The SWAPA Number

In each podcast we explore a number that will help us explain an issue that matters to our Pilots. This might be a scheduling metric, a Company financial number that impacts us, or anything else that has significance to us as SWAPA Pilots.

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The SWAPA Number

26 (Fatigue, Scott Hutchinson)

June 17, 2024 • SWAPA • Season 5 • Episode 13

Today's SWAPA Number is 26. That's 26 fatigue calls per 10,000 duty periods, which is our current fatigue rate. That's less than half of what it was a year ago and one of the lowest since the start of the pandemic. So today on the show, we're going to talk with SWAPA Safety and FSAC member Scott Hutchinson about recent fatigue trends, what's new in Contract 2020, and what our pilots can do to help manage the process.

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Kurt Heidemann (00:03):

(00:44):

I'm Kurt Heidemann.

Amy Robinson (00:45):

And I'm Amy Robinson, and here's our interview with Scott.

(00:47):

Okay, so Hutch, we had some pretty terrible fatigue rates back in 2021 all the way through 2023. What is this year looking like?

Scott Hutchinson (01:03):

We're actually off to a really great start when it comes to having our fatigue rates lower than those last two years, and also more in respect to historical averages. We've had two months that had small declines and two months that had large declines back to post-COVID seasonal averages, so that was very promising.

Kurt Heidemann (01:23):

And what do you attribute those changes to so far this year?

Scott Hutchinson (01:26):

I have some guesses, but it's really hard to put concrete data to it because I think we need to have a little more time play out. I definitely believe contract 2020 had a very large role in that. There were so many changes that had a fatigue touch to it that are already been implemented, which I believe have been helpful.

(01:45):

A lot of it, too, has to do with how the Company chooses to implement flying with the resources they have. And what I mean by resources, the amount of aircraft they have, how long that aircraft flies in any given day, and how many pilots they have at their disposal to fly those. So they've changed their schedule a lot and they're operating differently now than they were the year before that. And then we're operating differently before the year before that. Based on how early in the morning they choose to start, how late they choose to fly. The seasonality of summer flying used to go through August. Now it's ending mid- to early August. There's a lot more changes that they've been tweaking with.

Amy Robinson (02:24):

Currently, what are the major causes of fatigue calls?

Scott Hutchinson (02:27):

The actual causes haven't changed a bit. It's just basically the veracity and the quantity that we've seen changes. So, our number one overriding root cause that the FSAG labels and assigns to every single fatigue report, an event would be extended wakefulness due to extended duty. Typically, that extended duty was a combination of reassignments. Those reassignments were massive in the past. There are far less happening now because the schedule is running very smoothly.

(03:00):

When the flying schedule runs smoothly, they just simply don't need to use Sky Solver as much, and we also haven't had too many significant weather events and those and ATC type issues just lengthen our day. Those are the delays that get built in where all of a sudden now you have a two or three hour delay at the gate.

(03:18):

Our second and third, which are always kind of a tie and back and forth, are problems with company assigned hotels and also shortened rest issues. So the first one, extended wakefulness due to a long duty day, is the complete opposite of rest. So if one gets out of whack, the other one also gets equally affected. So it's natural to see those two there together. The hotels are an area that honestly, out of the many, many changes that we saw in contract 2020, haven't seen any yet with regard to how it affects fatigue.

Kurt Heidemann (03:55):

Scott, before we move on, one thing you did say was FSAG. For the listeners that aren't really familiar, describe what the FSAG is, who's on it, what the role is, and how did it come about?

Scott Hutchinson (04:05):

Sure. Yeah. So the FSAG, the Fatigue Safety Advisory Group, it's a joint work group between Southwest and SWAPA. It's chaired by Southwest Flight Ops Safety Department. And then we have representatives from Southwest crew scheduling leadership, and also planning leadership. On the SWAPA side, we have myself representing safety, and we also have scheduling analytics representative.

