My personal record so far is 23 as far as I can remember (that's excluding my own. If I include mine, that'd be 26 or possibly even 27 if I used a separate tray for my shoes). That's a bit silly but my bag got caught up in a random search so I thought I'd make myself useful by clearing up the abandoned trays.
Whether I think there should be staff doing it or not is irrelevant in this situation as I have no desire to inconvenience others by refusing to do my bit in the absence of staff members doing it.
(I do think that there should be staff members doing it because the level of cooperation is rather low and it is rather inconvenient for passengers - their hands may be full and that. Considering LHR charge us £30+ for departing from there, they need to improve customer services, but of course, as there aren't five HALs competing with each other, I have no hope of improvement! We must be a right captive cash-cow.)
Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
There is a banner, 1 metre high, 8 metres long, which runs above the tray exit area. Despite the size of this notice, and the use of pictures for those who struggle with words, many people don't seem to see it.
I tend to think that their placement is problematic. A lot of people do not seem to notice the ones on the glass screen behind the rollers where the trays come out. People tend to look at the X-ray machine exit to look for their bags coming out, and once their bags come out, they aren't looking at the glass screen behind the rollers. If you do look at the glass, you tend to look through it and not always notice the writing on it either.
Much like other aspects of physical set-up of LHR security, I don't think it was designed with human behaviour in mind.
If they placed a big, bright sign immediately above the exit of the X-ray machine (the back of which a lot of people spend time staring), or big signs somewhere that isn't transparent and see-through, then it may increase its chance of being noticed?
I have also heard some people deliberately ignoring it (I worked that out by overhearing their conversation with their travelling companion, pointing at the sign saying that's not their job). That was rather disappointing because it doesn't inconvenience the staff if people don't do it - it inconvenience their fellow passengers by slowing down the clearance.