FDX Charters
 

Anyone know how the certain 3 people always get the charter trips?

They gift the schedulers with loot. Seriously. Go to Firebirds in CVille. It's been going on for years.

PS--I'm not sure who these "3" are, so I'm not indicting them specifically. Let's just say that there are many in the bro network who know how to grease the skids.

Several are recycling Open Time Priority. This has to stop, it's a complete abuse of the contract and definitely a big scr#w your buddy routine.

This is above and beyond the ones who utilize bot codes or have sweetheart deals with charter folks/schedulers

This last part is rumor, the OTP recycle part is verified fact

Easy fix. ALPA needs to step up and kick these buddy f___ers out of the union. They are in complete violation of ALPA Code of Ethics. Then the company should go after these fools without ALPA representation and let these fellas pay their own attorney fees while trying to save their jobs. Heck, justice would be served when they spend all their charter money on attorney fees.
I have no problem with guys getting good deals, but when you are stepping on others to achieve this is when I start being part of the solution.

riiiiiight.......in a perfect world where our union had some teeth,, this might be feasible.

remember......no pilot left behind......

My opinion, these pilots lost that right when they violated the code of ethics. They went rogue and are screwing the rest of the pilot group. I do agree you need a union and a company willing to tackle this issue.

Specifically what part of the code of ethics are they violating?

Its proven they are recycling OTP, ok, but that is a loop hole in an ALPA negotiated CBA that they are taking advantage of. That hole is open to all of us if we what to play that game.

As for paying of schedulers or whatever sweet heart deals they are making...that is all alleged and I have to believe that if it was provable they and the scheduler/s would have been gone long ago.

Not condoning the actions, but besides ****ing us all of, what are they actually violating?

Maybe this is why our spineless management and toothless union have not done anything.:mad:

• He will not falsely or maliciously injure the professional reputation, prospects, or job security of another pilot, yet if he knows of professional incompetence or conduct detrimental to the profession or to ALPA, he will not shrink from revealing this to the proper authorities within ALPA, so that the weak member may be brought up to the standards demanded, or ALPA and the profession alike may be rid of one unworthy to share its rewards.
• An Air Line Pilot shall refrain from any action whereby, for his personal benefit or gain, he take advantage of the confidence reposed in him by his fellow members. If he is called upon to represent ALPA in any dispute, he will do so to the best of his ability, fairly and fearlessly, relying on the influence and power of ALPA to protect him.
• He will regard himself as a debtor to his profession and ALPA, and will dedicate himself to their advancement. He will cooperate in the upholding of the profession by exchanging information and experience with his fellow pilots and by actively contributing to the work of professional groups and the technical press.
• He will conduct all his affairs in a manner that reflects credit on himself and his profession.
• He will remember that to his neighbors, friends, and acquaintances he represents both the profession and ALPA, and that his actions represent to them the conduct and character of all members of the profession and ALPA

I emailed my ALPA rep explaining my frustration. NO WAY are these individuals fast fingering me to the punch on a monthly basis. Obviously they have an upperhand or insider helping them out. I was told, quote, they are being watched and have been called in and....was told "ALPA does not discipline their own, we protect our own".

My reply was, "...their behavior is against ALPAs Code of Ethics, and therefore, ALPA should act accordingly. PERIOD."

What I hear is that the few involved are working with their former regional schedulers who now work for FDX.

Another rumor I heard is that BM called over to scheduler manager and inquired about this issue. He was told, "You manage your pilots, I'll manage my schedulers". Bottom line, trips still get filled so who cares.

It's BLATANTLY obvious...TRIPS ARE FRZ until these dudes are in a position to pick them up.

Look who keeps getting the charters...we know who you are fellas...

We all need to contact our Union Rep. I did. The OTP clock getting reset is a "glitch" that can be corrected. However, the union needs to get the company to fix the scheduling software. If the MEC hears from enough crew members about this, it can gain some traction.

You're OTP is only good for 2 bid periods. No matter how many times you recycle it, it's still only good for the 2 bid periods after you get it. Plus, these charters are 45 ch and above. I don't see how they can get that many OTP hours to cover it continuously.

One of the permanent charter pilot has already got a 60+ ch charter this month and was able to snag another 45+ charter today.

Which trips and dates are we talking about?

