Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Chart Or Publication; Company Policy; Procedure; Human Factors
This event occurred due to the lack of experience and training by station personnel that are contracted out to do our ground operations in ZZZ.  If the more experienced mainline ground personnel had been working they would have advised us of the device that was being loaded.  In addition; ground personnel disconnected ground power without warning.  This has become commonplace now as it seems that unqualified workers are routinely employed on the ramp.  It is a safety sensitive position and not a minimum wage job.Today we started passenger boarding with a passenger that required an aisle chair.  The Flight Attendant advised us that we would need an aisle chair; ramp; and wheelchair upon arrival.  After the completion of loading the agent handed us a Cargo Load Report which included 16 Standard Checked Bags; 1 Heavy Bag; 4 Gate Checked Bags; and 39 lbs of Counter-to-Counter Small Package Shipment.  The passenger count consisted of 15 adults; 7 children; and 1 infant.  The Zero Fuel Weight was 31;577 lbs and the takeoff weight was calculated at 35;377 lbs with a pitch trim of 8 degrees.  The flight was uneventful.  After all passengers deplaned at our destination; we were waiting for an extended period of time for the aisle chair to arrive.  Since all of the shutdown checklist items had been completed I decided to ground safe the aircraft and go outside to see what the situation was with the aisle chair.  At this point I noticed the ground crew unloading a very large; and heavy; mobility aid for the aisle chair passenger.  We are supposed to either use the actual weight of this device (if known) or the weight specified by the operations manual when calculating the weight and balance for the flight.  Therefore the weight and balance was not properly calculated; but due to the light load and forward loading of the aircraft no limits were exceeded.Ground Support is not a minimum wage job and definitely should not have a high turnover.  Experience and competence is very important and let us try to avoid a recurrence of a previous invalid loading implicated disaster.  Unfortunately; since then; the airlines (business people...i.e. non-team players) have contracted out more and more ground support operations.
An air carrier Captain expressed concern regarding the training and competence of contract ground service personnel.