Widebody; Low Wing; 3 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure
The DG (Dangerous Goods) system on the charters is badly in need of fixing. Dangerous Goods packages with orientation arrows are not being secured from changing orientation as required by the HMR (Hazardous Material Report) and ICAO Technical Instructions (TI's). The personnel building the pallets and our charter agents are not ensuring that these are loaded on the aircraft properly. Additionally; the PIC (Pilot-in-Command) is not given the documentation required by the HMR and the TI's; which specifically state that the PIC will have the required information 'readily accessible' in flight. We had to ask the charter agent for the shipper declarations (which we accept in place of the ULD manifests on charters). The agent said they normally keep the declarations and don't give them to the crew. Those declarations are the required paperwork on these flights; not the simulated Aircraft Summary and Position Summary. Therefore; these must be given to the crew as soon as practicable; but prior to block out. Also; the aircraft manifest and Position Summary are not generated by auto DG; but by a reverse engineered set of charter software; so I'm not sure the combination of paperwork we are receiving is in accordance with the FOM (Flight Operations Manual); which states that allowed paperwork is from the Auto DG system or a contingency form. And the accessibility of some of the CAO (Cargo Aircraft Only) cargo was questionable. We had to slide between pallets about 8 inches apart; and climb over other pallets to reach some of the CAO cargo. I doubt whether this could have been reached with portable breathing apparatus; or if it was 20 lbs heavier.Cause: There are several issues here dealing with our paperwork systems; manuals; training and adherence to regulation by the military and our charter operators. Suggestions: There is no simple cause of fix. The entire system should be reviewed and major changes made on several levels. Again; this is a repeated issue; and I don't see any improvement.
Captain reported numerous Hazmat and FOM procedure violations specifically pallet loading and providing flight crew required documents.