How to write a school bus driver time off policy (and cover the routes)

A school bus company doesn't work like an office. Drivers work split shifts, many are part-time, there are no routes in the summer or over school breaks, and when one driver is out, a route still has to run at 6:45 tomorrow morning. A school bus driver time off policy written for that world saves arguments: drivers know what they get and how to ask, and the office knows in time to cover the route.

Here's what to put in the policy, how to handle PTO for part-time drivers, and how to track it all without a wall calendar.

What a school bus driver time off policy should cover

• The kinds of time off — sick, vacation, personal, unpaid days off — and which ones are paid.
• How much — days a year for each kind, or how it's earned.
• When the year starts — January 1, the start of the school year, or each person's hire date.
• Carry-over — whether unused days roll into next year, and how many.
• How to ask, and how far ahead — for example, vacation requests at least two weeks ahead.
• Calling in sick — who to call, and by what time before the first run.
• Busy days — dates you'd rather not approve vacation, like the first week of school.
• What a paid day is worth — hours for drivers paid by the hour, runs or shifts for drivers paid per run.

Fit it to the school year

Most drivers don't work when school is out, so a vacation day on a school break doesn't need approving — there's no route to cover. That changes how you think about vacation: most requests will be for a day or two in the school year, for an appointment, a family event or a long weekend. Encourage drivers to plan around the school calendar and to ask early for anything in the busy weeks.

A time-off year that starts with the school year often makes more sense than January 1 for bus drivers. Pick one and say so in the policy.

PTO for part-time school bus drivers

Many drivers work two runs a day and fewer than 40 hours a week. Common ways to handle their paid time off:

• A set number of days a year for each kind — simple to explain, and a day means "your usual runs that day".
• Days in proportion to hours — a driver who works half the hours gets half the days.
• Earned per hours worked — the way many sick leave laws are written.

Whatever you choose, say what a paid day is worth. A driver paid per run should know that a paid sick day pays their usual two runs; a driver paid by the hour should know whether it's their usual hours or a set number.

Check your local sick leave rules

A growing number of states and cities require paid sick leave, including for part-time employees, and set how it's earned, how it carries over and what you can ask for as proof. Your policy has to give at least what the law in each place you operate requires — check before you write the numbers.

Track time off for bus drivers in one place

Requests on scraps of paper, texts to dispatch and a calendar on the wall are how time off gets lost. You want one place where drivers ask, the office approves or declines, and everyone can see what's left:

1. 1The driver asks — the kind, the days, and the hours for part of a day.
2. 2The office approves or declines, with a note, and the driver is told.
3. 3The balance updates, and the office can see when someone asks for more than they have left.
4. 4Paid time off flows into the pay for the period, so payroll doesn't re-type it.

Cover routes when a driver is off

Time off isn't only an HR question — it's a dispatch question. The moment a request is approved, someone should check: which runs does this driver have that day, and who's free to take them? Keep a short list of substitute drivers who know the area, and decide in the policy how much notice you need to find cover. For a no-show morning, the call-in time matters more than anything — a driver who calls at 6:30 for a 6:45 run leaves you nothing to work with.

Doing it in FleetCommander

With driver attendance and time off on, FleetCommander handles both the request and the cover:

• Kinds of time off are set in Settings › Company › Time off. Every company starts with Sick, Vacation and Day off — all unpaid until you tick Paid; rename, delete or add your own. Tick Paid and say what a whole paid day counts as — hours a day for per-hour pay, or shifts a day for per-shift pay.
• Drivers ask under Time off in their menu or on My Day: the kind, the From and To days, and — with All day unticked — the times for part of a day.
• The office decides on Drivers › Time off: Approve or Decline, with an optional note. Add time off for a driver records a call-in sick straight away. The driver is told either way.
• When a driver with a route is off in the next 14 days and nobody else is on that run, the route is flagged Needs a substitute — on the route's page and in Routes needing a substitute on the Dashboard — with the best free drivers to cover it. Press a name and they're put on that run for just those days, and told.
• Paid time off is added to the pay in the Driver hours & pay report.

With the HR section on (it's being switched on company by company, for people with HR access), HR › Time off shows what everyone has left of each kind — 6 left of 10, with carry-over and what's still waiting for a decision, and anyone over in red. You set the days a year for each kind, how many days carry over, and when the time-off year starts (January 1, another month, or each person's hire date) in Settings › Company › Time off, and can give one person more or fewer days on their page. When a driver asks for more than they have left, the request says so (2 days more than Dana has left of Vacation this year) — and it can still be approved. Aides' and office staff's time off is recorded in HR too, and the Leave balances report prints or exports it.

Ava (Beta), the assistant in FleetCommander, answers the morning question first: Who's off today? names drivers, aides and office staff who are out. Ask her whos out tmrw, who is off between Oct 12 and Oct 16 or, with HR access, Staff time off this month. She reads; approving still happens on Drivers › Time off. See her page.

Related reading: the school bus driver time clock, are drivers paid between routes?, and what to include in a driver handbook — the free handbook template has an attendance and time off section to fill in. For the full HR picture, see HR software for school bus companies.