So over the past few months I've been noticing some issues with the FBOs who hold the government contracts. Not really new but been causing me more grief recently. Thought I'd ask the question and see what experiences guys have had and maybe someone can shed some light on the issue.
So what exactly is the point of the contract? Other than being direct billed is there an advantage? To the best of my knowledge we don't get any favourable rates nor is there any other tangible benefits. In some cases the holder of the contract does not even have basic transient services like flight planning, ground power or even ramp space. On a recent trip to Ottawa, even the ground controller didn't recognize the name of the company holding our contract. Turns out it was just a guy with a truck. No ramp, hanger, bathroom, GPU, or even a radio to call and let them know we there. Since then I've run into similar situations a number of times.
So what's the point? If there is no expectation of service level or cost benefit why not just leave it up to the end user? Let the A/C, Det Comd, Ops ...etc decide which provider to use based on their requirements and the rates being offered. We are after all the customer. If they want the business of the Canadian government and tax payers' money we spend, then it's up to them to give us value, not our job to "share" our business.
Side note... I can only assume that there is a cost associated with awarding and administrating those contracts. Not if we didn't have to do that then wouldn't that free up those funds?
Thoughts?
So what exactly is the point of the contract? Other than being direct billed is there an advantage? To the best of my knowledge we don't get any favourable rates nor is there any other tangible benefits. In some cases the holder of the contract does not even have basic transient services like flight planning, ground power or even ramp space. On a recent trip to Ottawa, even the ground controller didn't recognize the name of the company holding our contract. Turns out it was just a guy with a truck. No ramp, hanger, bathroom, GPU, or even a radio to call and let them know we there. Since then I've run into similar situations a number of times.
So what's the point? If there is no expectation of service level or cost benefit why not just leave it up to the end user? Let the A/C, Det Comd, Ops ...etc decide which provider to use based on their requirements and the rates being offered. We are after all the customer. If they want the business of the Canadian government and tax payers' money we spend, then it's up to them to give us value, not our job to "share" our business.
Side note... I can only assume that there is a cost associated with awarding and administrating those contracts. Not if we didn't have to do that then wouldn't that free up those funds?
Thoughts?