Kurt Heidemann (04:33):

And then you mentioned with the new contract, a lot of the contractual changes. What are some of the most important ones, whether they've been implemented or not yet, that we did get in 2020?

Scott Hutchinson (04:43):

It's a pretty long list and some of them are directly related to fatigue, but the vast majority of them just have very strong fatigue touches. So you couldn't look up or search the contract and "fatigue" and see this massive list. But nearly every section and chapter 12, Pilot Scheduled Execution, has changes that were based on fatigue type of things. The ones that come truly to mind that were probably the most problematic after years and years of collecting the data and understanding where their problems were, whereas we really shored up very solid language on what is fatigue and what is not, and procedures on how to prevent our pilots from getting into those positions.

(05:29):

So I'll just give a few examples. And again, this is just a very small sample set, but determining the lack of an eight hour sleep opportunity, that is now solely dependent upon the pilot's determination. We even spell out many different reasons of things that you need to consider, or you can consider but not limited to, in order to make sure you have that. The problem in the past was, when you've had legal rest down to the minimum of 10 hours according to the FAA, the Company always assumed eight always fits within 10.

(06:01):

And that does sound like easy math, but as we all know, there are all kind of problems that happen during rest or just things that take time that shouldn't count towards your sleep opportunity. And the Company ignored those, for the lack of a better term. They were very silent on it and they said that, "it's your time to use if you choose to eat or take a shower, personal hygiene, that's your problem." That's not their problem when it came to the eight-hour opportunity. So again, massive change now that the pilot gets to make that determination.

(06:33):

And the one point I want to make sure is our pilots know that. There are so many changes within the contract 2020, some of these are a little more down in the weeds and they don't happen to you every single day, but this is something that, when you're having those bad days, it's likely going to be possibly a factor. So just those things that I mentioned. Time for personal hygiene, uniform preparation, company required paperwork, all those things, those should not count until when you are setting your alarm clock and then having to report down to the lobby, you still should have eight hours of a chance for sleep.

Amy Robinson (07:06):

And what are some changes that maybe aren't specific to fatigue or fatigue pay that might make a difference that maybe haven't been enacted yet?

Scott Hutchinson (07:16):

I only mentioned the one and the last thing, and I feel like I've done a disservice not mentioning others, but going onto these more indirectly related topics, it's things like finding true volunteers for JA events. Now we have voluntary double time and that this person who purposely is raising their hand saying, "I want to do this," instead of forcing someone into an involuntary assignment.

(07:38):

We have codified, the Company following FAA's one phone call policy. In our last contract, they were allowed to make three phone calls during rest and purposely try to wake you up and get your attention. That's no longer allowed. Our reserve rules have changed dramatically. Most of them haven't been fully implemented yet, but things like release to report will be tremendous for pilots commuting or just trying to sleep in longer, particularly on those AM wraps. So it's going to allow our pilots just to get a lot more rest to be prepared for that duty period coming up or that pairing.

(08:16):

We have all kinds of new rules regarding adjusting your release time when it takes too long to get to the hotel due to various reasons. You now can call scheduling and they're required to annotate the delay time it took you to get to your hotel regardless of the reason. We have some neat things that we've always been doing kind of individually but have never really been codified. Again, that was the main purpose of contract 2020 was to put into writing some of the processes that we all agreed to, but they were never really legally bound to follow.

(08:50):

One of the neat ones, I think, is being able to stay in your hotel room when you know you're sitting on a long delay, greater than 60 minutes, instead of being required to check out, take the bus to the airport and sit there for an unknown amount of time, now you have the ability to remain phone contactable and stay in your hotel room. I think everyone would agree that's a much more pleasant, comfortable, less fatiguing situation.

Kurt Heidemann (09:21):

Those are all good changes, Hutch, but let's go on into the point of, there are still going to be fatiguing days, fatiguing issues, and guys will call fatigued. Has that process changed much under the new contract? The actual act of calling in?

