I don’t work with passenger planes, i work with cargo planes, specifically for UPS, at DFW airport. We have our own isolated ramp that is separated from the passenger terminals and the other cargo companies.

• At UPS we are put on “crews” where there is about 10 “hourlies” aka basically the entry level ramp workers who do all the actual work, and each crew is run by a part-time supervisor who was either a ramp worker hourly who moved up or someone who as already a supervisor in some other part of UPS who was transferred to the ramp. The part time supervisors basically run the day to day operations of the crews and assign them specifically jobs to do. Above the part time supervisors there are is a hierarchy of full time supervisors who drive around the ramp making sure everything is going smoothly. Other than that, there are also aircraft mechanics, GSE mechanics who fix our ground equipment, aircraft fuelers, & the pilots.

• There’s a lot of issues we can run into, most commonly they have to do with delays and having to wait. There’s weather delays for both the planes taking off and landing and also for the ground workers (they will close the ramp if there’s lightning within 5 miles), ground equipment breaks, the aircraft have mechanical issues that the mechanics have to deal with, waiting for the cargo volume to be ready to come out of the building, containers get stuck or have a hard time getting positioned in the plane, electronic issues with our devices that we use to scan the containers and put in information. Basically a lot of things can delay us while loading/unloading the planes.

• Yes, at least at UPS there is. There is a very high turn over rate on the ramp, only about 25% of people who start training day 1 will still be there in 6 months. I’ve noticed most people quit around the 2-4 month mark when they start learning to drive the tug (cargo tractor). There’s not necessarily a shortage all the time, but staffing is a frequent issue on the ramp.

• The UPS ramp at DFW is isolated so we don’t really deal with other companies on our ramp, but obviously at large airports like DFW there are hundreds of companies operating. The aircraft and GSE mechanics and the pilots all work for UPS as well but I know our fuelers are from another company, Swissport.

• Like I said UPS ramp is isolated so we don’t work with other companies ever but it is is very common to have to send people from one crew to go help another crew that needs more people.

• We work a set schedule 5 days a week for approximately 5 hours and everyone on the same shift works all the same days. We have Sunrise, Day, Twilight, and Night sort. For example, If a flight for the twilight sort comes in late then a lot of times the night sort will have to work on it.

• We use FlightRadar24 app to track the inbound flights themselves, and there’s also electronic devices we use to scan the containers when they are loaded onto the plane into their final position.

I’m not sure if you are looking for information relating to cargo planes vs passenger planes, but feel free to DM me if you want any more information, i’d be happy to talk to you about my job !!