Do cargo guys wear uniforms?

Center_Mid

Center_Mid

Well-Known Member
I was talking to an Alaska Airlines 737 pilot at a wedding last month. He said that on occasion he flies cargo-only flights and that, when he does, the crew don't have to wear their uniforms. That got me thinking...

Do pilots for FedEx, UPS, USPS, Ameriflight, etc. all wear uniforms for every flight? Do airline crews have to suit up when they deadhead empties from one base to another?

Also, this is a small issue, but do pro flight crews prefer silver or gold striping on their unis? I would think it didn't matter, except that the Alaska pilot said that he thought USAir uniforms were ugly. I don't know what they look like, but I generally think of airline uniforms as pretty much all the same. Apparently, some guys have a preference.
 
FedEx and UPS pilots do have uniforms that they wear. How picky they are about keeping their ties on in flight, you'd have to ask someone who flies for them. A300Capt is on this board and is a UPS Captain at SDF.

Many people (including some UPS pilots) don't like the UPS uniforms because they are brown instead of navy or black ... but brown is the corporate identity so it goes with the territory. I've never had an opinion on gold vs. silver stripes on uniforms myself. Some places have gone to leather flight jackets instead of sport coats ... Southwest for one.

I'm not too worried about what the airlines will make me wear when I'm at work. For the right job, I'd fly in a polyester leisure suit if they wanted.

At my corporate job, the "uniform" is white shirts, black slacks, and ties, but we only wear it on passenger flights. On maintenance trips or day-prior repos (we go somewhere the night before empty to pick up folks for an early AM departure) blue jeans and golf shirts are the order of the day.

FL270
 
We only wear uniforms when we are flying passengers out of Anchorage. When we fly the passenger plane out of Nome or fly the freighter Jeans or carharts are the uniform of choice. Tomorrow I am going to wear juans and a sweatshirt.

A buddy of mine who flies the 200's for Alaska only wears his uniform during passenger flights, otherwise he flies in jeans. I have heard from a bunch of guys that when the cargo guys get to cruise they change out of the uni's and put on sweats and then change prior to desent.

As for color of stripes, it doesn't really matter to me. My current ones are silver, but they are work.
 
UPS's uniforms are almost identical to United's in style except we have dark brown, instead of navy blue, with thin gold stripes and gold wings.

The long haul guys will sometimes change into something a little more comfortable once airborne, however, the company expects strict adherence with regard to wearing the uniform properly while in public.
 
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A buddy of mine who flies the 200's for Alaska only wears his uniform during passenger flights, otherwise he flies in jeans. I have heard from a bunch of guys that when the cargo guys get to cruise they change out of the uni's and put on sweats and then change prior to desent.



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Seems like more of a pain to do that, than just flying in the uniform
 
I wear a lovely brown uniform with a matching clip-on tie and a brown pilot hat....which I sometimes forget in the airplane.....

I, too, have heard the long haul guys change into sweats. We just don't have the time for that on the 727 fleet, gosh, darn.
 
Was it the FedEx or Airborne guys who had those horrible looking baby-blue shirts? I remember seeing them jumpseating all the time and I was so happy for them when they finally got new uniforms (with white shirts).
 
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Was it the FedEx or Airborne guys who had those horrible looking baby-blue shirts? I remember seeing them jumpseating all the time and I was so happy for them when they finally got new uniforms (with white shirts).

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Airborne has the gray uniforms, Ameriflight had the baby blue button shirts with the epaulets.

Was polo shirt and slacks for me too when I had to toss my own boxes.
 
FedEx had blue shirts about 8 years ago. Prior to that, Tigers had Blue shirts also, as did Western and a few other carriers. Brown uniforms are gone now, except by UPS, but at one time both UAL and CAL had brown uniforms, probably a few others as well.

We do change out of our uniforms on long flights. Not that much of a hassle when you're spending 4-5 hours sleeping in the crew rest area anyway (don't want to be in uniform while sleeping if you don't want the uniform to look terrible, besides, not too comfortable to sleep in).

FedEx also requires us to wear that uniform anytime on the ground when going to and from work or prior to flight. We do have the option of leather jackets, though, and no hats are required for us.
 
So it was the old FedEx uniforms I was remembering! Thanks Seagull
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I have a good friend that flies checks at night in an old Lear. Their company requires uniforms, but it's just really the light blue shirt, epaulets, wings, no tie, and blue dockers type thing.

Even at our company we can wear khakis and a polo if doing a repo without passengers. Often we'll just wear uniforms though, especially when on reserve (in case of reassignment).
 
I've seen UPS brown as well. I think that Airnet has casual uniforms consisting of something like jeans and a sweatshirt. For anything smaller than Airnet, I wouldn't expect a uniform.
 
At my first airline flying the 727 freighter, our uniforms were Pan Am uniforms, right down to the White Hat. Nobody wore the hat. At my new airline, the pants are very dark blue, and the epolets are the same blue with gold stripes. We also fly with leather jackets with the company logo, we can choose either brown or black.

I prefer black, it's just got to go with my belt and shoes.
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