Date: 201812
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Aircraft: A320
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
Aircraft component: Fuel Storage System
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Aircraft In Service At Gate; Pre-flight
Result: General Maintenance Action
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Procedure
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: Just prior to pushback; we received our fuel form. The fuel boarded check failed as the allowable tolerance was 75 gallons and the form indicated it was 88. The fueler just handed it to us and walked out without mentioning the out of tolerance to us. After we noticed it; we called him back to discuss it. He said we are the first to ever say anything to him about the out of tolerance issue; most pilots don't say anything about it.We called Maintenance and at their request; made a writeup to have the tanks stuck to confirm the fuel boarded. When the first of; I believe; 5 or 6 mechanics came to the cockpit to discuss what we needed; he said he had only ever stuck the tanks once before. None of the pilots ever write this up here.He seemed somewhat unsure of the procedure and of our request. I tried to explain the whole issue referencing the FOM as best I could. After about 45 minutes; we got a new MRD stating the procedure was accomplished and the tanks were full to capacity. That still did not confirm our fuel on board. Called Maintenance again and told them of the issue. They called back and said the number was 1474. We had no idea what that meant to us. He said that was the fuel on board. Our release fuel was 25;800 pounds. I told him that was way too low and asked what that number really meant. He said it was the fuel in the outboard tank. The mechanic only stuck the outboard tanks not all the tanks. We asked for his return and was told he went home. A Supervisor showed up next and wanted to know what our problem was. I again explained it and told him I need to know the total gallons on board. He seemed confused because according to him nobody ever writes that up. He said we needed to write it up again which we did. The MRD was broken again and this time the reason was 'the Captain was not happy with the MRD'. A third mechanic came to the cockpit to stick the tanks; explained to him and never saw him again. Waited a while and a fourth one came; explained it and never saw him again. A fifth one finally came; explained it to him and he seemed to know what he was doing. He stuck the tanks and gave us the numbers we needed. Another Supervisor came to confirm we got what we needed. In total I believe 5 or 6 mechanics were involved. When we did get the numbers from sticking the tanks; it disagreed with the totalizer by about 900-1000 pounds. I brought that up to the mechanic and he said there is no tolerance published between the totalizer and what is actually verified in the tanks via sticking them. We did have enough per the flight plan to accomplish the flight safely and legally at that point as verified by the sticking procedure.In the end; the fueler didn't seem too concerned about the out of tolerance nor did he mention it to us. Several mechanics came to the cockpit; seemed very confused about the verification procedure (how to stick the tanks) and in the end about the fourth one to come finally accomplished it correctly. They all acted like this is the first time they had heard of this. I find it hard to believe that I was the first plane ever to have an out of tolerance issue and need to verify the fuel on board. Part of me thinks that either the tolerance is checked and can be explained by over/under servicing OR nobody ever checks the tolerance. This whole verification procedure took about 2.5 hours; way longer than necessary or required.




Synopsis: A320 Captain reported taking an extensive delay to determine actual fuel on board after multiple mechanics expressed ignorance of the procedure to stick the fuel tanks.