I was having a discussion with someone the other day on the hours that railroads work and how many days a week the engineer and conductor work. The debate was this: Are ALL railroads on an “on-call” basis 24/7 when freight is ready or is it just Class 1 lines? Do some railroads have a certain number of hours to work a week (ex: 40 hours a week) for the engineer and conductor or how does this work and which classes does it work for? I would appreciate any advice relating to the work week hours and any other information that relates to the operating procedures. Some examples would also be helpful too. Please and thank you.
Boy. Yes, no and all of the above. There are a few generic situations that are governed by layers of rules and laws. There are regular jobs that work fixed hours, such as a local that would go on duty at the same time each day. There are some road train jobs that work that way, too, but they are minority. That is as close to a regular 40 hour a week job as exists. There are pool jobs where some number of employees cover the trains moving between two (or more) terminals. They are closer to being available 24/7. Then there are “carded” jobs by time of day, where you would only be “on call” for part of each day. Sometimes there are rules in the agreement that try to equalize out the time and mileage worked between all the employees in the pool. How exactly this all works is a bit of a mystery to me.
On top of all this, is the hours of service law that now requires that if you work 5 days straight, you get a minimum of two off and sets a maximum number of hours an employee can work in a month. This on top of the 12hrs max on duty with 10 hours of rest between jobs.
Don is right…"Oh boy…!
Ok, lets start with the National Contracts and who is covered by which one.
Two major unions exist to cover T&E employees, (Train and Enginemen).
The UTU mostly covers Conductor and Brakemen, some engineers, and the BLE covers engineers.
United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Engineers.
Both have negotiated national contracts that protect their respective crafts.
Work rules differ somewhat between crafts, but the basics are pretty much the same.
Keep in mind each local chapter of these unions can and do negotiate local agreements for that particular location or division.
I work for a Class 3 switching/terminal railroad, and am represented by the UTU.
The engineers here are also UTU members.
There is no standard work week, although as Don pointed out, 5 days continuous duty earns you 2 day undisturbed off time.
A “day” under the contract is a 8 hour tour of duty in a 24 hour period.
If you work our extra board, you are on call 24/7, the extra board is a pool of men to replace employees who take vacation, off sick, and as the name implies, fill extra jobs like crewing that extra grain train.
If you work 8 hours or less, you are entitled to 8 hours rest, but are subject to call after that 8 hours rest, so it is busy here it is common to get two 8 hour shifts worked in a day, known as doubling out.
Our contract states that once on duty your are entitled to 8 hours pay regardless of how many hours you work, and if you work over 8 hours in a shift, everything after that first 8 is over time, so if you work the allowable 12 hours, you get 8 at straight time and 4 at over time pay rate, no matter how many hours you have worked that week, as we don’t have work weeks, but halves, as in half a month pay periods.
Whew, it gets worse…
Now, there are assigned jobs that work scheduled hours here at the Port…lead jobs that switch in the yards and our ve
Thank you Don; you were very helpful.
I will have to Google them both. I appreciate the information. Thank you.
Ed,
You must have a different interpretation of Hours of Service then I do (or class IIIs are covered differently then Class Is)…any work preformed up to 12 hours requires 10 hours undisturbed rest…meaning if you work on call, the soonest you can report back is 12 hours after you go off duty. 10 hours undisturbed rest + 2 hour call. Slightly different rules apply to jobs with regular assigned crews.
Any time on duty over 12 hours is added to your rest. So if you work 13 hours, you get 11 hours undisturbed, in effect, you can’t report back until 13 hours after you go off duty.
Five straight working days gets you two days off. However, can work the sixth day. But after working six days straight, you must observe 48 undisturbed hours of rest.
Note undisturbed means just that…undisturbed. Once you mark off, the railroad cannot contact you. If you get called during your rest period, your rest starts over. Say you are 8 hours into your 10 hours rest, and the crew caller calls you…your 10 hours rest starts over.
In addition, there is a monthly limit on the number hours you can work…Currently 276 hours. Once you work 276 hours, you cannot work until the next month. Limbo time (the time between when you expire under Hours of Service, and the time you finally mark off), is capped at 40 hours. So if you get 40 hours Limbo Time, you cannot work until the next month.
Nick
We’re working 6 consecutive calender days, get 48 hours off, if you work a 7th day to get home from the away from home terminal, get 72 hours off.
The start day and time determine the days worked. For example go to work at 2355 on Monday, work until 1155 on Tuesday, then off 10 hours undisturbed. We get a 90 minute call, with that for this example the earliest we could go back to work is Tuesday at 2325. If that happens, we’ve worked two consecutive days. Should we get called for anytime after midnight, say 0005, we aren’t considered to have worked consecutive days, the cycle resets.
I’ve had 35 hours off, but because of the way the call times worked not reset the count. I’ve been off for 17 hours at the away from home terminal, and again because of how the start times worked, reset the count.
You can still work after you’ve exceeded your monthly Limbo time. If you do, the railroad gets fined for every time you do work for the rest of the month. That’s what was explained to me. Last winter there were a few guys that got close to the limit. Others noticed that there accrued limbo time had been reduced. It turned out the railroad went to the FRA and was able to get some of that limbo time excused because of the weather emergencies.
Jeff
Regarding the OP’s question about operating hours…
We run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, I do have shortline partners that operate Monday to Friday 9:00 to 17:00; Sunday to Thursday 12:00 to 20:00; and Sunday to Friday; 14:00 to 06:00
Nick
We have been working 6 on 2 off on the extra board for a while. Work 6 straight, then 48 hours off. Some of the bid jobs are set up 6 days one week, 5 the next. Most of the bid jobs are 5 on 2 off.
One gets 10 hours undisturbed rest. However, I can call in and spin on 10 hours rest, or they can tell me to come in after 10 hours when I tie up after a trip. Otherwise, it is pretty much 10 hours plus 2 hour call-12 hours between trips. Spinning on rest sometimes happens when it gets closer to the end of my work week, so I can start earlier, which means I get done earlier, so I can start my weekend earlier. We can start as late as 2300 on our “Friday”, and the phone can ring as early as 0300 to be on duty at 0500 on “Monday”.
Luckily we don’t get much limbo time around here. There is an effort made to have crews back at their terminal within their 12 hours. Deadheading home after working at an outlying terminal on the extra board is the usual cause of any limbo time.
I believe I have about the best schedule. I work 3 days on, 4 days off, 4 days on, 3 days off every two week pay period. I work 12 hour days, so first week it’s 36 hours, second week it’s 48 hours (8 at O/T). Since I work 300 miles from home, gives me long weekends to get back.
When the crafts started complaining about the ‘Limbo time’…the time between when they were relieved of railroad operating duties account the Hours of Service Law and the time they finally registered off at their ‘final terminal’ (either home or away); time for which they are still being paid by the company…I don’t believe they expected the rulings that came down in the latest HOS changes…takes them out of service (and off pay) much longer than it had been in the past. I have had numerous occasions where the ‘recrew’ for a particular train has reached the destination and marked off and they are fully rested several hours prior to the crew that they relieved…When this occurs in pool service, wherein the first crew rested is the first crew called, the additional ‘Limbo Time’ added to the crew rest seriously works against their earning potential.
Thank you to everyone that has responded. . . .i truly appreciate it. I’m trying to get on with the local shortline and was needing an idea of what to expect.