B737-800 captain reported that the ground crew improperly positioned the start cart on the left side...

Narrative:

Aircraft APU start valve was placarded closed; needed an air start. I asked the tug driver if the start cart was located on the right side [since we would be starting the left engine first]. He said yes it was. We started the number 1 engine as per the checklist. During the start process he said something garbled over the headset; when I asked again if the start cart was on the right side and again he replied yes. A few moments later I saw the start cart being removed from the left side of the aircraft. My concern is if the people are not trained properly; someone is going to get killed.this event occurred because the rampers were not trained on positioning the start cart for a cart start on a B737 aircraft. Also I believe the tug driver was not understanding that the right side is aircraft right not his right.in the future I will visually check the position of the cart and use the phrase aircraft right or aircraft left.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 Captain reported that the ground crew improperly positioned the start cart on the left side of the aircraft; exposing personnel to possible injury during the engine start.

Narrative: Aircraft APU start valve was placarded closed; needed an air start. I asked the tug driver if the start cart was located on the right side [since we would be starting the left engine first]. He said yes it was. We started the number 1 engine as per the checklist. During the start process he said something garbled over the headset; when I asked again if the start cart was on the right side and again he replied yes. A few moments later I saw the start cart being removed from the left side of the aircraft. My concern is if the people are not trained properly; someone is going to get killed.This event occurred because the rampers were not trained on positioning the start cart for a cart start on a B737 aircraft. Also I believe the tug driver was not understanding that the right side is aircraft right not his right.In the future I will visually check the position of the cart and use the phrase aircraft right or aircraft left.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1590871
Time
Date	201810
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	OKC.Airport
State Reference	OK
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

B737-800 captain reported that the ground crew improperly positioned the start cart on the left side of the aircraft; exposing personnel to possible injury during the engine start.