WASHINGTON — A bill that would include yardmasters among railroad employees covered by the Hours of Service Act was recently filed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Yardmasters often work shifts as long as 16 hours, and more 24-hour shifts…
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/07/19-yardmaster-protections
Yardmasters who work for money, will fight this tooth and nail!
More regulation on an industry already over regulated
But it also allows the company not to have adequate yardmasters (incl. extra) on rosters becuase they can simply have the ones working stay for another shift.
I know we lost our extra ydm position becuase of this.
In Canada yardmasters are already covered by HOS and certain rest provisions of the collective agreement. Like dispatchers there are some assignments with only 8 hours off between certain shifts, to give said assignment essentially a 3-day weekend (wasn’t this mentioned in another thread not too long ago?).
It’s still awaiting ratification, but the new agreement on CN has been updated to allow yardmasters who work overtime (more than 8 hours) on their first shift to book rest past the start time of their second shift.
If things line up right the Canadian HOS allows you to work up to 18 hours straight (done that a few times) as opposed to 12 in the U.S, but I’ve never heard of anyone besides managers working longer than that.
How does having people work 16 to 24 hours in a row contribute to safety?
The same way having Doctors Intern for 24 Hours +
The Yardmaster’s successful performance of their duties encompasses decisions that apply outside his direct hours on duty.
I have seen many newbie Yardmaster that thought they had the performance of the job by the testicales when working 8 hour shifts - they weren’t around to watch their relief struggle to overcome their mistakes. The so called ‘smart’ decision made at 2PM can become the dumbest thing ever at 8PM. Yarmasters don’t really understand the position until they have to be their own relief - then the reality of the job starts to come into view.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has limited the number of work-hours to 80 hours weekly, overnight call frequency to no more than one in three, 30-hour maximum straight shifts, and at least 10 hours off between shifts. Much of that time is spent in paperwork and much of the patient contact time is closely supervised.
Yardmaster time is spent on verbal instructions, paperwork and computer work to represent what those verbal instructions were. Yardmasters are non-operating personnel. Yardmasters are not ‘Car Retarder Operators’ contorolling switches and retarders at hump yards; they supervise Car Retarder Operators - at least on the railroads I am familar with.
Does protecting the point via camera count as operating? That’s a regular part of a yardmaster’s duties up here, along with all the clerical stuff.
Not sure how one of our hump yards is structured with regard to labour, the only hump left in western Canada is Winnipeg (Symington) and I’ve never worked there.
Protecting the leading end of a shove would make a Yardmaster subject to HOS as a part of the Train Crew - for that reason it was prohibited by my carrier.
Not all carriers work 8… we work 12.
Some yardmasters on CSX issue authority for trains to use certain tracks much like a dispatcher.
Mark Vinski
They issue verbal authority to operate at no more than restricted speed under Yard Rules. Not EC-1 Authority to operate at ‘track speed’ for the territory.
Know a crew who got confused on the difference between Track Speed inside designated Yard Limits. 30 day unpaid vacation.
On CN they manage exclusive occupancy (EO) zones in some yards. When given permission this allow a yard crew to use a certain length of pullback track or yard lead without watching the point, but no faster than 15 mph of course. This is mainly used in conjuction with beltpak jobs. Some zones have indicator lights to tell the Conductor how close the movement is getting to the end of the EO zone. And of course they also manage the rest of the yard like you described.
I’m starting to get the feeling that a yardmaster’s job can vary widely between locations and railroads.