Originally Posted by
CBSAguy
I'd get Nexus if I was travelling every week. Though, oddly enough, every time a flight arrives, if the hall is empty, I seem to always get a Nexus user at my counter "because it's faster than using the machine".
It's because they want to avoid the automatic secondaries given for a 100ml liquor overage.
If I had NEXUS, I would take great pleasure in using the machines in an empty hall with 20 agents at pil.
Originally Posted by
CBSAguy
cur: I found the following post you made on May 20th, 2006. Just curious as to what's changed your opinion since then.
My friend is in CBSA training and he says that it is made extremely clear that the CBSA is mandated to go after
-Terrorism
-Money laundering
-Weapons smuggling
-Drugs
-Missing children
Not residents bringing in extra clothes. The reason why they changed them from CCRA to CBSA (you'll see their new uniforms on the 1st of June) is because they're now enforcers, not tax collectors.
It costs $7 for the CBSA to collect tax/duty/penalties. While people say the agents are lazy, the same people are also saying that they're keen to process paperwork over stupid things like t-shirts.
Agreed with the OP over YVR though. It's pathetic. Although blaming front-liners is easy and requires no effort, I'd blame the airport authority's poor usage of your AIF and the 4 or so AZN flights and 2 from the EU over 2 hours, rather than bashing the agents who "go on lunch breaks right in front of me". You don't know why they are getting out of their station, and I'm sure you didn't see them go to the lunch room to microwave lunch.
Take into account that the BSA probably keeps the numbers of people in the front stations at 80% in order to control the flow of people through the baggage hall. If you pump people through as quickly as possible, you're going to have the whole bag hall full beyond reason and threads coming up on FT whining about how full the hall is.
1) you have
way too much time on your hands. maybe you should take some ot on your days off.
2) little has changed. controlling the flow of pax at a dinky airport like YYC is important. however, the YVR style of getting up from PIL in the middle of a flight is abhorrent. i wrote that post before i was stood up
twice in a week by YVR BS officers during the azn flight rush, right in front of the superintendent and chief.
3) i'm not anti BSA. i'm anti dimwit BSo. unfortunately, the proportion of those in this agency higher than other agencies. CBSAguy likely knows (and dreads) these people. like the Jamacian woman at YYZ T1 who becomes hostile when you can't understand her incomprehensible accent, the guys behind the counter in YYC in the early afternoon who automatically send questions to the BIS line, the 20-something BSOs in YVR who never smile. There are many great BSOs out there, and I see them frequently. The dimwits, however, I only run into once. Funny how that happens.
Originally Posted by
Sanosuke
Cur, you have done a great job at defending yourself pretty well as well but we sometimes have to yield to authority if they ask nicely and professionally as they have in my case of secondaries.
I have no issue with authority. I have no issue with someone carrying out their duties as defined within the law, and I am together with BSOs who promote a model of
responsible enforcement.
I do, however, have issues with yappy dogs who carry batons who see me as a threat or who take great pleasure in enforcing the rules irresponsibly. I don't automatically engage with a BSO. The smart ones would put me in my place. The stupid ones are just way too easy to have fun with.