That sounds ridiculous to me. I think this industry needs a little more "regulation" for the lack of a better word. Fortunately, I rarely run into that sort of customer request. Perhaps a little lobbying by the organizations who pump out the students...or some type of job classification and a minimum skill level required where the customer can't dictate totally absurd requirements like that.
How the hell are newly licensed PILOTS supposed to bridge the gap if these kind of stupid requests are dictated to the operators by customers and insurance companies. It's becoming more increasingly diffucult for low time pilots to accomplish that. I wonder if some of these customers and insurance companies knew that the engineer that takes care of the machine didn't have 2500 hours, would they be allowed to dictate those requirements as well?
I think this industry needs to level the playing field, where everyone has to conform and operate on the same page.
Certainly, mimimum tariff rates should be set and all operators should have to abide by them and negotiate for extras after that.
Standardized training should be mandatory as well. Surely there is enough talent in this country to put together excellent training syllabus's that the greedy money grubbin insurance companies could bless as well.
Operators/pimps should be oblidged to give "X" amount of training to low time pilots to bring up there level if these guys/gals are expected to prostitute themselves becuase they don't yet stand up to the ever increasing insurance or customer requirements. This is fairly evident by the fact that requirements keep getting higher for the same difficulty level of work which to me translates into lack of quality training, otherwise there wouldn't be an issue.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, too many people are taking out more than they are putting in to this industry. Which is evident by the insurance costs, crazy customer requirements, operators giving the bargain basement deals etc.
Competition is healthy only when everyone is playing by the same rules otherwise it's going to drive this industry right into the toilet.