Holiday calendar for transport and fleet operators

When holidays are also peak days

Each line of a transport business has its own holiday pattern. Intercity bus operators add services before Diwali, Chhath, Pongal and Ganesh Chaturthi, when people travel home. Staff transport follows the client's calendar, so a cab fleet serving a Gurugram BPO runs on Holi because the client does. School bus fleets stop for summer vacation and the Diwali break. Truck fleets see loads fall around Diwali as factories shut, then rise sharply after it.

Plan the calendar line by line. A single company holiday list that says the fleet is closed on Diwali means nothing to the bus depot running double services that week. Keep one list of paid holidays per depot, and a separate duty chart per business line that names who works each festival and on which vehicles.

Holiday duty: pay or time off

Decide before the year starts whether holiday duty is paid as overtime or compensated with a comp-off, and name the drivers on each holiday's duty chart weeks ahead. If your policy pays it as overtime at a multiplier of 2, the arithmetic is simple. Salim is a staff transport driver on ₹25,200 gross; with a 30-day month his day rate is ₹840 and his hourly rate ₹105. An 8-hour duty on Holi pays 8 x ₹105 x 2 = ₹1,680 on top of his salary.

If the depot gives comp-off instead, HR grants a credit that Salim can use within the expiry period. Some fleets let the driver choose. Whatever the rule, apply it to every driver at the depot, because drivers compare notes over tea at the yard.

• Duty chart for each holiday, published at least three weeks ahead
• Holiday multiplier of 2 or more when paid as overtime
• Comp-off with an expiry when time off is given instead
• Festival duty rotated so the same drivers do not work every holiday

Depot-wise lists and school vacations

Apply state festivals only to the depots in that state: Pongal for the Chennai depot, Durga Puja days for Kolkata, Bihu for Guwahati. Because drivers come from many states, make Chhath, Eid and Guru Nanak Jayanti optional, letting each driver pick a set number of them in the year. School bus drivers need a separate plan for summer vacation, which is not a holiday in the calendar but a stretch without routes. Many operators use those weeks for earned leave, workshop duties, vehicle fitness preparation and refresher training.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Create a holiday list for each depot's state in Holiday Calendars, applying every festival only to the branches it belongs to.
2. List festivals such as Chhath and Eid as optional holidays capped at a few picks a year, then check who picked what before the festival duty chart is drawn.
3. Decide the reward for holiday duty in the overtime policy: a holiday multiplier of at least 2, or comp-off credits in place of pay.
4. Mark fixed-date national holidays as recurring so the next year's list is ready early.
5. Post each holiday's duty chart on the Company Wall to that depot as an announcement that requires acknowledgement.

Read more about holiday calendars in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions