improvements to what I propose. These are not original ideas of mine and everything I propose is currently in practice with at least one other airline. Here’s the basic text of what I’ve sent to Fedex ALPA:

As we approach the start of new contract negotiations, I would really like to see some improvements in the reserve system and I know I’m not alone. I have some suggestions based on some previous experience I’ve had with another airline. These are just some basic ideas that probably need additional changes but it’s a start.

The first and easiest improvement that really needs to happen would benefit all Fedex pilots. We need “real time” bid line adjustments. This has been available to most major airline pilots for at least a decade. I’ve used a system that gave immediate results upon hitting the enter key. The fact that we must wait hours to get the results of a trip trade request is pathetic. As I understand the current system, a computer considers the legality of the request but the request itself must be “executed” by the schedulers when they have time. I have called schedulers on many occasions to inquire about pending requests on a particular trip. Most of the time, they look to see if there are pending requests and “execute” them while I am on the phone. There is absolutely no reason that the schedulers need to be “in the loop” on this. We need to upgrade the trip trade/VIPS system to automate it completely, deliver responses to bid line adjustments in real time and minimize back log during high use periods. We put men on the moon 40 years ago with slide rules and computers with 1/1000th the capability of today’s laptop, so I’m going to have a hard time believing the typical excuse about server capacity, etc. Not to mention the fact that I saw this being done at United Airlines 10 years ago using non-windows computer technology for a pilot force of over 10,000.

Additionally, our current reserve really needs improvement.
First, we need to get the company to provide accurate information to pilots on reserve. The reserve leveling list is basically useless unless a pilot is willing to look up individual calendars for other pilots on the list. It is also in need of “real time” updates. Currently, the list must be updated by schedulers. If a pilot is given an assignment, that information is not immediately reflected on the leveling list. The assignment will not be reflected on the list until the schedulers choose to act and update the list. What‘s the point of listing a pilot as #1 on the reserve list when he’s been given an assignment through the end of his availability for the month or actually on sick leave? A pilot on reserve should be able to look at the list and accurately determine where he stands for a future assignment. This would be a significant improvement for pilots to be able to plan their lives on a daily basis. It would also allow some basic monitoring of schedulers and their efforts. As it stands now, there is little to no way for ALPA to provide any kind of watch over potential contractual abuses in reserve assignments and pursue potential grievances. This culture of schedulers keeping us in the dark and holding their cards to their chest needs to go.

I would also like to suggest some potentially radical changes that would drastically improve reserve quality of life, especially in light of the high percentage of commuters at Fedex. These changes would also have the potential to reduce scheduler workload and improve reliability. I have seen this in practice and it works.
Here’s a basic outline of my suggestion:
Allow pilots on reserve to aggressively “pick up” trips in open time. This is a step beyond “First Fly”. It would allow reserve pilots to pick up unassigned trips on a first come-first served basis. Trips would not be available for pick up by reserves until they fell under the control of schedulers and were no longer available for trades by line-holders (right now this is normally 0900 LBT prior to the day of the trip).
At UAL, reserve pilots were placed into 4 categories based on the number of days they were available for reserve (i.e. 1-day, 2-day, 3-day and multi-day). Pilots were only allowed to pick up trips that matched their availability days or were 1 day shorter (for example, a 3-day reserve could pick up a 3-day trip or a 2-day trip, but not a 1-day trip). Obviously, our trips are quite a bit different than a passenger carrier’s and similar restrictions would probably need to be adjusted. The goal of such restrictions would be to allow trip pick up by the maximum number of pilots while still retaining an adequate number of reserves available for longer trips. All the fleets have 1-day hub turns and out and backs. They also have some 2-5 day trips with long layovers, deadheads, longer flights or weekend layovers. Right now all fleets also have the 6-8 day pairings with deadheads and/or city purity. Trips longer than these pretty much fall to the MD-11 or Airbus SIBA and involve international flying. One possibility to ensure reserve availability for long trips would be to restrict pick up of trips shorter than 7 or 8 days to reserve pilots who are available for 10 days or less. This would keep pilots with longer reserve availability open for assignment to longer MD-11 or SIBA trips and still allow most reserve pilots to pick up the shorter trips (i.e. 7/8 days or less) that make up the bulk of our flying. It may even make sense to have different restrictions in place for each fleet so the unique flying in one fleet won’t limit options in another. Finally, it would also make sense to limit reserve pilots to trips with show times in their reserve period to avoid them effectively swapping their A reserve for B, etc.

When to allow the “pick ups” to begin is another area of consideration. At UAL, trips fell under the control of the schedulers 28 hours prior to the departure of each trip, not at an arbitrary time of day. Each trip was available for reserve pilots to pick up during a 4 hour window from 28 hours to 24 hours prior to departure. The trips had to be assigned no later than 24 hours prior to departure (assuming they were open at least 28 hours prior). This precluded schedulers from “holding” trips until the last minute. If a trip came open inside 24 hours prior to departure due to sick call or some other scheduling issue, the trip was still left unassigned for 4 hours to allow pickup and after 4 hours was assigned to a reserve. The cut-off for trip assignment was 12 hours prior – inside that, it had to be assigned immediately. So, the 4 hours pick up window would be shortened accordingly if the trip came open inside of 16 hours (i.e. a trip that came open14 hours from departure would only be open for pick-up for 2 hours).

If we were to attempt to do this with minimal changes to our current system, we could still stick with the 0900 LBT cutoff the day prior for line holder trades/drops, etc. After 0900, the trip would be available for pick up for some period of time (maybe until 1300L as a suggestion). After that time, it would need to be assigned according to the normal reserve system if it hadn’t been picked up. This would be a huge improvement!! I’ll be willing to bet that the only trip assignments schedulers would have to deal with on a daily basis would be real short notice sick calls, disputed pairings (hopefully) and substitution issues due to trip conflicts. We would end up doing their job for them. Those of us who wanted to fly would fly and those local pilots who wanted to stay home would stay home. Also, pilots needing landings for currency would avoid the problem I’ve seen where they get an RFO trip off first fly.

This suggestion will probably meet heavy resistance from the “we’ve never done it that way” crowd but I’ve seen it in action and it’s great. With all the commuters we have, I doubt schedulers would spend much of their day worrying about assigning open trips. We really need to improve our reserve system and this would be a big step. I know these suggestions are a big change but I seriously doubt there would be any significant cost. This has the potential to cut costs and scheduler workload. I wouldn’t think we would have to burn much if any “negotiating capital” in order to implement these changes. Just because it’s a good deal for us shouldn’t mean we have to pay through the nose for it – especially if it ends up helping the company too.

With many pilots looking at spending a lot longer on reserve than they planned due to age 65, I think some effort in this area would really go a long way to improving junior quality of life. I’d be willing to work towards making some of these improvements a reality if you need some manpower and you think it’s worth pursuing.

Thanks for your time.