Why do baggage handlers throw baggage?

[The man with no name]

I heard that at least one major airport this was regularly the first job after leaving prison, or on parole, for many.

Not true. Can you imagine we'd let terrorists that had been released from prison near an aircraft? You need a police clearance to work on the secure side of an airport.

 

[The man with no name]

Without defending some of the atrocious behaviour I've witnessed, I think it's fair to say that a certain amount of throwing would make the job quicker and easier.
Use the lifting action to impart some horizontal momentum, provide a bit of guidance as to direction, let go and move on to the next bag. The alternative, is pick up, support the weight until at destination, then put down.
The critical thing is that whilst your bag is "flying" through the air, it's not really having to be supported, so the handler doesn't have to be as correctly positioned. Anyone travelling with a heavy bag does the same thing at check-in. They can heft the bag on to the scales without too much difficulty but it's not so easy to reach over and lift it back!

You make a great point about passengers at check in heaving oversized and usually heavy bags, even then they only have to lift their own bag not hundreds a day

 

[Rnwillia]

Presumably you're a white collar worker that does not have to lift hundreds of bags that weigh 20 - 32Kg all day. I'm quite sure the baggage handlers are doing whatever is best for the protection of their back. If that involves dropping or throwing your luggage so be it.

Not good enough. If you can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen. Do the job correctly or not at all. If you can't lift 27Kg you should not be doing this job as that is the allowable weight is it not?

 

[mandolino]

I spent the first twenty years of my working life doing heavy and often dangerous manual work, the kind of work where you are physically tired and aching at the end of every day, if not before - and before that grew up on a farm.

My opinion is somewhat the opposite of some here. White collar workers tend to overestimate how hard manual work is.

Sedentary desk work in business is much harder for me. You need to be at your best mentally in a way you don't have to while doing manual work, where you can just switch off most of your brain.

Careful handling at speed is possible, as the Japanese show.

Whoever made the point about cultural expectations is spot on.

 

[The man with no name]

I spent the first twenty years of my working life doing heavy and often dangerous manual work, the kind of work where you are physically tired and aching at the end of every day, if not before - and before that grew up on a farm.

My opinion is somewhat the opposite of some here. White collar workers tend to overestimate how hard manual work is.

Sedentary desk work in business is much harder for me. You need to be at your best mentally in a way you don't have to while doing manual work, where you can just switch off most of your brain.

Careful handling at speed is possible, as the Japanese show.

Whoever made the point about cultural expectations is spot on.

Hazardous manual handling | WorkSafe Victoria

Everything about hazardous manual handling in one place.

www.worksafe.vic.gov.au

Sorry but I'll back the guys who are actually doing the heavy lifting and have actually had some training over someone who claims to have done some decades ago.

Post automatically merged: Mar 5, 2020

Not good enough. If you can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen. Do the job correctly or not at all. If you can't lift 27Kg you should not be doing this job as that is the allowable weight is it not?

Hilarious !

 

[ronagoh]

Not that I fly often, but occassionally while waiting for a domestic flight (maybe once a year) I get to watch luggage being loaded or unloaded. The baggage handlers seem to put extra effort into throwing the bags onto the trolley or onto the conveyor. Wouldn't take less effort to just place the bags gently?

 

[ronagoh]

Maybe they only look for those that has 'fragile' tags to be abit more gentle in handling baggages

 

[p--and--t]

Not good enough. If you can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen. Do the job correctly or not at all. If you can't lift 27Kg you should not be doing this job as that is the allowable weight is it not?

Pardon me while I just quietly shake my head. Guess you have not tried to do that repeatedly thousands of times over an 8 hour shift.

 

[PineappleSkip]

A lot of airports the whole baggage kicking process is automated.

cheers skip

 

[Altair]

A lot of airports the whole baggage kicking process is automated.
cheers skip

I loved how one of the first "kicked" bags nearly bounced back on the conveyor belt!
My FiL was a ramp worker until he retired at 63 after hip replacement surgery.
He said that it is easier and faster to toss the bags on the belt. Most bags are between 15-17 kgs but with experience you automatically adjust the effort when you pick up the bags. From my observation the toss is not far and I would not think it was forceful.
In regards to having fragile items break from this, I do not know why anyone would not carefully pack said items in soft and hard layers.
I have recently had two bags damaged beyond economic repair, that was in Fiji by the ferry loaders who vertically drop the spinner bags wheels down. A couple of wheels corners pushed upwards cracking the case. It did not help that the bags were over 20kgs and the drop was over a metre.

 

[Vic]

Two comments for this thread:

(1) Despite all the viral videos of miscreants hurling bags, I suspect the highest threat to your bag is actually the automated systems - where bags are "diverted" from one conveyor belt to another using hydraulic pistons after the tag is scanned and the destination discerned - your bag is literally slammed off the conveyor onto another in a hundredth of a second - so g-forces are far more severe than those inflicted when a mere human throws your bag. Look this up to see the reality...

Precisely why I always ask for a tub, to at least minimise the potential damage at the departure airport.