Author Topic: T5 fiasco  (Read 2228 times)

Martin

T5 fiasco
« on: 31 March, 2008, 12:20:47 pm »
Just had an e-mail from someone who worked for the firm who designed the baggage system; apparently there were only a few slight problems with the equipment (it was introduced seemlessly in Sciphol) and it was all down to BA's lack of staff training and LFU(*) on the part of the staff. Apparently Gatwick North was just as shambolic also due to BA. Now watch BA blame someone else


(*) light fire under

Re: T5 fiasco
« Reply #1 on: 31 March, 2008, 02:16:27 pm »
VanDerLande have done many baggage systems, so that's not too surprising. If you don't clear the bags off the conveyors the result is a foregone conclusion.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

simonali

Re: T5 fiasco
« Reply #2 on: 01 April, 2008, 04:11:32 pm »
Don't really know how much I can say but I have some insider info on the subject and will tell you some of it anyway. [Greg Mitchell voice]My wife's gonna kill me![/Greg Mitchell voice]

I will agree that it's BA's fault by the fact that they virtually let the unions run the company. I have worked at Heathrow and the baggage handlers are absolutely corrupt. Most have a second job and will get a mate to clock them in and out while they're off doing it. When they are actually there they don't do much more than about 6 hours and half that is in the canteen! They all have the easy life and when the going gets tough they start to work even slower just to f*** things up further. I have my suspicions that the bit where they said they had trouble getting into staff car parks was probably pre-arranged.

The situation is just as bad with the cabin crew. When there were some flights cancelled a few weeks back (due to windy weather I think?) the flight crews of the cancellations were allowed to go home whilst managers from other depts were ordered to work in the terminals to appease offloaded passengers i.e. the uniformed and customer service trained staff were allowed to go home as that wasn't their job!

I was at T4 the other week and saw one of the baggage system engineers standing in the same spot for over an hour!

How's that for a first post?!

Hello everybody.  ;D

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
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Re: T5 fiasco
« Reply #3 on: 01 April, 2008, 04:19:15 pm »
Well hello!  Storming first post  :D

As it happens, I've just had a meeting at work with a chap who's now involved on one of our projects who used to be very high up on the T5 job.  Oddly, we can see it out of the window from here on a clear day.

He said that BA were informed 18 months ago that their training procedures were not up to scratch and that the handover of the infrastructure would be conditional on them accepting responsibility for their improvement.

Of course, come the day, BA took on a world class building with some of the most advanced facilities of any airport terminal anywhere in the world and their baggage handlers didn't even know where to report for work.  An enormous clusterfuck and not the fault of the people that built the place.

My new colleague has had to tell this story an awful lot of times in the last few days...
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

simonali

Re: T5 fiasco
« Reply #4 on: 01 April, 2008, 04:53:40 pm »
I suspect that the training was there, but the staff either didn't turn up or weren't listening to what they were being told. A lot of them are long-termers and would be very resistant to even the minutest changes in contract (something like having to press a different coloured button, for example!)  ::-)

There is a lot of technology just for the sake of it in T5 and that technology can go wrong, but there will be a built in contingency for every breakdown. It all boils down to staff not going quickly enough. They all turn up late, miraculously have the same excuse for doing so and then don't knuckle down and get the company that pays their wages out of the poop!