Agreed. No more swap board!

 

I don't think it's a swapboard problem. It's a pilot to pilot, swap with friends problem. Ideally it's a great tool to use when you need it. I just swapped basically the same trip with a guy only it leaves a day earlier. After the bids came out I found out I needed to try and get back a day earlier. I emailed the guy and he was willing to do the swap. The problem is the trip parking abuse. Legal but not ethical.

Denny

 

The word abuse is IMO a little strong, I put trip parking in the "contractually legal but unethical" category.

Edit: Damn Denny, get out of my head...

 

How to appropriately handle an emergency in flight:

 

How bout this? Swap with friends should be equal or similar trip value; ex. a 3-day trip to a 4-day trip, or 2 3-day trips to a 6 day trip. That should stop the trip parking, right?

 

Hey Denny, or somebody, I really don't understand the trip parking thing. How does it benefit the senior guy if he's swapping trips with a junior buddy?

 

Second that what exactly is "Trip Parking" ?

 

It is used to get over the max pickup. It's easier to understand with an example:

Say for instance I'm at ALV+12 (with max pickup being ALV+15). I see a trip in open time that I really want to fly, but it is 15 hours. I cannot pick that trip up because it would cause me to exceed max pickup.

The key to trip parking is the swap board is not limited by max pickup. Therefore, I call a friend, who happens to have a low time line for the month, and has those days off. He Whiteslips the trip, and then "swaps" it to me for nothing in return. I just circumvented the intent of the max pickup, but technically did not break any rules of the contract.

Alot of guys have a problem with this. I see it as a problem, but don't blame anyone for working the current system to their advantage. It's my same view of the +60 geezers. I don't like it, but don't blame them personally for taking advantage of the rules that are currently in place.

That being said, I think it needs to be changed so trip parking can't happen. It reduces staffing requirements and allows guys to overwork thus helping the company run thin.

A better solution is to get our pay and workrules up so guys don't have to ***** for a decent paycheck.

 

The way it was explained to me is, we set up each other as buddys in DBMS (somewhere I forget). Then:

- you park a trip on my line
- white slip a trip that would normally put you above the ALV limits
- after you're awarded the white slip, take your trip back off my line

bingo bango........over the white slip limit

Full disclosure, I've never done it but I did have a buddy that wanted to/explain it to me.

Ferd <-----commuting to high time temps the devil and doesn't do it

 

I wouldn't want to see the swap board go away, nor am I particularly upset that there isn't a ALV limit on it.

After all, I am doing less, so if someone else wants to do more, then more power to them.

BUT, I do see the issue with trip parking. How about a rule that says if you pick something up from the open board via WS, the only way you can get rid of it is to PD or APD....you can't swap it.

Nu