Arranging 6 carpool drivers for a 5 day week

tsrbalt

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 9:26 am

I kinda got myself in a mess...it's a long story, but in order to make everyone happy, we have 6 drivers in our carpool and only 5 days a week to drive. Has anyone ever arranged carpools under these circumstances? I would LOVE suggestions!

5mom

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 10:31 am

kb wrote:

Or, do one week of carpool straight, and then have five weeks off! (I never participated in a carpool, so maybe this idea wouldn't work, but it's my suggestion)

I like that better than my suggestion! Would it work for you, op?

Sanguine

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 10:39 am

tsrbalt wrote:

Perfect! Sara gets Monday, Rivka gets Tues, Rachel gets Wed, Leah gets Thurs, Yehudit gets Fri. And you get Shabbos - Make sure to rest a lot - Don't shirk your responsibilities (or move your whole carpool to Israel where the kids have school 6 days a week)

amother

Olive

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 10:43 am

5mom wrote:

I like that better than my suggestion! Would it work for you, op?

I have done exactly this and it was great. I drove a full week and then had the next five weeks off. That one week was a bit annoying - but five weeks off was great. Everyone else loved a free week.

tsrbalt

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 7:29 pm

So far Sanguine wins!! Very Happy

(Gosh, it's hard to take Shabbos, but someone's gotta do it!!) I love the other suggestions too, but the issue is that everyone works, so there are only certain days that they are available to drive. One person suggested (and volunteered) that one person be the "substitute" and driver for when there are early dismissals or unusual circumstances. Considering how infrequently that is, I don't really think it's fair. Right now the only thing I can think of is taking it on myself to be the "rotator" and relieve each person of their drives for a day once a month. As I have other carpool commitments, that might be a bit crazy to arrange.

precious

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 7:51 pm

Is it both ways? So really 10 drives a week? Maybe take into account if mornings/ afternoons/ Fridays etc. are harder than other days..
Maybe one person would rather pay the others than drive
You can check the calendar for yom tov schedule- if all fall same day of week, etc take that into account
But HOW are you fitting six kids each?

animeme

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 7:59 pm

Can two people split a week, and you have three sets of that? You'd need to send out a calendar for the year so people can keep it straight. Or can one person do an entire week, and everyone else gets a day each (or two drives) and after five weeks, all five get a week off and the one person drives? Still need a calendar.

out-of-towner

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 9:15 pm

animeme wrote:

These ideas sound most reasonable. But I have another, albeit more confusing system:

Each person gets a letter (or number, but I would think a letter would be easier). For example:
Sarah is a. Rivka is b. Rochel is c. Leah is d. Chana is e. and Malka is f.

Make a calander monthly:

M T W Th F
Week 1 a b c d e
Week 2 f a b c d
Week 3 e f a b c
Week 4 d e f a b
Week 5 c d e f a
week 6 b c d e f

A 6 week cycle should have everyone doing carpool each weekday once. If someone cannot do her day, she should be responsible to switch with someone else.

Confusing, I know, but it makes for an interesting life!

stem

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 9:29 pm

I was going to suggest a similar idea. Have one person get a pass on carpool every week. that way you have 5 people driving, 1 person free. The next week, just rotate one day forward and the next person gets a free.

busydev

Tue, Jul 21 2015, 9:35 pm

if you have any person who can be a rotator do something like this:assign 5 drivers one day per week. then the rotator takes a turn of a different day every week and the 6th week rotator is off. it evens out

R T W Th F
M R W Th F
M T R Th F
M T W R F
M T W Th R
M T W Th F

so over 6 weeks each person has 5 days to drive. If rotator cant do a certain day cause of other commitements or whatever they can try and switch that day with someone else who may be a little flexible. (like lets say they cant do Thursdays the schedule would be:

R T W Th F
M R W Th F
M T R Th F
M T R W F
M T W Th R
M T W Th F

then once its in place you just need to give out the 6 week rotation to everyone and write which weeks are which rotation

R T W Th F 8/31, 10/19
M R W Th F 9/7, 10/26
M T R Th F 9/14, 11/2 etc.....
M T R W F 9/21
M T W Th R 10/5 (skipped a week cause of succos)
M T W Th F 10/12

Sanguine

Wed, Jul 22 2015, 2:50 am

tsrbalt wrote:

So far Sanguine wins!! Very Happy

(Gosh, it's hard to take Shabbos, but someone's gotta do it!!)

I knew you would like it Very Happy

. But I'm really laughing at Americans planning carpool in July Rolling Eyes

(sorry). We sign up for day camp in June. Machane Bnei Akiva (the big sleep away camp for 1 - 4 nights depending on age) is in August and I have to remember to sign my daughter up today! School? Well let's wait to see if there's a teacher's strike the first week, for a change. Who knows if this country will still be around in September shock

(I meant Moshiach will come on Tisha B'Av and all our carpool problems will go away Very Happy

)

Now a serious suggestion - Instead of rotating who gets off one week each month, make it a month off. Give everyone a permanent day, except someone who's flexible. In September Monday's driver has off the whole month (flex fills in). In October Tues has off the whole month (flex fills in)... February Flex has off all month. Less confusing if you do it by months, not weeks. If there's not one flexible person you'll have to play with it more but start with 5 set days ( but if for November flex can't take Wed (she has a life too) Monday's person does Wed and flex does Mon). Don't count exact days a month unless it's really a tremendous difference.

imasoftov

Wed, Jul 22 2015, 7:29 am

Take a calendar. Write 1 on the first school/work/whatever day. Write 2 on the next. When you get past 6 (for different numbers of drivers this is left as an exercise to the reader) go back to 1. Take a picture of the calendar and send it to everyone in the carpool or if they are Luddites, make copies and hand them out. Next month start with the number that comes after the last on the previous day.

Sanguine

Wed, Jul 22 2015, 7:42 am

imasoftov wrote:

Ridiculous! or were you joking?

Raisin

Wed, Jul 22 2015, 6:28 pm

imasoftov wrote:

The other moms probably want to arrange their work schedules around carpool. Hard to do that if every week has a different schedule.

I think Busydevs idea is best too. The rotator can be a sahm or wahm who is more flexible, while all the other moms always do the same day.

baltomom

Wed, Jul 22 2015, 8:58 pm

As someone who does a lot of carpools, I actually like Sanguine's idea best. It's easiest to keep track of carpools if you do the same ones on the same days each week, so switching around from week to week would be very complicated. Even keeping track of which week of the month I don't have to drive a certain carpool complicates things. Knowing that I have a whole month off from a carpool would make things much simpler. Each driver could also put in a request to get the month off during a month that they expect to be more hectic than usual for them.

And BTW, Sanguine, you're laughing about making up carpool schedules in July? Would you believe that I've been in carpools that made up the schedule in NOVEMBER for the next school year? People are awfully intense about their carpools around here!