Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 165.48; Flight Crew Type 314.00
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
The tug driver told me he was ready for pushback. I told him to stand by while we awaited maintenance paperwork. This delay waiting for the [Maintenance Release] took 5-10 minutes. Once we got the [Maintenance Release] and completed our checklists; we obtained pushback clearance. At this point; I'm supposed to release the brakes and say 'brakes released; cleared to push'. Instead; I asked the tug driver if he was still ready to go. This is non-standard phraseology on my part; but after the delay I wanted to make sure the ramp was still ready to go prior to brake release. It's a good thing I did ask; because I got no response. It turns out there was a shift change; and our pushback crew left. Nobody ever said a word to me. This is exactly the scenario that is never supposed to happen. Having laminated phraseology cards in the tugs does not solve this problem. This challenge/response procedure is faulty; and it could have led to uncommanded aircraft movement. When we got a new pushback crew; they tried to push us with an electric tug; but the tug would not capture the nose wheel properly. The tug driver told me it might be a low battery; so we waited some more while they found a standard tug. Once the standard tug was connected and ramp was ready again; the tug driver told me; 'We had to get a standard tug because we're not qualified to use the electric tug.' I don't fully comprehend what happened here; but if they weren't qualified to use the electric tug why did they try to use it? That's just not acceptable.
B757 Captain reported a number of deviations from SOP during pushback from the gate.