At What Cost Free Use of GSE?

Doesn’t it get you when you come in to work in the morning and the equipment you left pre-positioned around an aircraft has been used? And left in an unacceptable condition — like dirty, greasy and out of place? Or when you leave the equipment fueled for the next day’s operations and, lo and behold, you run out of fuel in the middle of your busiest time because someone used it overnight and conveniently forgot to refuel?   Used to be that mechanics for the airlines had free use of ground equipment because it was the airline’s equipment and the airline’s responsibility to maintain it.  But now, with most ground handling contracted out, it’s the ground handling companies that are responsible for the equipment.  But many airline mechanics, especially on the midnight shift, still feel entitled to use the equipment — especially belt loaders and tractors.  But often not as carefully or considerately as the equipment owners would like. Locking up the equipment is impractical — usually space is at a premium. And making them key-operated doesn’t work too well either; mechanics seem to find ways around that.   Moving the equipment isn’t really the answer since having it pre-positioned helps for the morning push. So what’s it going to take to get mechanics to be more considerate about the use of the equipment? Yelling and screaming has not worked in the situations I’m aware of.  Keeping track of the equipment, and charging for its use, cleaning and fuel has been effective. So my suggestion is, if you’re tired of coming to work mornings and finding your equipment used and abused, start charging whoever performed maintenance on the aircraft.