goldfishinabowl said:
Could you please provide details of this? Sounds interesting?
Ground handling contracts are outsourced. To operate airside (ie within the airport perimeter) all employees/contracted individuals need security identification (ASIC, a security card requiring a police check, for example the red background cards people wear around their neck) or be under escort with someone who has one, since it is an area defined with varying levels of security (at minimum an ariside security zone)
They require a special driving licence to operate a vehicle airside ("Airside Driving Authority") issued by the airport operator (eg. SACL in SYD, Port Authority in CNS, etc), which are defined at different levels, typically category 2 (drive on aprons and airside roads) or cat 3 (add taxiways) or cat 4 (add runways). Obviously the 3 and 4 also need radio proficiency since access to areas such as the runway strip are under air traffic control and require clearance to enter by radio. Most people working airside only need the category 2 and thus muct only go on airside roads and aprons and only when and where they need to do to their job. People pass a test beofre they can drive airside unsupervised or unescorted.
Remarkably these things are not totally standard nationally, the requirement is for each individual airport to define their own individual set of rules and standards, which in turn must meet a basic set of criteria defined by the government transport and safety agencies, who then audit the lcoal rules (eg. check the individual airport's airside driving manual).
SO...basically, there are various driving (and security) rules, which must be followed, depending on the category of airside driving licence and the speicfic airport.
Furthermore, people need to be trained to operate safely within the airside environment, so called airside or ground or ramp safety. Ths includes essential competencies such as keeping minimum separation from aircraft, avoiding jet blast, picking up loose objects ("FOD"), not smoking, etc, etc.
To put this in perspective, an airport like Sydney may have around 250 or more organisations with atround 5,000-7,500 people who need security ID and airside driver authorisations and training in ground safety.
NOW...there are a variety of companies supplying airlines such as JQ under contract, including localised contracts, where companies have bid for the work. You can have a ground handling organisation with a contract unique to an airport. In other cases a contract may have gone to a company with outreach in several airports. BA for example recently changed their ground handling contract at SYD away from QF to another operator, hence I couldn't check in for a BA flight on a QF ticket at SYD recently since QF and the other company are running different computer check in systems.
Larger and established companies may have evolved robust training and safety systems, smaller newer ones may or may not. In this age of obsessive outsourcing, there is the natural buck passing of who is responsible for training and safety (airport operator vs airline vs subcontracted supplier).
In terms of safety, this plethora of organisations makes it far more complex to ensure people are trained, assessed and competent in airside safety and driving issues.
SO...when you see someone, for example, smoking airside, driving a vehicle on a taxiway without authorisation, driving too fast, etc etc, you know that either/or they have not been trained properly, and/or they have been distracted, and/or they are being bloody minded.
I have seen many examples of unsafe airside behaviour, it is perhaps unfortunate that some of the worst were exhibited by one or two of the smaller ground handling companies operating under contract to JQ.
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