B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Human Factors
After pushback we had completed the after start checklist; I had just turned on the taxi light; along with the runway turnoff lights and called for 'Flaps 25'. As I was pushing the throttles up to move the jet for taxi and the jet was just starting to move; I noticed the tug that was used for pushback approaching the jet a high rate of speed. My first officer also noticed and I stopped the jet. Apparently the pushback crew was concerned that they had left the access panel open and they were coming back to verify that it was closed. Unfortunately we were in the process of taxiing for takeoff and were not expecting them to approach the jet while we were moving. This could have resulted in a serious accident had we both not been as vigilant as we were. We learned that operations had been trying to contact us so that the ramp crew could come out and verify that the access panel was closed; but due to non-tower operations we had one radio selected to ZZZ and the other radio selected to CTAF so we weren't monitoring company frequency as we normally would. In my opinion this event was caused solely by the ramp crew rushing to push us back so that they could go home. I've recently observed a pattern of unsafe activity by ramp personnel at this station. Last week we were approximately 40 minutes late pushing due to a late inbound airplane. During pushback the ramp crew was absolutely reckless in their pushback and they pushed us back at a very high rate of speed. I asked them to slow down but they continued a fast push and I was afraid they were going to jackknife the pushback tug at the end of they push they turned the jet so quickly with the tug just prior to the termination of the push back. This pattern of behavior is going to result in a serious; if not fatal accident if something is not done to slow these guys down and emphasize safe push backs. This issue was immediately brought to the attention of [station] operations right after it took place and I also notified my supervisor of the unsafe operation as well.
A B737 Captain reported improper and unsafe ground handling by ramp personnel.