B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240; Flight Crew Total 18500; Flight Crew Type 2395
Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
The entire operation from arriving at the aircraft; through flight planning in ops; through pushback procedures was a complete disaster. Staying focused on the topic of this ASAP report though; the ramp equipment was broken. First driver headset was unintelligible and the tug had a stuck mike. The second headset was more intelligible but still had the stuck mike. In order to accomplish the pushback; the tug driver had to unplug his headset between callouts which of course defeats the purpose of having the headset in the first place. Pushback verbiage was totally non-standard. The guideman did not know our wand signals. I was never able to get an all clear wand signal from him. Extremely non-standard pushback which clearly compromised safety. I confirmed with ops that the ramp is outsourced. Extraordinarily unsatisfactory performance from the outsourced company.
B737NG Captain reported what he felt was an unsafe; non-standard; ramp operation from a contracted ramp service supplier.