transportprof

I had a seat in 2F on a 739 departing EWR today, which gave me a great view of the light board that flashes messages to the rampers, and pilots.

Here's a sampling of the slogans that were flashed before our flight departed the gate (a bit late, but we arrived SFO early).

"We must work together to keep our flights on time."

"Be Predictable, Be the Solution, Be Gracious, and Be the Brand!"

and my personal favorite:

"VIP Priority Bags first, first bags at belt within 15 min, all bags within 20 min."

Sounds like UA is trying to beat Delta at the 20 minute bag delivery promise at EWR!

NewportGuy

Sounds more like someone was trying to be funny.

channa

What a horrible thing to do. In a hazardous workplace where there's risk for accidents, the company should be encouraging safe work practices, not distracting employees with "rah rah" messages when they're operating motorized equipment.

There's a time and a place for everything, and the tarmac ain't the place for this.

akonradi

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

SPLITTERZ

all apart of the flyer friendly program.

scottpenderson

Don't worry, they obviously aren't paying attention to the messages.

I'm pretty sure I can count on one finger the amount of times I have received my bag in under a half hour at EWR. As far as keeping flights on time...good grief.

writerguyfl

What if those same screens are also used for legitimate safety messages? I'm just guessing, but that might be the system used to quickly notify ramp workers of things like ground stops due to lightning. Perhaps someone with airport operations experience might be able to provide details.

Regardless, if an innocuous message on a screen were truly detrimental to pilots or ramp workers, I'm certain their respective unions would say something.

TA

Where are you getting this "horrible" sentiment from?

channa

That would make sense. But if the system is to be used for emergency communication or critical safety alerts, it's probably not a good idea to use the signage all the time for motivational garbage. That just trains people to ignore it.


It's likely they have. I understand grievances are up across many work groups, mostly due to alleged contract violations. And something like this may not even rise up to the level of a grievance, as it's more of a safety concern to address with management.


Distracting staff who are operating equipment on an active tarmac with moving carts, trucks, and aircraft for non-critical messaging is horrible. This is not a locker room or breakroom where there would be much less safety risk from motivational signage.

Sulley

These boards do display multiple messages about weather, operational issues, etc.

btw, it's ramp, not tarmac

Cargojon

because there are some people who would condemn UA if they donated their entire year's profits to charity. Probably call it a "publicity stunt" or "tax evasion" or something.

EWR764

The systems are not used for critical safety alerts, though. The displays simply broadcast relevant flight information and customer service-oriented reminders in an easy-to-locate spot. In fact, when Continental installed the systems at EWR and IAH in the mid-2000s, the manufacturer even reported that CO saw a reduction in safety-related incidents on the ramp. I'll see if I can dig up more on that in the interwebs.

As a method of disseminating important operational safety information, though, it is more of a backup or supplement than a primary source.

EDIT: found it, from 2008... http://www.mediatile.com/sites/defau...inentalAir.pdf

NewportGuy

No, it's that if United DID donate their profits to charity, it is their past performance and history of not giving a damn about people in general that would make people look at such acts with serious skepticism. It is the reputation United created for itself that makes people assume the worst from them, and United usually delivers!

DWFI

This kind of signage and usage of motivational phrases is extremely common whenever you have a service industry with front line employees. It's a cheap and surprisingly effective way to get buy-in to your values.

Of course, management has to appear genuine for it to work.

cerealmarketer

Yes and the "Be Predictable, Be the Solution, Be Gracious, and Be the Brand!" phrase is in big letters on all of the agent login screens.

And the 'Flyer Friendly' advertising campaign is in large part done for employees as a way to get them to feel publicly accountable for delivering on it.

Though 'be predictable, be the solution, be gracious, be the brand' is a bit long and corporate ese. They could probably simplify that.