Laid Off Miles??

If I bid on a job out of town and actually win the bid, how do I buy myself time to get there and find a place, do I Lay Off Miles and if so, how long does that give me?

When you say bidding out of town do you mean borrowing out? If it is borrowing out then they usually give you 48hrs to report once your awarded the bid. Sometimes more depending on if you talk to the right person. Otherwise its typical to be put into that status once you are already borrowed out to a location. At least in my neck of the woods its about for every 30 days you get for days off a month which CMS places you in the LM status. Not sure if you local agreement is exactly the same. If you just bidding on a job somewhere else in you Service Unit then that is totally different and you may want to speak to someone CMS or local mananger or you union rep.

Thanks, I was referring to bidding on jobs in my service unit, but out of town.

Hey Power. When CMS calls you and tells you that you are placed on that board, they will tell you how many times out you are, etc. At than time, I would ask the CMS person what options are open to you. It depends on what type of job you bid on, yard, local, road? You may just have to LS it for a day or so. In there eyes, you bid it, you take and get there like you live there.

I was not afforded any time when I bid into a Salt Lake City engineers slot when I was living in Vegas. I got the call form CMS at 1600, and told I was 6 times out and it looked like I would get called at 0200. I had to LS in order to drive up to SLC.

Good luck and keep at it. Your not the first, and will not be the last.

Thanks Slchub, thats why I come here

PowerPro, you know you cover Brownsville to Avondale and all points in between. I was at LS-372, and was forced to a pool job in Kingsville, a 5 hour drive from Spring. When I got to be twice out, it was time to start driving, towards Kingsville. (I knew it wouldn't be for more than a few weeks, so no need to relocate) Calling in every hour to see if I was up yet, sometimes I arrived only to work, sometimes I arrived, only to lay around for 24 hours. No way of knowing. Make a round trip to Brownsville, then go home again, with 6 guys ahead of me, on the pool. If you bid it, you own it. As mentioned, you must cover the job on the next duty cycle, after being awarded, unless prior arrangements have been made, or you are "sick". The other option, is to make the bid/bump, after you get where you want to work. I also was forced to Harlingen, Beaumont, Angleton, Livonia, Eagle Lake and all points along the waterfront, in the H'town area..........

The way a bulletin clerk put it to me was if you bid on a job and won it they don't have to give you relocation time because you requested to go where ever. If your forced somewhere you get 72 hours.

Yeah, it's all cool, they called me and told me I'd been awarded the job and that I was 6 out, however, my train was out of town, so it all worked out good

Great. Enjoy the new digs. And keep an open mind. Change is good, even small ones.