Scott Hutchinson (09:36):

The actual act has not changed at all, other than we changed up some of the language to what we were already doing, in that the company can no longer request you to attempt rest like the old language stated. So that's been removed. When you say, "I'm calling out fatigued," you can do it in advance. You don't have to try to get six more hours of sleep and then purposely wake up to say, "Hey, this isn't working out." So a good example would be, you're getting in late to your hotel, you're down to 10 hours of rest minimum, but it's 4:00 in the morning now. You know that you're not going to be able to fly a 12-hour duty day tomorrow, 10 hours from this moment. The pilots desperately want to tell scheduling and guess what? Our scheduling department leadership understands that and they actually want to hear an advance fatigue call versus waiting into the morning.

Amy Robinson (10:30):

So just for our members that maybe have not listened to your previous podcast, can you walk them through the process of a fatigue call?

Scott Hutchinson (10:38):

Yeah, so whenever you determine that you will not be rested to complete the duty period in front of you, you simply call crew scheduling and you inform them that you want to declare fatigued. And they're going to do one of two things, either keep you into rest or get you into rest, or possibly ask you your ability to deadhead down the line to farther into your pairing where you can maybe catch up and do flying either later that day or possibly the next day.

(11:06):

We call that the recovery plan. So, it's true, there are no questions asked as to why you are fatigued at that phone call, but there are questions asked as to how they can best help you. And a lot of times our pilots struggle, because this process is unknown. So they're really not sure of what they can or should say, and they really don't know their options. But it's really, you're in the driver's seat and for the most part, our scheduling apartment does a very, very good job of helping walk you through that when you're just unsure.

Kurt Heidemann (11:37):

So I've been out on the line, Hutch, and I've gotten tired and I still got two or three legs. You said I can call in without attempting rest. Can I call in and say, "Hey, I've got one more leg in me," or "I'm going to be wasted by the time I get there?"

Scott Hutchinson (11:50):

Yes, and that is something that is not new to contract 2020. It's something that we've been doing for six plus years now. We call it a proactive or downline fatigue call. And again, it's an area where both the pilots had this need to want to give advanced notice, but also scheduling kind of wanting to know that notice, as well so they have time to cover a flight later down the road.

(12:15):

And the process is very much identical to a regular fatigue call other than, this does trigger a short phone call with the chief pilot on call who will be conferenced in. And the sole point of bringing him in is not to question why you're fatigued, it's simply to evaluate your present level of fitness and help you determine that you are okay to continue. And they're going to ask you some really basic questions like, "how much sleep did you get last night? How much did you get the night before? What was the quality like? What kind of a duty day do you have in front of you? How long will you be awake?"

(12:49):

And they're inputting all this into a spreadsheet that is based on what's called a sleep-wake model, which has been scientifically validated to give some sort of basic level of risk assignment. And it literally spits out low, medium, or high. And if you rate high, they say, "Hey, I'm sorry Kurt, I really appreciate you wanting to continue to fly, but we're going to pull you right now." But the majority of the time, it allows you to continue, like you said, "Hey, I just want to do what I was originally assigned up until station X, but that extra leg that you've added onto me, I know I can't do because it brings me to 4:00 in the morning and I'm just not prepared for that."

Amy Robinson (13:27):

Are there any provisions in contract 2020 that are new protections for a fatigue call that we maybe didn't have prior to?

Scott Hutchinson (13:36):

We definitely increased the amount of planned rest and also decreased the amount of planned duty. And just like our last contract, they had a plan section and an execute section, and all that got tightened up, and actually much more simplified. So, for instance, our duty day now is planned at notification no later than 12 hours, up to 13 if it included the deadhead, but it can only be executed an hour and a half longer than that. So that brought our numbers down considerably from our prior contract, where if there were deadheads involved, there was no limit, possibly. You could deadhead indefinitely on your last duty day, and within a pairing, you had to speak up and it was a very confusing area for many of our pilots. Likewise, our rest has been pulled in as well, so we no longer plan rest less than 11 hours. It can be delayed down to 10, unfortunately, which is the FAA minimum. But just that planning effort alone really helps things out. Now that language also carried over into red eye flying, which, where it'd be even more and more important once we start doing that.

