ROTATING SCHEDULE
48/96 schedule
Also called: 48-96, 2 on 4 off, 48 on 96 off, two-and-four
Common in: Fire departments, Fire-based EMS, Airport and industrial fire brigades
Two consecutive 24-hour shifts, then four days off. A six-day cycle for three crews, averaging 56 hours a week, now the most common firefighter schedule across the western United States.
48/96
Two consecutive 24-hour shifts, then four days off. A six-day cycle for three crews, averaging 56 hours a week, now the most common firefighter schedule across the western United States.
August 2026
August 202624-hour shifts · 6-day cycle
11 shifts · 264 hrs
Ranges are best–worst case: they depend on which day your employer's workweek starts.
Set the date cycle day 1 falls on (any date you know was the first day of your rotation) and pick your crew; the calendar then predicts every month that follows. The .ics holds a year of shifts from the first of the month shown, clocking in at 07:00 for days; adjust times in your calendar app. Open in ShiftCheck stamps the same rotation into the app and prices every week, overtime included.
48/96 by the numbers
- Cycle length
- 6 days · 2 shifts
- Shift length
- 24 hours
- Average hours / week
- 56
- Longest week
- 72 h
- Weeks over 40 h (per year)
- 52
- Overtime hours / year at 40 h
- 800–848
- Longest stretch on
- 2 days
- Longest break
- 4 days
Computed from the cycle with 24-hour shifts and a 40-hour weekly overtime threshold. Ranges show the best and worst case depending on which day your employer's workweek starts — that single setting can change your overtime substantially on this rotation. Fire departments normally pay under the FLSA section 7(k) work period (212 hours per 28 days) rather than a 40-hour week; the 40-hour figures are for comparison with other patterns.
How the 48/96 rotation works
Report for a 24-hour shift, stay for a second one, then go home for four days: that is the whole pattern. The cycle is six days and three crews cover it, each starting two days after the last. Crew A works days 1 and 2, crew B days 3 and 4, crew C days 5 and 6, and crew A is back on day 7.
Because six does not divide seven, your 48 slides through the week. A Monday–Tuesday 48 is followed by a Sunday–Monday one, then a Saturday–Sunday one, and so on, so over six weeks you have worked every day of the week exactly twice. The four days off are genuine days: the second shift ends on the morning of the first day off, and you do not return until the morning of the fifth.
Many departments treat the 48 as two shifts on paper, two separate 24-hour tours on two separate rosters, and let crews trade one of them, so a real calendar can show a single 24 followed by a trade. The generator models the standard 48.
Hours, overtime, and what it pays
Two 24-hour shifts in six days is 48 hours per cycle, an average of 56 a week, the same as the 24/48 it usually replaces; it simply groups the hours differently. Over a 28-day period that is 224 hours. The table above prices the pattern at a 40-hour threshold so it can be compared with 12-hour schedules, but that is not how firefighters are paid.
Fire protection employees are covered by the FLSA's section 7(k) partial exemption. A department chooses a work period between 7 and 28 days and owes overtime only for hours above the maximum for that period: 212 hours in 28 days, 204 in 27, 159 in 21, 106 in 14, 53 in 7. On a 28-day period a 48/96 firefighter works 224 hours, 12 above the threshold, so a small amount of built-in FLSA overtime is normal. Many departments use a 27-day period, where the 204-hour threshold produces similar built-in overtime, and pay it as a fixed FLSA line on each check.
Sleep and meal periods inside a 24 count as hours worked unless a written agreement excludes up to eight hours of sleep; interruptions for calls always count, and if you get less than five hours of sleep the whole period counts. Holiday pay, callback and trade rules come from your contract, not the FLSA. The overtime pay calculator handles the 7(k) threshold if you set overtime-after to your department's number.
Who uses it and why
The 48/96 spread through California fire departments from the mid-2000s and is now common across the western and mountain states, in fire-based EMS, and at airport and industrial fire brigades. Departments that switched from 24/48 report fewer commutes, lower sick-leave use and easier scheduling of training in the second 24; crews report a real four-day break instead of a run of 48-hour turnarounds.
Its critics point at the second 24: a busy station can leave a crew working its last twelve hours on little sleep. Departments manage this with mandatory rest policies and by watching call volume, and some very busy stations stay on 24/48 or move to 12-hour units.
Pros and cons
What changes when a department moves from 24/48 to 48/96.
- —Pro: four consecutive days off every six, without using leave.
- —Pro: half as many commutes and shift changes as the 24/48.
- —Pro: same 56-hour average as the 24/48, so pay and 7(k) calculations barely change.
- —Con: 48 hours straight, with the second day depending on how the first night went.
- —Con: the cycle slides through the week, so weekends rotate rather than repeat.
- —Con: long-block fatigue at high-call-volume stations.
FAQ
How many hours a week is 48/96?
56 on average: two 24-hour shifts in a six-day cycle. That is 224 hours in a 28-day period, and roughly 2,900 hours a year.
Do firefighters on 48/96 get overtime?
Not under the 40-hour rule. Fire departments use the FLSA section 7(k) exemption, which sets overtime after 212 hours in a 28-day work period, or the proportional figure for shorter periods. On a 28-day period the 48/96 works 224 hours, so 12 hours of FLSA overtime is built into every period unless your department's work period or contract says otherwise.
What is the difference between 48/96 and 24/48?
Same hours, different grouping. The 24/48 works one 24-hour shift then two days off; the 48/96 stacks two of those shifts together and takes the four days off in one block. Both average 56 hours a week; the 48/96 halves the number of commutes and gives a real break, at the cost of a 48-hour stretch.
Does sleep time count as work on a 24-hour shift?
Usually yes. An employer may exclude up to eight hours of sleep from a shift of 24 hours or more only by agreement, with adequate sleeping facilities, and only for sleep actually taken: interruptions for calls count as work, and if you get less than five hours of sleep the whole period counts. Most fire departments do not exclude sleep time and simply pay the shift as 24 hours.
Related: 24/48 · Kelly · 4 on, 4 off · All schedules · Overtime pay calculator
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