A Simple On-Call Rota for a Two-Van Firm

When two vans are out, an urgent call tends to fail in one of two ways. Nobody picks it up because each person assumes the other has it, or both of you do and the customer gets two different answers. A simple rota fixes both. One person, named for the week, is the person emergency calls go to.

Keep the rota small

You don't need a complicated schedule. For a two-van firm, a weekly rota with one primary and one backup is enough:

• Primary: the person who takes urgent hand-offs this week and must be reachable.
• Backup: the person who steps in if the primary is stuck on a job, driving, or not answering.

If you have an owner, a second engineer and perhaps a part-time office helper, decide who is actually in the pool. Someone who can't act on an emergency call shouldn't be on the rota, however much they'd like to help.

Choose a weekly hand-off point

Pick one fixed moment each week when the rota changes over, and keep it the same every time. A quiet point such as the start of a working day usually suits better than the end of a long one.

At the hand-off, the outgoing person tells the incoming person three things:

1. Any jobs in progress that might lead to a call-back.
2. Any customers who have been promised a return visit.
3. Anything unusual, such as a supplier delay, a job on hold or a customer who is likely to ring.

Do it by voice or in one written message, not both half-done. The point is that the new primary starts the week knowing what might come in.

Define what counts as urgent

A rota is only useful if everyone agrees what it is for. Write a short list of what counts as an emergency for your trade and what can wait for the next diary slot. Be specific. A burst pipe and a dripping tap are not the same call, and neither are no heating in winter and a slow radiator.

Ask the second engineer to read the list. They deal with the real work and will spot cases the owner has stopped noticing. Then add two lines on what the on-call person is allowed to decide alone, such as whether to reshuffle the day, and what needs a quick word with the owner first.

Make it reachable, not just named

A name on a sheet is no use if the phone is in a van footwell. Agree the practicalities:

• Which number the on-call person answers, and whether it's a work phone that changes hands each week or a diverted line.
• How quickly they should respond to an urgent message.
• What the backup does if the primary hasn't responded within that time.

If you divert calls your team can't answer, decide where escalations land. The article on who does what in the first week of phone cover for a two-van firm makes the same point: the person on call receives escalations and has to be reachable, so name them rather than assume. Whatever setup you use, the rota should say plainly who that person is each week.

Write it on one page

Keep a single page everyone can see, either printed in the workshop or saved where both of you will find it on a phone. It should show:

• The week's primary and backup.
• The hand-off day and time.
• The emergency list.
• The decisions the on-call person can make alone.
• Who to ring if both people are unavailable.

Put names next to every line. If you're a one-person-plus-apprentice outfit and some roles double up, that's fine, but write the names anyway.

Plan for swaps and gaps

Holidays, illness and long jobs will disrupt the pattern. Agree a swap rule in advance: swaps are fine if the change is told to the other person and written on the page before the week starts. A swap agreed in passing, or remembered differently by each of you, is how emergency calls end up with nobody.

Also decide what happens when both of you are unavailable at once. Even a short fallback, such as a message that tells callers when they'll hear back, is better than a call that rings out.

Review after a few weeks

After the rota has run for a little while, sit down for ten minutes and ask:

• Did any urgent call reach the wrong person or nobody?
• Was the emergency list clear enough, or did we argue about a call?
• Is the hand-off moment working, or does it keep slipping?

Adjust one thing at a time. A rota that is simple enough to follow on a busy day will do more for you than a clever one that nobody checks.