The office · Owner · dispatchers · HR · 5 min read
Time off, asked in the app
Drivers ask for time off from their phone, and how much notice they give decides what the ask is — your Call Out Policy as a ruler. A request waits for somebody in the office to answer it; late notice and a call-out mark the day at once, and a call-out goes straight to the driver’s Dispatch chat. It comes switched off: nothing changes for anybody until you turn it on.
Turn it on
Settings › Time off
Open Settings, then the Time off card.
It reads OFF until somebody with Settings edit turns it on. While it is off, drivers see nothing new.
Check When it counts.
Under 24 hours before the shift is a call-out; 24 to 48 is late notice; 48 or more is a request. Type your own policy’s hours if they differ.
Answer within sets how long a request may wait — after that the station’s answerers are reminded once a day.
Add your policy’s words.
One line each, eight at most — what your Call Out Policy says a call-out costs. Drivers read them before they call out, under the app’s own counts.
Add closed dates, if you have them.
Peak, say: a name, the dates and the stations (none ticked is every station). Inside them the phone takes no requests and says why. Call-outs still come through.
Press Turn on time off in the app.
Drivers see Ask for time off on their Schedule at once. Tell them first — each company has its own drivers’ guide at /guide/time-off on your portal’s address, ready to share.
What a driver sees
On Schedule › Ask for time off a driver picks one of their shifts, and a ruler shows where the press falls — counted from the press to the start of that shift, on the station’s clock, and stamped on the ask so nobody can argue it later.
- 48 hours or more — a request
- Not a call-out. They stay scheduled until somebody answers, and their phone rings with the answer. They may pick why (six words, nothing medical) and paid or unpaid.
- 24 to 48 hours — late notice
- The day is marked Called Out. It counts as a call-out unless the shift is filled — you decide after the day.
- Under 24 hours — a call-out
- The day is marked Called Out on the schedule and on a built board, and the driver’s line lands in their Dispatch chat.
Before a call-out or late notice the phone shows what it costs, from the same rules the office uses: this week’s bonus, their call-outs this month, a weekend missed in the last 4 weeks, the next step on the write-up ladder — then your policy’s lines.
Answer requests
Schedule › Time off
Open Time off beside the station chips on Schedule.
Its number is the requests waiting. Home’s Tomorrow card says the same — Time off to answer — beside who called out or sent late notice for today and tomorrow.
Read the row.
Each request sits beside that day’s cover at the station — how many would be left for Amazon’s routes, covered or add N — and the driver’s last 90 days. A request inside closed dates wears the closed dates’ name.
Press Approve, or Not approved… with a line for the driver.
Approve writes the time off the way Who’s out does, so the week follows — built or not. If that day’s board is already built, the page asks whether to take them off it.
Not approved keeps them scheduled; the line you type is what their phone reads.
Late notice
Late notice counts as a call-out only if the shift goes unfilled. Dispatch is pushed when it arrives, so the shift can be offered to other drivers. After the day, the row says whether every one of Amazon’s routes ran — then press Not a call-out or Counts as a call-out. The driver is told either way.
Call-outs
A call-out from the app is the driver’s own message in their Dispatch chat — “Calling out of my shift on Sat Oct 31 (10:55) — 13 hours’ notice. Sent from Time off.” — so it rings exactly who a message there rings today, through quiet hours where Settings › Chat says the Dispatch desk does, and waits until somebody answers. Answer it there as you would any message.
The day is already marked Called Out: on the schedule, and on the board if it is built — the van stays on the row for you to move. A doctor’s note or an emergency is excused on Operations › Attendance › To review, as any call-out is.
Who answers
Answering is the permission Answer time off, under Scheduling on Ops team › Roles. It starts with every job that could record time off before — Scheduling edit or People & roster edit — and an owner moves it like any other. Once a day, while a request waits past its days, the station’s answerers are reminded.