Ground Support Blog

So is it possible to properly maintain batteries on the ramp? Maybe a better question is: Is there a financial return on the cost of maintaining batteries on the ramp? If you haven’t guessed, I think the answer is, yes.

First, have you noticed the price of batteries lately? Commodity prices – lead, copper, and steel specifically – have pushed battery prices to record levels. We can’t think of a battery as a component of the vehicle any more; it’s an asset unto itself. And by adding a little life to a battery fleet, the cost justification of battery maintenance is easy.

Let’s start with a simple example: 15 electric vehicles and 15 batteries. All we want to do is make sure they’re watered properly and equalize charged twice per month. There are many ways to accomplish this, but in this example, the maintenance department is going to make sure one battery gets watered and equalize charged each night. The cost may be a little labor, but extending battery life is easily $10,000 in annual savings.

Let’s now look at a larger “real life” operation with about 300 pieces of electric equipment. They invested in a whole battery maintenance department, which costs an exorbitant $150,000 per year. But the increased battery life saves twice that at $300,000 per year. And that’s just the start of the savings. Think about savings in operator labor because they are no longer looking for working tractors. There’s reduced downtime and reduced battery maintenance. There’s reduced tractor maintenance because they have a high voltage batteries. And reduced lost luggage and flight delays, and improved customer satisfaction. Could the savings be $500,000? $1 Million? $5 million?

Now I have to admit that part of me doesn’t mind poor battery maintenance at all. I mean, I’m content to sell twice as many batteries as necessary. But I believe that in the long term, we can all thrive if we do the absolute best we can.

Welcome to my first blog. This blog is dedicated to electric GSE, with a heavy slant toward batteries and chargers. To get us started, it seems appropriate that we “get back to basics.” (I say “back,” although I’m not sure we were ever there in the first place.)

There’s a lot of technology to discuss, and we will. The technology for electric GSE has advanced significantly in recent years, and we’re all searching for ways to use technology to increase efficiency, and to ultimately add to the bottom line. But before we go any further, let’s first talk about maintenance.

I think this issue applies to almost everything in life. It doesn’t matter what you do to improve if you don’t have a solid foundation first. When it comes to batteries, it doesn’t matter what new battery technology, or charger technology, or tractor technology that you adopt. If you don’t maintain your batteries properly, you’re just wasting money.

Maintaining batteries is inherently difficult on the ramp. It’s never a warehouse condition where everything can be controlled. The ideal use of a battery is 8 hours of discharge, 8 hours of charge, and 8 hours of cool. Yeah, right! And don’t forget to equalize once per week and water immediately after the equalize charge. Watering systems, extra durable batteries, fast charging, and advanced controllers can’t overcome these maintenance needs.

So is it even possible to maintain batteries properly? Absolutely, but it will certainly take some effort. Let’s talk about how to free up $1M to your annual budget. To be continued . . .

P.S. Why equalize charge? I’m not sure what kills batteries on the ramp more, improper watering or under charging. You could probably go to any airport in the world that has electric equipment and find at least a few dry cells. But under charging is the silent killer. You can’t pull off a vent cap and see undercharging. You don’t even notice it while it’s happening until it’s too late. When you under charge a battery, the acid doesn’t completely come out of the plates. And over time, the acid remaining in the plates crystallizes and becomes what’s called sulphation; or we might say that the battery is sulphated. Sulphation drastically reduces battery performance and battery life. But if you bring a battery to 100% state of charge daily or regularly, and equalize charge weekly or regularly, you can eliminate this problem.

In speaking with our editorial advisory board and other members of the ground support community, one of the issues that has become a serious hurdle for the past few years and is not going away…is finding and retaining qualified employees in our industry. In fact, so prevalent is this concern that it was recently on the front page of USA Today’s Money section.

On a positive note, according to the article, “airlines are getting serious again about hiring…after nearly six years of shrinking their workforces.” Though U.S. employers terminated 4,000 jobs in August, the airlines were not only NOT affected, but in June, six major airlines hired 1.3 percent more workers than last year. But gone are the days of pre-9/11 when union contracts protected pay and benefits at record levels. Add to this the fact that qualified applicants are getting more difficult to find. Why? Are potential recruits timid about getting into what has been a turbulent industry (pun intended)? Are other industries offering greater benefits and perks? Or has the airline industry greatly devalued the jobs by extreme cuts in pay and benefits…some now paying the same or less than retail jobs? Perhaps it is all of the above.

Of course the problem of attracting, training and retaining ground support agents is two-fold; wages, in some cases, have been cut in half since 9/11 and, a factor that will never change…working in extreme weather conditions on the ramp can be undesirable to say the least. However, according to USA Today, airlines are having some success enticing potential workers with elaborate recruiting events and schemes such as signing bonuses, referral fees and even ice cream social and fishing parties. Whatever it takes, eh?

There is one more factor that was not mentioned in the article, however. Many of our GSE veterans are nearing retirement. These are the people, many of whom started their career path on the ramp, tossing bags. But that was in back in the “golden age” of aviation when the opportunities to move up the ladder were endless. Do those same opportunities exist today…and even if they do, given the circumstances today, will ramp workers survive long enough in the industry to climb the steps on that ladder? Please take the time to sound off on these questions and issues at my blog at www.groundsupportworldwide.com.

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As always, thanks for reading!

The term “blog” (created from web log) was coined in 1999 and today Webster’s dictionary defines a blog as a “diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page.” Blogs, they say, are frequently updated web pages on which authors post short comments about news items, interesting websites, their thoughts and more. Ten years ago, a little-known list recorded 23 blogs in existence, today; there are literally millions of blogs. And in 2005, a study found that 32 million Americans read blogs. However Mr. Webster, you had better speak to Mr. Gates because spell check is still not recognizing the word and is telling me that what I mean to be writing about is blobs, bogs or blows!

Webster’s dictionary also states that blogs are “typically updated daily” and that “blogs often reflect the personality of the author.” Well, this “author” totally disagrees with Mr. Webster and would certainly like to know where these people find the kind of time to update their blogs daily! So… though you may get the “reflection of a great personality” on this blog…you will only “hear” from this personality weekly!

But it gets worse…or better for those who are blog aficionados. There are now “blogumentaries”; a blog history talking about the early webbloggers who learned how to blog about blogs who think blogging is blogolicious. Wow, say that three times fast!

O.K. You may have figured out that I am a bit cynical about blogs. I think Fredrik Wacka, the author and founder of the popular CorporateBlogging.Info blog, has the most practical view. “…the essence - the je ne sais quoi- of blogs is that an emerging technology makes it possible for individuals outside the mainstream media to reach an audience. Blogs can be subversive, giving rise to ideas or arguments that would otherwise stay buried. Take a pill, all you blogomaniacs. Blogs are fun. Blogs add a fascinating new element to public discourse. But blogs are another turn of history’s wheel, not a radical departure.”

The long and the short of it, let’s have fun together and continue to turn the wheel of history by blogging back and forth from week to week on groundsupportworldwide.com. Hope to read from you!