Driver Attendance Policy for NEMT: Call-Off Deadlines, No-Call No-Shows, and Absences the Law Protects

A driver who calls off at 5 a.m. leaves dialysis riders waiting and leaves your company holding the broker’s penalty. An attendance policy settles the rules ahead of time: how drivers call off, by when, who covers their trips, and what follows a no-call no-show. This one covers your drivers and attendants. Riders who are not at the door when the van arrives fall under the separate NEMT no-show policy.

How to use this template

1. Look up each broker’s hand-back deadline first. Write them in section 4 of Part 1, then set the call-off deadlines in section 3 earlier than the strictest one. The reasons are in the broker section below.
2. Count your employees and list your states. The FMLA starts at 50 employees, and the ADA and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act at 15. Paid sick leave depends on the state and sometimes the city; look yours up in paid sick leave laws by state. Fill in section 6 to match.
3. Pick a call-off number someone answers before the first pickup. A dispatcher’s phone that rings at 4:30 a.m. works. A shared voicemail box that nobody checks until 8 does not.
4. Fill in the points and steps in section 7, or strike them. A simple step list with no points is fine. Whatever you choose, apply it the same way to every driver.
5. Have every driver and attendant sign Part 3. Add the policy to your employee handbook so new drivers get both together.
6. Log every call in Part 2 the same day. Decide whether an absence is protected before you count it, and write down why.
7. Use the driver write-up form for each step. It records the facts and the driver’s side, and it explains what a write-up can never punish.
8. Review it every January, and whenever you cross 15 or 50 employees or start driving in a new state.

The template

Part 1: Attendance policy

Field	Entry
Company name
Effective date
Policy owner, name and phone
Call-off phone number, and the hours it is answered
Applies to	Every driver, attendant, and dispatcher who works a scheduled shift

1. What this policy covers. It covers showing up for your scheduled shifts, calling off, and planned time off. It does not cover riders who miss their rides.

2. Being on time

1. Your shift starts at the time on your schedule, at ______ (the yard, or your first pickup). Your pre-trip vehicle inspection is part of your paid shift.
2. You are late if you report more than ______ minutes after your start time.
3. If you will be late, call the call-off number as soon as you know, and before your start time.

3. Calling off

Your shift starts	Call off no later than
Before ______ a.m. (early dialysis and appointment runs)	______ p.m. the day before, or as soon as you know
At ______ a.m. or later	______ hours before your start time
On a weekend or holiday	______

1. Call the call-off number. A text or voicemail counts only after ______ confirms it back to you.
2. Say your name, the shift you will miss, and when you expect to return. You do not have to share medical details.
3. If an emergency keeps you from calling, a family member or another person may call for you. Otherwise call as soon as you are able.
4. Ask for planned time off at least ______ days ahead, through ______. Leave the law protects follows the notice rules in section 6.

4. Covering your trips

1. Dispatch, not you, finds the cover for your trips. You are never required to find your own replacement before using protected sick time.
2. You may suggest a swap with another approved driver. It counts only when dispatch approves it and changes the schedule.
3. Dispatch tells each broker and hands back any trip it cannot cover before that broker’s deadline:

Broker	Hand-back deadline before pickup	How to hand back

4. When another driver covers a standing-order rider, dispatch notes who covered and why.

5. No-call no-shows

1. A no-call no-show is missing a shift, or being more than ______ minutes late, without calling as section 3 says.
2. Dispatch will call you at the number on file and then your emergency contact.
3. A first no-call no-show leads to: ______.
4. ______ no-call no-shows in a row are treated as your decision to quit, unless an emergency kept you and anyone else from calling.
5. Never leave a rider to end your shift early. Call dispatch and wait until the rider is safe or another driver takes over.

6. Absences we never count

Absence	Covered here (yes or no)	How to tell us
Paid sick or safe time under ______ law
FMLA leave (once we have 50 or more employees)
Leave for a disability, as a reasonable accommodation
Leave for pregnancy, childbirth, or related appointments, as a reasonable accommodation
Military service	Yes	Tell us as far ahead as you can. You do not need our permission.
Jury duty	Yes	Show us the summons as soon as you get it
Time off to vote under ______ law
Other leave our state or city protects: ______

If you are not sure whether an absence is protected, tell us when you call off. We will check before we count anything.

7. How absences count

What happened	Counts as
Call-off on time, not protected	______
Call-off after the deadline in section 3	______
Late more than ______ minutes	______
No-call no-show	______
Any absence listed in section 6	Never counted

Total within any ______ days	Step
______	Coaching talk, noted in your file
______	Written warning
______	Final written warning
______	Review for ending employment

Counted absences drop off after ______ days. We may skip a step for a no-call no-show that leaves a rider without a ride.

8. Records. Dispatch logs every call in the call-off log. Any doctor’s note or medical detail goes in a separate confidential file, never in your personnel file.

Part 2: Call-off log

Date and time of call	Driver	Shift and trips affected	On time, late, no-call, or protected	Counted (yes or no, and why)	Cover found, or trips handed back (broker and time)

Part 3: Acknowledgment

I received this attendance policy, read it, and had a chance to ask questions.

