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24/48 and 48/96 schedules
Two ways to cover a twenty-four hour post with three crews: one tour then two days off, or two tours then four days off.
- Shift length
- 24 or 48 hours
- Cycle
- 3 or 6 days
- Average week
- 56 hours
- Crews
- 3
What these schedules are
Both cover a post continuously with three crews on twenty-four hour tours. They differ only in how the tours are grouped.
On a 24/48, a crew works one tour then takes two days off — a three-day cycle. On a 48/96, a crew works two tours back to back then takes four days off — a six-day cycle.
The hours are identical either way. What changes is whether your time off arrives in two-day pieces or four-day blocks.
How the cycle runs
The 24/48 cycle, twice through:
24-hour tourDay off
48/96 and the four-day break
The 48/96 takes the same arithmetic and rearranges it: forty-eight hours on, ninety-six off. Two full days at the station, then four days clear.
Crews that switch to it rarely want to go back, because four consecutive days off is enough for real travel or a solid block of off-duty work. The argument against it is the second consecutive twenty-four hour tour, which comes at the end of an already long stretch.
Both patterns drift through the week, since neither three nor six divides into seven.
Hours and overtime
Both average fifty-six hours a week. Fire and EMS agencies generally work under extended work-period rules that set the overtime threshold well above forty.
That makes personal hour tracking more valuable, not less — the threshold is unusual enough that errors are easy to miss.
Who works them
Twenty-four hour tours are the norm across the fire service:
- Fire departments
- EMS and ambulance
- Airport rescue and firefighting
- Industrial fire brigades
- Some corrections and sheriff's posts
- Remote-site emergency cover
The trade-off
What works
- Long breaks, especially on 48/96
- Few shift starts a month
- Simple cycles that are easy to remember
- Off-duty work fits neatly into the days off
What hurts
- Twenty-four hours on duty with broken sleep
- Fifty-six hour average weeks
- Both cycles drift through the week
- Two tours back to back on a 48/96 is a long stretch
Put it on your calendar
Both patterns run on 24-hour tours and both average fifty-six hours, but the recovery arrives in very different sizes.
Save whichever one your department runs and the calendar fills itself in from there.
Common questions
What is the difference between 24/48 and 48/96?
The total hours are the same. A 24/48 works one twenty-four hour tour then takes two days off; a 48/96 works two tours back to back then takes four days off.
How many hours a week is a 24/48 schedule?
About fifty-six on average.
Which is better for family time?
Most crews who have worked both prefer the 48/96 for the four-day block, at the cost of a second consecutive tour on duty.
Put the 24/48 and 48/96 schedules on your calendar
Save the 24/48 and 48/96 schedules once, tell BlueShifts the day your cycle starts, and the rest of the year draws itself. The off-duty jobs, the hours and the pay go on top of it.
Scan to install — or hold it up for the officer next to you.
