About Runcutting

Runcutting is the process of developing or cutting runs from a group of vehicle blocks.

Runs are composed of complete blocks or segments of blocks. Various transit sites have different names for runs such as assignment, duty, job, shift, work, piece or trick. After creating your vehicle assignments in blocking, you are ready to create the runs or pieces of work for the operators.

In blocking, the objective is to assign the least number of vehicles as possible to provide a desired level of service whereas in runcutting, it is to cut block pieces to form runs for the least number of operators as possible to operate the service. Before creating runs, familiarize yourself with:

• The resources of your transit site such as the number of available regular and part-time operators for a sign-up period.
• The policies and union agreements of your transit site applicable to runcutting such as those on breaks, reliefs, and travel times.

Runcutting relies on the work and costing/pay rules of your transit site. For example, some transit sites pay travel time to and from a relief location while other sites who do not do so may pay overtime after eight hours of work.