Post the details and let others take a look. I personally get a lot of sweet OT trips but that is the result of nearly 300 pings a day when I'm actively searching to change my schedule. I recently had one that was FRZ and then I got it...then it was CNX then appeared again as a different pairing #. Would like to know more...

Here is one example:

2186 12feb &
2242 19 feb
CT is FO and is getting 107+ CH for 3 legs of live flying

VSTOLG4 I'm not familiar with the 757 charter/OT scene - are there serial abusers who always end up on the good deals? In my seat if I see a sweet charter pop up I can name 5 people who will get it, and 90% of the time I will be right.

If that trip that you got that was CNXed and showed up again with a new pairing number ended up in the lap of one the "chosen few" then you need to tell the union about it. We can argue OTP recycling all day, but having skeds recycle a pairing number to get the "right" guy on it is WAY out of bounds.

Recycling is a loophole but is wrong. I think almost everyone can agree that OTP is intended to be used as a one time good deal to repay for a slight that member received at some point. You cut the line ONCE & get 125%. It was never meant to be a scheduling tool to improve your life unfairly for almost 3 full months. This practice of OTP to cut the line, then dropping and picking back up with general m/u to replenish your OTP bank...rinse & repeat...needs to stop

OTP is good till the end of the 2d bid period after getting it so in practice it's almost 3 months. Also a lot of these charters get cancelled and individuals get offered sub which is then denied hence new OTP clock for new OTP

Also $18K of deviation money to play with this month, and one big fare isn't even posted yet.

There is at least one Charter boy in ANC. I went to look at his calendar....BLOCKED. Similar seniority and about 8000 employee numbers apart. Man this ****es me off - its like stealing when the playing field is not level.

It was hinted to me back in Oct 13 that some individuals were getting some focus due to this issue. I guess there's nothing they can do about it or it seems like it would've already been done.
Calendar blocking...sheesh.

The top three guys who get the charters also have their calendars blocked.

Dang it! I just locked myself out of PFC by accident, I entered the wrong password, now I can't pick anything up....hmmmmmmm......

Maybe these guys will accidentally lock themselves out of PFC before each frozen charter. Let's just hope they are clumsy with the keyboard.

In my opinion the actions of these fellas can be considered union busting

I would think they aren't doing this on their own. I'm thinking they have help from buddies in scheduling.

I thought once you dropped an OTP trip, it just went into makeup and you lost your OTP. Guess I was wrong.

I'm not sure how a scheduler can help someone earlier time stamp, unless they are putting it in from their end, and that seems like it would be easily traceable. I never understood the frozen thing. If the trip isn't available, why even put it into open time at all?

The one weird thing I've seen schedulers do two times, was hold a trip back that was supposed to go into sick time release. Then when I called then 20-25 minutes later, asking them where that trip was because it should have been available, they put me on hold, then a few minutes later said ,"Okay, it's in there now." Of course the entire hold time I was pushing the enter button every couple of seconds, and both times managed to get earlier time stamped by the same guy. Which was impossible, as one time he couldn't have used OTP as he was on sick leave, and would have to pick it up on sick makeup (less priority than regular makeup, or at least equal). That really ****ed me off.

A front end DH HNL trip just went to a calendar blocker and another individual who flies 85% extra pairings mostly going to HNL.

If ALPA won't police it's own how the hell do we trust them to police the company. The company is loving the dysfunction amongst the ranks. Credibility is on the line

Can anyone publish EVERY trip we are talking about? If these guys are doing this all the time, it is a complete breach of ethics.

Chrtrs 2234/21, 2236/21 also.
Please post the Trips/dates of alleged fraud doers.
That is the angle the Union needs to go with......FRAUD. And bribery of the co-conspirators in Scheds.

It's also, in a very real way, an abrogation of seniority. You have, in some cases, very junior pilots flying better schedules with better pay than those senior to them. If that is done by diligence, wits, and hard work then by all means, carry on. If it is done by collusion, deceit, and trickery not available to every pilot in the process then it is effing your bros.

No you still have the OTP, but the way you mention it would be the fair way for it to be.

As far as earlier time stamp. This is speculation as to it actually happening but a scheduler could freeze a trip until the second their buddy is ready to pick it up then process the trade immediately. This is creating defacto OTP in that they are the only crew member who can get it because only they know the precise second. Hopefully this isn't the case because this would warrant terminations

This has been going on for YEARS and I'm sick and tired of it. I'm ready to post the names of the SCUMBAGS on here!!!

