How to fill out a school bus driver timesheet (with a worked example)

Every payday someone in the office squints at a timesheet: is that a 6 or a 0? Did the field trip go on Tuesday or Wednesday? Why does Thursday say 9 hours? School bus drivers work split shifts — a morning run, a gap, an afternoon run, sometimes a charter in between — so a normal timesheet doesn't fit, and small mistakes add up over a school year.

Here's how to fill out a school bus driver timesheet so it's right the first time: what counts as paid time, each line of the sheet, a worked example, and the mistakes to watch for.

First: what counts as paid time for bus drivers?

Decide this with your payroll provider before the first sheet comes in, and write it down for drivers. Under most pay rules, work time usually includes:

• Driving the runs — from the yard, through every stop, to the school and back.
• The pre-trip and post-trip inspections, including the child check at the end of the run.
• Fueling, washing or taking the bus to the shop when you ask the driver to.
• Waiting the driver is required to do — staying with the bus at a field trip, or on call where they can't use the time for themselves.
• Training, meetings and road tests you require.
• Charters and field trips, often at a different rate.

The gap between the morning and afternoon run is usually unpaid when the driver is free to leave and use the time as they like. Many contracts also set a minimum per run. We go into this in are school bus drivers paid between routes?

How to fill out a school bus driver timesheet, line by line

Our free, printable bus driver timesheet is built for a split day. Here's each part:

1. 1Driver, Week of, Route(s). The driver's full name, the date of the week's first day (Monday), and the route numbers they drove that week.
2. 2Morning in. The time work started — when the driver arrived and began the pre-trip, not the time of the first stop.
3. 3Morning out. The time the morning work ended — after the post-trip and parking the bus, not when the last student got off.
4. 4Afternoon in and Afternoon out. The same for the afternoon run.
5. 5Other (charters, training). Any other paid work that day, with the hours and a word on what it was: "Field trip, 3.0" or "Training, 1.5".
6. 6Total hours. Each run's minutes, plus the other hours, as a decimal. Leave the unpaid gap out.
7. 7Total hours this week. The days added up.
8. 8Time off taken (kind and hours). Sick, vacation or unpaid day off, and how many hours.
9. 9Signatures. The driver signs at the end of the week; the supervisor checks it against the schedule and signs too.

A worked example

Here's one made-up driver's week, to show how the lines add up (the times and hours are an example, not a standard):

Monday: 6:15 to 8:45 is 2.5 hours, 2:00 to 4:15 is 2.25 hours, so 4.75. Thursday's morning ran 5 minutes long — 2.58 hours — plus 2.25 and 1.5 of training makes 6.33. The week's total is 23.66 hours worked, and Time off taken says "Sick, 4.75 hours" for Wednesday.

That's really all there is to how to fill out a school bus driver timesheet: real times, the decimal total, the other work, and two signatures.

Common timesheet mistakes

• Writing the scheduled times instead of the real ones. A run that ran 20 minutes late, every day for a month, is real pay.
• Leaving out the pre-trip. If the first stop is 6:40 and the driver arrived at 6:15, the time starts at 6:15.
• Adding minutes as if they were decimals. 2 hours 45 minutes is 2.75, not 2.45.
• Missing the other work. Charters and training get forgotten by Friday.
• Signing on Wednesday for the whole week. Sign when the week is over.
• Nobody checking it. The supervisor's signature should mean they compared it to the route schedule and the field trip list.

How to track school bus driver hours without the paper

Paper works for a handful of drivers. Past that, the time goes into re-typing sheets, chasing missing ones, and settling arguments about what Tuesday really looked like. Drivers already carry a phone — a time clock on it, tied to the pre-trip inspection they do anyway, records the real start time without anyone writing it down. Our school bus driver time clock post covers how to set one up. Until then, print the bus driver timesheet, and check your pay with the bus driver pay calculator.

Doing it in FleetCommander

With driver attendance on, drivers tap Clock in and Clock out on My Day — a split day is two shifts, and sending a pre-trip clocks them in if they haven't already. The office sees who's on duty, late or not in yet on Drivers › Attendance, and can clock a driver in or out for them. On a driver's Attendance tab, the office changes a shift's times or uses Add a shift for one the driver forgot; shifts can't overlap, and every change is in the audit log.

You choose in Settings › Company › Driver attendance whether drivers are paid per hour or per shift, the pay rate (or each driver's own) and the pay period. Time off is asked for and approved in the app, and paid time off is added to the pay. At the end of the period, the Driver hours & pay report gives each driver's shifts, hours, days late and pay, and Driver shifts lists every clock in and out — both ready to export for payroll. See the Driver attendance guide.

Drivers can also tell Ava (Beta), the assistant in FleetCommander, Clock me in or ask How many hours have I worked this pay period? The office asks her Who hasn't clocked in yet? or fixes a time by saying it — Fix Maria's shift yesterday: out at 3:10 — and she shows the old and new times on a card before anything is saved. More on her page.