letsbefriends

Hello, I’ve read in multiple locations that Fedex has a schedule for everyone. The money isn’t great at my current regional airline but I’ve got a side gig that gets me by....this may seem like a silly question but I really have no idea how cargo schedules work or anyone to ask.
At my current seniority I can work 10-12 days a month both 1 and 2 day trips, and I like it that way. (I know it’s unusual but I love my wife) I fly exactly when I want and have trips that I easily drop or are picked up by others because of thier value in the rare case that I forgot to bid for some day off.
So here goes: if I were to get hired tomorrow, how long before I hold IND as an FO?
How long before I can hold a line that values high enough to work 10-12 days a month? (Or less?....did I mention I love my wife?) how long before weekends off? How long before you’re able to drop undesired trips?
How many decades* before Christmas (the busy season I understand) could be possibly off? Does fedex have “day” trips? If fedex has a schedule for everyone, what about a schedule for a guy who is there for just that, the schedule?

Fdxlag2

FedEx Schedules

USMCFDX

Check your PM.

Moosefire

Second year widebody FO. Held Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve/Day, and New Years Off.

Tbags4ever

Most (not all) of Peak season volume needs to be in the out stations for delivery by Christmas Eve. A majority of lines have Christmas Day off. If you fly into Christmas Eve, you’ll likely have a DH to end the pairing. There are enough guys who don’t love their wives and want to work on the holidays for the extra pay. I’d say you won’t have to work Christmas if you don’t want to.


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skypine27

It takes too long to explain. Short version is:

The domestic “gold standard” is 7 on / 7 off. That doesn’t necessarily you’ll do a 7 day trip because unlike pax carriers, each time the trip touches your domicile, the trip is over. But you can have 7 days worth of what you might think of as “locals” (really more like what’s called “stand-ups” in the commuter airline world) strung together, 7 days off, then repeat

The international gold standard (in my mind anyway) is one x 12-14 day trip (depending on if it’s a 4 week or 5 week bid month) and the rest of the month off. We call those “single departure lines”. I don’t think any pax carriers have those anymore.

Keep in mind that MEM is an s-hole that not many guys want to live in (ie there are a LOT of commuters here) so a big focus on our part is creating lines with the least possible commutes per month.

Hope that helps.

pinseeker

If you only want to work, or be on call for 1-2 days in a row at max, then no, it would be hard to make that kind of schedule work here. Not to say it couldn't happen, just that it would be highly unusual.

As far as holding Indy, it's hard to say. Everyone talks about the number of guys behind them when they get hired here, but the reality is that it's the number of guys ahead of you that really matters. If the pilot one seniority number senior to you wants what you want, the they get it.

We can attempt to drop trips and offer our trips to other pilots, but success varies.

If you only work 10 days a month every month and they are all trips, you can multiply your hourly rate by 720 and be pretty close to what you would make a year. For example, a second year 757 FO would make just over $100K flying 10 days a month. If you only stood 10 days of reserve every month, your pay would be closer to $65K.

Globemaster2827

I'm new so I'm still figuring some of this out, but here's my take.

If you were living in Indy you could probably bid Reserve, but you'd have to be able to hold Indy first. So worst case scenario would be if you were hired immediately after a system bid. Then you'd have to wait for a year to be awarded Indy and then how ever long to hold it.

On Reserve you don't normally get used much. You might only work 3 or 4 days a month, but I'm not sure if you'd be able to do your side gig or not. You'd have to answer that question. Reserve periods go from Midnight to Noon (Junior) and Noon to Midnight (Senior). There's also hotel reserve. You probably wouldn't want that if you lived in Indy.

I can't hold a line yet, but bidding Reserve might be your best bet. I'm sure they've got some sort of out and backs out of Indy too that might be more up your alley but then you will fly more days.

Noworkallplay

You can have all of this in the first year.

Overnitefr8

IND is a very small base, about 40 pilots in each seat. So there aren't many openings for it on bids.

Good news is, there isn't much weekend flying out of IND, so if you can hold it, you'll probably have the weekends off. Many of the FOs based there live in Indiana. Reserved goes very senior.