Mexc, agree with everything you say except for the seniority part. Seniority only lets you bid better lines, aircraft, bases etc. 99% of these trips are extra pairings & charters and thus not subject to seniority...first come first serve. This is unfortunately a problem of flying built after the bid pack. What is happening is the equivalent of the same jerk cutting you in line everyday for a myriad of things, just with a lot of $ on the line.

The only fair solution is real time trip trading & eliminate the scheduling aspect of OTP.

Email your block reps & negotiating committee ladies/gents. Time to fix this is now!

Simply post the flights, we can figure out the rest and it will save you a hearing.

Please do!!!!

Maddawg71 I would not do that. However, I would let the union know they are violating the Code of Ethics and should be removed from Union. The union and company both know who the players are. We can only identify a few in the meantime we need to keep the pressure on both the union and company to rectify the problem.

Whoa, guys. Let's not go off too hard here. Some of the guys may be known miscreants. Some may be hawking open time. Who knows? Not everyone is out for themselves, at everyone else's expense. At a minimum, the union and company needs to get on this and put some oversight on the issue.

I DID email my rep, and was told the union does not discipline their own. My reply was, that they are violating ALPA Code Of Ethics ( which they love to ram down our throats) and therefore should act accordingly.

Trips are frozen until they are in a position to pick them up. If ANYTHING warrants a breach of ethics and looking into, THIS is it.. A scheduler is working in conjunction with these dudes to help then out.
I think we should keep this thread going and post the questionable trips every month.
The union is aware if it, the SCP is aware of it...and nothing us being done.

Wait a minute, so what goes on at Firebirds and why do you know about it?

Thanks Doody. I will take that sagely advice.

Last fall, I contacted my Rep, J.M., regarding this. I specifically referred to a Purple Nugget who is an OTP abuser for years. His calendar is now blocked. But when it wasn't last year, his entire year was filled with Charter trips (He was holding AM MEM hub turns with his seniority and would just drop his whole month).

J.M. said that ALPA and FedEx has talked to the select few individuals and that he thought this had come to an end. I pointed out that it had not. After a few months, he said that S.S. had brought this issue to FedEx regarding the software glitch and that they were "working" on it. That was the last I heard from J.M.

At this point, I think the only solution to this problem is to have stronger language in the next contract regarding the use of OTP. We definitely have bigger fish to fry during negotiations. But, I think this is a pretty big one! Otherwise, as long as there are sweet charters out there, this will continue to happen.

My understanding regarding OTP is the advantage is they get to cherry-pick trips before the VTOs. Once the new bid month is released into open time, it's every man for himself and OTP no longer gives you any advantage. Am I right or am I rillo? So all these charters becoming available after open-time release has no relevance to OTP. They're getting these trips thru other means (like knowing the scheduler and getting inside info before the rest of you MD-11 types). Seems like this situation is causing a rift in the ranks and Fedex doesn't seem to care to fix it. Makes me wonder why?

If I knew a scheduler and wanted to be sly and devious. I would never have my buddy scheduler "approve" my trip pickups. In fact I would prefer he was not the primary scheduler for my plane. Then we could play games.

A little advance notice the trip is going to drop. Then all I would have to do is input my trip pick up request, then tell my bud to clean out the queue of all the requests that might have beaten me to the punch. In fact they could use all sorts of odd denial codes to clean out those in front of me. Things like, "trip not legal", "no one in seven", "no one in ten" etc. Then the scheduler at the desk would always be approving the top person in the queue when he looked at the list. It might look odd, but really hard to prove. Well, at least it would take a couple hours and someone who cared.

For good measure I could sign up to be a special projects guy so the chief pilot would think I was above reproach. Let a couple buds in the know and hello, We're in business. A little bit of charter knowledge from the green screen, like where the trips are in the build would let me project the trip number and start date, so when they did drop I'd be ready and the number of potential quicker fingered guys would be very small.

Block my calendar so the casual tracker cannot see what I'm doing. You can't block the green screen calendar, but that takes more work.

A little gratitude to my scheduler buddy. Maybe some free plane tickets with my Million Mile Delta status.

If I could throw in some way to make the company think twice about disciplining us, that would be the cherry on top.

See this cargo business is not that hard. At least I might try to do it that way.