I am thinking of transfuring to our airport hub in PHL being on the Ramp. The times are better for me. I have heard that there is a pay increase is there, and could anybody give me some info on what the ramp is like? Thanks....
I'm betting even at a bigger Air Hub like PHI ramp work will beat any ground hub. Most of the work is pushing and sorting the containers (the containers themselves, not packages that would be Sort work). Also a lot of heavy equipment to run like the main deck loader that lifts containers to the cargo door from off the ground or off a sorting platform, which is usually the graviest job you'll find. I don't know where you'll get a pay increase, I get regular P/T unskilled pay. If you get the Sorter/Skilled pay or find any of the other ramp guys do let me know.
The hardest work will be pushing a 4500+ lb Can with just two people, or worse, a 460 lb can that's empty, warped and doesn't have any weight to keep it from grinding against the loading track in the plane. Also marshalling the planes off of and onto the ramp, don't be intimidated just learn all the signals exact and keep your eyes wide open. Be careful about walking backwards, just because someone passed a ramp driving test doesn't make them a good driver and ramps are busy places. And always have some earplugs handy.
At BWI we load just two planes and get a lot of downtime, which seems to be a word seldom heard at Joh Ave or any of the nearby ground hubs. Only problem with Air Hubs/Gateways is much less oppurtunity for fulltime jobs as they are rarely in the buildings, but I imagine PHI may be big enough to be an exception. If you're looking for O/T, get yourself trained in marshalling and tug driving, takes 3 marshallers to move a plane in a busy ramp and several tugs to load/unload any given plane.
Oh, and don't hit the plane, that's how carreers are lost. The cheapass DC8s are a cool $1 mil, and the others are in the $50 mil region.