B737 captain reported the push back crew was apparently not trained properly according to sops.

Attributes
ACN	1308800
Time
Date	201511
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	RIC.Airport
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Type 19000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

Preflighted aircraft and was ready to go. [Approaching departure time] there was still no load sheet. Went up to the agent and asked what the issue was. He told me that the ramp agents had not counted the bags. I told him they need to be counted. After 20 minutes the bags were counted and the load sheet was given to us. I hope we had the right bag count. Pre-start was completed and I called the tug driver and said 'aircraft XXX; a's are off; brakes are set; cabin door lights are out'. Tug driver then said 'yep' and I repeated my initial spiel. I then heard mass confusion from the tug driver and it became readily apparent he had no clue what to do. A supervisor stepped in and the tug driver had to read from a card (messed that up too). We finally were able to push but it gave me very little comfort. It was obvious the ground crew did not have adequate training.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported the push back crew was apparently not trained properly according to SOPs.

Narrative: Preflighted aircraft and was ready to go. [Approaching departure time] there was still no load sheet. Went up to the Agent and asked what the issue was. He told me that the Ramp Agents had not counted the bags. I told him they need to be counted. After 20 minutes the bags were counted and the load sheet was given to us. I hope we had the right bag count. Pre-start was completed and I called the Tug Driver and said 'Aircraft XXX; A's are off; brakes are set; cabin door lights are out'. Tug Driver then said 'yep' and I repeated my initial spiel. I then heard mass confusion from the Tug Driver and it became readily apparent he had no clue what to do. A Supervisor stepped in and the Tug Driver had to read from a card (messed that up too). We finally were able to push but it gave me very little comfort. It was obvious the Ground Crew did not have adequate training.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.