Kurt Heidemann (14:46):

I just want to add in here real quick that what you're discussing with those duty day and rest period limits, those are in the new contract, but they have not yet been implemented. Those will be implemented, I believe, in the third quarter.

Scott Hutchinson (14:58):

Yes. Yeah, third quarter of this year.

Amy Robinson (15:01):

I'm assuming based on information that Southwest has been releasing as of late, that red eyes are coming. What is SWAPA doing to combat fatigue on those?

Scott Hutchinson (15:11):

Well, they just very recently gave us more specifics on some potential timelines when they're going to start implementing it. And our contract already does have some protections involved. Again, with that rest issue, following releases past 0200, now you're guaranteed 12 hours rest. After 0300, you're guaranteed 15 hours rest on the plan side. So there are some minimal protections. Additionally, there are things like not being allowed to be reassigned beyond that additional flying, et cetera, but we haven't really, in the FSAG, been told what the company wants. That's kind of outside of our department as far as having a say, but more so something we're hoping they ask us from a consultation standpoint. We understand very well what causes fatigue. And so we're in the beginning talks of that right now.

Kurt Heidemann (16:00):

Last thing about contract 2020 and fatigue calls, can you explain the change in fatigue call pay?

Scott Hutchinson (16:06):

Not a whole lot has changed, other than there'll no longer be any scenario that penalizes a pilot with any sort of pay loss. Under the last contract, if you made a fatigue call on a premium pairing, then your pay possibly got subjugated down to straight time rates, depending on the situation and the timing. That's no longer the case. Now you're guaranteed, regardless of what triggered the fatigue call, again, no one's questioning why, but in the past a lot of it had to do with a reassignment.

(16:34):

Give you a simple example. You have really simple two-day pairing, one leg out overnight, one leg back, and then you report to the airport. Instead of having the one leg, now they've reassigned you into five. You would've possibly been penalized pay because you didn't do the five. Now that's no longer the case. You're guaranteed the minimum of what you were initially awarded or what you actually do.

Kurt Heidemann (16:59):

Including the pay multiples, which is a big part of it, too.

Scott Hutchinson (17:01):

Yes, that's a big one, too. Yeah, you don't lose the multiples and the overrides along the way.

Amy Robinson (17:06):

Is there a way to improve the fatigue process?

Scott Hutchinson (17:10):

Well, yes. I think it's something that always continually needs to be focused on, understood. And the best way that we learn that is through fatigue reports. And that is why fatigue reports are so valuable and that, why both Southwest and SWAPA fully support the voluntary submission of fatigue report. We need to understand the totality of where all fatigue is, and not just hearing about the bad cases. It could be as simple as the hotel fire alarm went off, it's a one-line fatigue reporter shouldn't take you very long. We need to know all that because we have, I feel, been very effectual in making so many policy changes and process changes just based on fatigue reports.

(17:53):

For instance, that recovery plan process we talked about earlier has improved significantly just based over the years and all the little pain points and areas that just didn't go well. And I think it's been one of our larger successes on working together, just making the overall experience go well. And as I mentioned before, and I'll say it again, our scheduling department does a very, very good job with that. And so, I'm really proud of that and it's largely based on the system working as designed.

Amy Robinson (18:29):

Thank you to Scott for coming on the podcast to talk to us about fatigue and how it has changed since the ratification of contract 2020.

Kurt Heidemann (18:36):

If you have any feedback, first of all, please drop us the line at comm@swapa.org. We really do want to hear from you.

Amy Robinson (18:42):

And finally, today's bonus number is 90. That's the number of removals per 1000 duty periods in July of 2023, the worst fatigue month on record. As Scott mentioned, some of the new contract language has helped bring those totals down, but the FSAG still needs all of the data, so please keep submitting your reports.