A300
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Workload; Distraction; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
Upon arrival at ramp; we inquired about cargo weight being accurate. We were told that there may be up to 10K more freight than planned on the Flight Plan. With the additional freight; long flight with chance of ATC delays I was uncomfortable with the fuel over destination. I informed the ramp of the fuel total and then added fuel on the flight plan release. I got distracted with other things going on and forgot to call dispatcher from the ramp office. We did however notify dispatcher via ACARs when arriving at the aircraft regarding more fuel needed. A phone call would have been more appropriate versus an ACARS message regarding needing to uplift fuel.
Flight released with fuel load of 54000. Crew signed with uplift to 57000 without first contacting [dispatch] as required per FOM. Additional fuel required flight plan to be re-filed for lower altitude due to additional weight. Crew did not advise of uplift until after getting to aircraft and even after prompted; did not provide reason for uplift as also required by FOM.
The Captain of a cargo aircraft and the Dispatcher responsible for the flight; reported a deviation of company policy regarding communicating an additional fuel upload to dispatch in a timely fashion.