Regardless of oil price, this will save our company, employees, and the environment some money and damage. Now I have to see if TPTB will buy off on it.
Below is an email I sent off to the Chief of Land Surveys in our company.
XXXX and XXX,
I’ve been doing some research on trends in fuel prices and its my opinion that we may be in for further increases to $5 and then to $6/gallon. Given that fuel costs are something that not only affects our employees that make long commutes to work, but also is a cost of doing business for XXXXX Inc., it may be time to consider a 4 day X 10hr work week for our crews. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this way of working.
Advantages:
1) Less visits to a job site given the increased productivity of a 10 hr day versus an 8 hr workday.
2) 20% lower fuel costs to both the commuting employee and also XXXXX surveying trucks since we make less trips to a job site.
3) An extra day off during the work week so that an employee can take care of personal business lowering absence rates.
4) Does not affect over-time.
Disadvantages:
1) In the current configuration of four survey crews, you would only have two crews available on Monday and Friday if they were alternated with two crews having Monday off and two crews having Friday off.
2) My assumption is that XXXX would need to work his regular five day schedule in order to speak to clients, attend meetings, etc. XXXX, as the survey manager, he may of course decide to handle this in anyway he desires.
3) In order to have someone in responsible charge while the crews are out, for example AAA card for towing, talking with contractors etc, if XXX wanted to work this 4 day schedule, he might need one of the other LS’s to alternate either Mondays or Fridays to make sure we have this covered.
Anyway, this is just an idea to kick around to see if you managers think this would be worthwhile.
XXXXX
Survey Project Manager.
