TipTip35

If you guys dont mind answering how many days (overnight) a month would you say you average away from home (especially FDX and UPS pilots). Also does living at your domicile help significantly to minimize time away?

RedeyeAV8r

I believe we have been over this before.

As a general Rule............Commuting will add 2-3 days per month more away from home. That is probably true for any Airline you work for. Commuting sux......but it is often better than living in places like MEM, DTW, EWR....(no offense, live in 2 out of 3)

FDX.......On average as a line holder figure working 14-15 days per month..............if you jumpseat imto /out of these trips add 2-3 more days per month on average.

Reserve you will have 13 days(or nights) off per 4 week month, or 15 days off in a 5 week month..............Reserve scheds can vary...........
You could stand 13 in a row (15 in a row in 5 week month)
You could have 4 days on 3 off 4days on, 4 off, 5 days 0n etc....................... You can see if you had to Jumpseat in how this would affect days off.

There are exceptions to this rule.
If you are Very senior and say you live in the NYC or SFO area (for example)and you can hold a line where trips begin and end with a commercial Dead head to these cities...........you can see how this would be benenficial...........................You simply drive to work.
You must be Senior and the Optimizer is slowly doing away with Dead heads...........God forbid if we ever get PBS. City and Deadhead purity will go away.

boxhauler

If you live in domicile you can expect to be gone anywhere from 8-14 days a month. more senority usually means fewer days gone. IF you commute ( which I do) you can plan on adding 1-2 days more time away from home. A price to pay to live where you want and the wife is happy. IF you can hold and fly the trips that start and layover in your home city, BONUS! that might cut 2-4 days off your schedule for the month and your get to see the family every day. It all depends on what you want for your life.... I've flown with guys who live in FL and commute to Subic. I picked up a guy jumpseating out of Moscow (living there and chasing russian women). We have people living everywhere (Brazil,europe,china, austrailia, Maui, belize, virgin islands to name a few) who use the worldwide fedex system to commute to work. its a beautiful system.

RedeyeAV8r

Box hauler.......... you know that 14 days is more the norm..................there are only a handful of lines that guys work only 10 days or so and these all the long haul hard time intl runs to STN, VCP and CDG.

Factor in the day before jumpseat to get to work and the jumpseat home after work.........and these Senior 10 day lines 4 to 5 departure lines become a 14 day a month line if you commute..............

Factor in required training twice a year.................
Factor in those "Dead" Off days.......2 days off betwwen trips that you can't go home for so you sit in Domicile for 2 days of your off time.

Bottom line.............It is still a good job but true days off can be decieving.
Commuting is often a choice..........until furloughs and downsizing hit. I know I've been there...............So far a FDX we have been lucky in that dept but don't ever count on that not happening.

boxhauler

As i said, IF you live in MEM and are senior enough you can be gone only 8 days a month. Those VCP/STN are great for guys living in mem, but not commuter friendly. Yes, 14 days is the norm for the majority of the lines. But my point was there is no "standard" time away from home. too many variables. and it is a geat airline to work at as a comutter, probably the best!

de727ups

As a UPS commuter. I'm away from home 12 nights out of 28. If you lived in base and bid reserve, you could do better, sometimes much better, it just depends. I don't think living in base and bidding a line saves you much at all. On the other hand, if you live in base and can hold turns (I think turns are senior), you could be home every night (day).

L'il J.Seinfeld

Depending on airframe, but at UPS a junior guy can be home all but 1 or 2 days a month. That's right, I said all but 1 or 2!! Why would you waste so much time commuting when you could be at home with your family? Louisville is a nice town. Certainly better than most places the military has stationed you.

Freightpuppy

True, but everyone doesn't want to live in Louisville.

HSLD

I hope you don't mind...I added a poll to your thread

Living at a domicile is the only way to have decent quality of life, but that's just me. Plan an extra day away from home, maybe two, for each trip you fly during the month.

Ranger

There's one added factor with not commuting. The stress level goes down significantly. I commuted for 18 years with three different carries before I bid to live in my domicile. I do very little deviating from scheduled paxes and it's amazing how much I don't care if the pax doesn't go. And simply driving to work is awfully nice.