A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Release Refused / Aircraft Not Accepted
Company Policy
Lavatories too full for flight. First asked for lavatory to be serviced at approximately 40 minutes prior to scheduled departure time. Flight attendants also asked for lavatory service when they arrived with the airplane approximately 1 hour prior to our scheduled departure time. They also asked prior to their turn earlier that morning and were refused lavatory service. We asked at least 3 additional times prior to departure. Lavatories not serviced. At 5 minutes prior to departure time; gate agent relayed message to Captain that they didn't have a lavatory truck and were unable to service the lavatory. I explained that we would not be leaving without having the lavatory serviced. Approximately 10 minutes prior to departure; the ground power was removed from the aircraft without notifying the flight crew. The aircraft suffered a hard power transfer; but fortunately; no harm was done. The ground air was never connected so the APU was already running and picked up the electrical load. Miraculously; at approximately departure time; the ground crew was able to find a lavatory truck and the lavatories were serviced. At approximately 3 minutes after departure time; the ground crew began making hand gestures indicating that they would be pushing without the benefit of a headset. I opened my window and told them to go find a headset or plan on bringing the jetway back to the airplane so we could discuss our headset-less push as is required by FOM. Miraculously; the ground crew found a headset and we pushed without further incident approximately 8 minutes late.These continued issues with poor service from our contracted ground service providers are causing a degradation of safety margins. When the flight deck crew is forced to dedicate time insuring compliance with the most basic requirements of servicing an aircraft; precious time is robbed from the more important pre-departure cockpit preparations. Briefings are truncated and/or rushed. New first officers aren't being supervised in their cockpit preparations. Crews have less time to review the aircraft logbook and flight dispatch paperwork; etc. Safety margins exist for a very good reason. Mistakes and oversights can be fatal. In a perfect world; the flight deck crew has excess time on their hands prior to departure. This excess time is a safety margin for when things aren't perfect. More and more; crews are being asked to forfeit this safety margin by being expected to coerce performance out of unwilling ground crews. It's not right. It's not safe. It needs to stop before we have an incident.
A-319 crew had difficulty coordinating service from ground service contractor.