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24/48 vs 24/72
One extra platoon is the whole difference — and it changes the average week by fourteen hours.
| 24/48 | vs | 24/72 |
|---|---|---|
| The cycle | ||
| 24 hours | Tour length | 24 hours |
| 3 days | Cycle length | 4 days |
| 56 hours | Average week | 42 hours |
| 3 | Platoons needed | 4 |
| About 10 | Tours in a month | About 7 or 8 |
| Recovery | ||
| NoOne day, mostly sleep | Full day of recovery before the next tour | YesThree days |
| No | Room for a second job that doesn't cost you sleep | Yes |
| No | Better on fatigue and long-term health | Yes |
| The catch | ||
| No | Needs another platoon to staff | Yes |
| Yes56 a week | More base hours on the roster | No42 a week |
| No | More overtime usually available | Yes |
The fourth platoon is the story
A 24/48 covers a station with three platoons and asks each for about fifty-six hours a week. A 24/72 adds a fourth, which drops the average to about forty-two and turns every tour into a three-day recovery.
What it buys
Ten tours a month becomes seven or eight. Three days between tours is real recovery rather than one day spent sleeping. Departments that have moved usually did it on fatigue and health grounds, and the research backs them.
What it costs
Money, and not just the department's. A fourth platoon costs the agency, which is why it is far from universal. And fewer scheduled hours can mean less base pay, so what looks like a straight win is often a trade — more overtime available, less guaranteed.
That trade is worth measuring rather than guessing at, which means keeping your own record of the hours you actually work rather than the ones on the roster.
Full detail on each pattern: 24/48 and 48/96 · 24/72 schedule
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In Canada this is a bargaining question
Everything above holds either side of the border — the cycles are the cycles. What changes here is who decides, and what the two cost.
A Canadian service does not simply adopt a rotation. The schedule sits in the collective agreement as a compressed work week article, and the Toronto Police Association and OPP agreements both carry one. In the OPP's case the terms of a compressed work week agreement are themselves subject to the grievance procedure. So moving from 24/48 to 24/72 is not a decision a new inspector makes — it is bargained, and it stays until it is bargained again.
It also does not follow that a whole service runs one of them. The Toronto Police Association agreement carries a Shift Schedules schedule in the plural, so which one you work can depend on where you are posted. The answer is in the agreement.
What the province still decides
Both of these run the same shift length, so provincial overtime rules treat them alike — but the rules themselves differ. Ontario triggers overtime after 44 hours in a week and has no daily trigger. British Columbia triggers after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, with double time past 12. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador calculate it at 1.5 times the minimum wage rather than your own rate. Where the cycle does not fit a calendar week, hours can be averaged over two to four weeks by written agreement — and in a unionised service, your union makes that agreement.
Checked 7 August 2026. Provincial rules are quoted from the Employment Standards Act of the province named and, for Quebec, from the CNESST; federal provisions from the Treasury Board agreements. Employment standards are amended and collective agreements are renegotiated — check the current text before relying on a threshold or a figure.
The shift schedule you actually work
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