Hey all whats the buzz on the 48/96 work schedule? good? bad?

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It might work for those places that are lucky to get 1 call a day. I just can't imagine this working at a busy station that's constantly out the door.
Depends on personal opinion, call volume and so forth. Everyone will have different preferences, there will be those who rave by the schedule and those who will curse it.

Some pros would be for those FF's who live a distance from the dept, this gives more time at home vs travel time. For the single FF, again more free time, etc.

Some cons, which I would see. It is already a challenge to work 24's with a marriage and family, adding to that time away maybe more strain. Mix in OT, trades etc, and the issue can get compiled. If busy on night one, what level of readiness/ productiveness is available the next day?

Like I said, there will be vaiables and it would depend on opinions from everyone from the chief on down. Maybe the pros may outweigh the cons and it would be something to try, but all factors from work to family life should be considered.
In my neck of the woods everyone seems to be going to 48/96; and everyone that I have talked to that is on it loves it.

Here is a link to a study that was done for one of our metro area FD's when they were deciding to go with the 48/96 or not. They did switch to this schedule and are still on it now.

http://www.westmetrofire.org/docs/2006/ops/st.as_final_4896.pdf
My concern too. We run 12 to 15 every 24 hrs. Would make for a long 48.
The living a distance from the station is really the big push for 48/96 on the west coast. I worry about medics making bad decissions and bad drug calculations at oh dark thirty on the second day.
At my station, it's totally volunteer, we cover 400 sq miles, largest area of 8 fd's in the county, our calls feel like 48/96 sometimes due to the calls w/ being a interstate town , we go 7 to  as much 10 days w/ o a call even in the summer dry spells, and then we get the big ones where it one after another before we clear the call we are on and a couple I recall lasted 18 to 24 HR. Good thing we have alot of our people live close the firehouse
48 straight in a busy department sucks. You have guys sleeping on day two and nobody up during business hours. The guys who think it is great, work in a slow department, and have more personal time to have a second or third fulltime career.

If you rely on call back for big incidents, forget about having anyone around to respond in to help. All off doing other things on that 96 off.
Like my option of 16X2/96
It would be literally impossible here with our call volume. In the 90s we were court ordered to go from 24/48 to 24/72 because they said 48 hours weren't enough time off when running 15-25 runs/tour. Technically we aren't even supposed to work more than 36 hours straight if we are pulling in OT. Since we are old school, we have a watch man up all night. So even if it is a slow night you will still only get a couple hours of sleep.
Read hogs to the trough on this site! Then consider, it lets FF live farther from work, then move out of their jurisdiction, they don't pay taxes to their employer, they don't care about local politics. Then consider doing it with 10 to 15 runs a shift. Stupid, greedy idea. Hooray for me and screw the citizens and brother FF's.
I'm not a big fan of the "You have to live where you work" idea.

If that was the case, my family and I would be living in a hobo camp where I work. The cost of living is out of control. That's why we choose to live a distance away from my employer. But that's a topic of a entirely different discussion.

Yeah, I have to agree with you about the run numbers. I've pulled 36 hour shifts and was dragging before that 36th hour came about.
Agreed. We don't get paid like the West Coast does. East Coast is EXTREMELY underpaid actually. And you know just as well as me that the DC area is one of the most expensive areas in the country. I could never raise a family in DC.

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