Name: ______________________________

Signature: ______________________________ Date: ______________

Received for the company by: ______________________________ Date: ______________

Why the call-off deadline follows your broker contract

Every late call-off turns into a broker problem within hours, so the deadline in section 3 should come before your strictest broker window. Two published contracts show the range.

• MTM Health, Virginia. Its fee-for-service handbook (May 2026, approved August 10, 2026) expects providers to turn back trips they cannot cover at least 24 hours before the scheduled pickup. Its standard for vendor no-shows, meaning assigned trips you fail or refuse to complete, is under 0.25 percent. It also asks for a best-faith effort to keep the same driver on standing-order trips, and for a record of each time another driver had to step in. Section 4 and the call-off log cover both.
• WellTrans, Indiana. Its provider agreement (revised October 16, 2025) requires rerouting at least 12 hours before pickup on trips assigned at least 36 hours ahead. A later reroute costs you the difference between your trip charge and the cost of the replacement ride, or $100 if no one could cover it. A vehicle that never shows costs $100 each.

For an early dialysis run, a 24-hour window means a driver who wakes up sick is already past it. That is why early shifts call off the evening before and dispatch keeps a backup driver, as NEMT driver schedules lays out. The rest of each broker’s charges are in NEMT broker penalties, and how recurring rides are assigned is in NEMT standing orders.

Absences the law protects

Check these before any absence earns a point or a step.

FMLA leave, at 50 employees

The FMLA covers employers with 50 or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks this year or last (29 CFR 825.104). A driver is eligible after 12 months with you and 1,250 hours in the past 12 months, at a worksite with 50 or more of your employees within 75 miles (29 CFR 825.110).

• Your call-in rule still applies. For leave nobody could foresee, the driver must follow your usual call-in procedure, such as calling a set number, unless unusual circumstances prevent it. Without such circumstances, FMLA protection may be delayed or denied (29 CFR 825.303(c)).
• Emergencies are the exception. A driver who needs emergency medical treatment does not have to follow the call-in procedure until stable and able to use a phone. A spouse, adult family member, or other responsible person may give notice when the driver cannot (29 CFR 825.303(a) and (c)).
• Planned leave needs 30 days’ notice when the need is foreseeable, such as a planned surgery, or as soon as practicable when it is not (29 CFR 825.302(a)).
• It never counts. You may not count FMLA leave under a no-fault attendance policy or use it as a negative factor in discipline (29 CFR 825.220(c)).

Disability leave, at 15 employees

The EEOC’s guidance on leave and the ADA (May 9, 2016) says you may have to grant leave beyond your own limits as a reasonable accommodation, unless that would cause undue hardship. Its example is a policy allowing only four unscheduled absences a year: when a worker says a disability may cause more, the employer should talk it through and decide whether an exception would be an undue hardship. Penalizing a worker for leave granted as an accommodation violates the ADA. So when a driver links absences to a health condition, pause the steps in section 7 and have that conversation first.

Pregnancy leave, at 15 employees

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act covers employers with 15 or more employees and has been in effect since June 27, 2023. Paid or unpaid leave to attend health care appointments or to recover from childbirth is a reasonable accommodation under its rule (29 CFR 1636.3(i)). You may not take adverse action against a worker for asking for or using an accommodation, and you may not force leave when another accommodation would let the worker keep working (42 U.S.C. 2000gg-1).

Paid sick time, by state

State and city sick leave laws add their own rules for notice, doctor’s notes, finding cover, and points, and they differ. Look yours up in paid sick leave laws by state before you count a call-off for sick time, and name the law that applies in the first row of section 6.

Military service, jury duty, and voting

• Military service. USERRA covers every employer, even one with a single employee (20 CFR 1002.34). The driver’s notice may be spoken or written and informal, and the driver does not need your permission to leave (20 CFR 1002.85 and 1002.87). You may not deny any benefit of employment because of a person’s service (20 CFR 1002.18), so a military absence never earns a point.
• Federal jury duty. No employer may fire, threaten, intimidate, or coerce a permanent employee because of service on a federal jury, with a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation for each employee (28 U.S.C. 1875). State juries fall under state law.
• State jury duty, New York example. A driver who tells you before jury service begins may not be fired or penalized for the absence. If you have more than 10 employees, you may not withhold the first $72 of the juror’s daily wages for the first 3 days of service (Judiciary Law 519, as revised in June 2025).
• Voting, New York example. A registered voter without 4 straight hours to vote outside work may take up to 2 hours paid, at the start or end of the shift as you choose. The driver must ask 2 to 10 working days before the election, and you must post a notice at least 10 working days before every election (Election Law 3-110).

Other states set their own jury and voting rules, so write yours into section 6.

Lateness, pay, and following your own steps

• Pay for the time worked. A late driver is paid from the time they start work. If you round clock times, round both ways so drivers are paid for all their time over a period; the driver timesheet explains the federal rounding rule.
• Follow the policy you wrote. In Montana, a firing is wrongful if you materially broke an express provision of your own written personnel policy before it and that cost the employee a fair chance to keep the job (MCA 39-2-904). Everywhere, applying the same steps to every driver is your best record that a firing was about attendance.
• When it ends in a firing, take the driver off every broker roster and cut their access to rider data the same day. The employee termination checklist lists final pay and the other steps in order.