Been a long time ago and a lot older aircraft models, but as ground crew it was very common to be notified by dispatch than an aircraft was arriving with a dead APU, which meant we had to hook them up to ground power without delay when they arrived since they'd leave an engine turning until we did.
I'd say some days every other aircraft that pulled in had the warning on the load sheet.
It also triggered a need to have one of the gate crew or a supervisor (depending on how nice the Sup was or how busy everyone was) go get an air start unit and get it parked appropriately before the tugs and belt loaders and catering truck blocked mid-aircraft body access in tight gates.
Having it connected early meant an easy removal of the tugs and catering and walk over and start the thing a couple minutes before push. Having it stuck 100' away from the aircraft behind baggage carts and crap meant a mad shuffle of stuff to get things out of the way right before pushback. Mad vehicle shuffles tended to lead to mistakes and accidents.
The widebodies had life much easier in this regard. Much easier to move things around, other than the container loaders.
We didn't see much of it here in DEN but the other common request in hot climates, if one was available, and we didn't have nearly enough for every gate, and half of them were inop at any one time... and if the aircraft was equipped to use it, was a ground air conditioning unit for an APU-less airplane to try to keep cabin temps to somewhere above "sauna" but below "broil" in the summertime.
Those had to also be carefully parked so as not to suck the exhaust from anything running nearby into their outside air intake, since it's generally bad form to asphyxiate the self-loading cargo on the upper deck.
It's too bad ramp work paid less than being a telephone operator by many dollars an hour, in the early 90s. I liked it a lot more than phone/desk work all day.
Only time it sucked bad was winter storms and gate de-icing. Slippery ****ing mess, it got on everything, and you'd wear the snow suit not so much to stay warm, since you were exerting yourself plenty to be sweating in it, but to have a layer you could strip off and ball up to keep from covering everything in your car and home with deicing fluid. Nasty. You'd have two jumpsuits and the one you just worked in, would go straight into the washer when you got home and you'd make sure the other one was dry for the next day, until the storms relented.
Duck boots were also great for all intended winter season purposes except one. Traction on a ramp covered in that same god-awful deicing fluid. They made pretty good ice skates in that stuff. But everything did, really.
