Free shift calendar
48/96 shift calendar 2026
48/96 stacks two 24 hour shifts back to back, then pays out 96 hours off. The cycle is 6 days long, and three platoons staggered two days apart keep one on duty every calendar day. Departments switch to it to halve the commutes: one trip to the station per cycle instead of two.
This page lays the cycle onto the real dates of 2026 for a platoon whose first shift falls on January 1: every 48, every 96, and every weekend that lands wholly inside one.
48/96 (24h), 2026
The grid shows a crew whose cycle starts January 1, 2026; other crews run the same rotation offset by a few days. The 6 day cycle does not divide evenly into weeks, so the rotation drifts through the weekdays. Other crews get a similar year, just shifted. To line the pattern up with your real start date, use the interactive shift pattern visualizer.
The 2026 numbers
Full weekends off
18
Jan 1 crew; all crews: 17.3 on average (16 to 18)
24 hour shifts
122
each runs 7am to 7am the next day
Recovery days
61
the morning after each shift
Longest stretch
2
consecutive shifts
How many hours is 48/96 in 2026?
Worked in full, 48/96 in 2026 comes to 122 shifts of 24 hours: 2,928 hours, an average of 56.1 hours a week across the whole year. Every one of those shifts runs from one morning to the next, so each covers two calendar days. These figures assume every scheduled shift is worked: no overtime, no swaps, no sick days, no leave.
Put 48/96 2026 in your calendar
One file, every shift of the year, ready for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Every shift imports as a 24 hour event, 7am to 7am the next morning. Edit the times after import if your department changes over at a different hour.
A perfect rotation fits in a calendar file. A real roster does not.
Swaps, overtime, and holiday cover break the pattern. Reading a real roster is what the Lumical app does: photograph it and every shift lands in your calendar, overnights included. We make it, so weigh the recommendation accordingly.
Common questions
What is the 48/96 shift schedule?
A 6 day fire service cycle: two 24 hour shifts in a row, then four days off. Same annual hours as 24/48, cut into bigger pieces: half the station trips, a longer break, and a 48 hour stretch away from home as the price.
How many hours is 48/96 in 2026?
2,928 hours for the January 1 platoon: 122 shifts of 24 hours worked back to back in pairs, averaging 56.1 a week. The cycle itself averages 56 hours a week (48 hours per 6 days).
How many full weekends does 48/96 give?
The 6 day cycle realigns with the week every 42 days, and in each stretch exactly two of the six weekends land wholly inside a 96. In 2026 that comes to 18 full weekends for the January 1 platoon, and between 16 and 18 depending on where a platoon sits in the rotation.
Why is only one day of the 96 a recovery day?
The 96 opens the morning you walk out of the second 24, so its first day is a recovery day and the other three are fully yours. In 2026 that makes 61 recovery days and 182 full days off, half the year. How rested the break starts depends on the second night at the station.
Is the 48 counted as one shift or two?
This page counts it as two 24 hour shifts back to back: two events in the calendar file, each running one morning to the next, with the handover between them. The longest stretch tile reads 2 for the same reason.