The Redmond Fire Department (RFD) currently uses a three-platoon shift schedule. In recent years the use of sick leave has continued to rise, as well as the associated overtime costs. The problem is staffing related overtime costs are placing significant pressure on RFD's operating budget. The purpose of this research was to evaluate a four-platoon schedule and determine the associated overtime costs. Evaluative research was used to answer four research questions relating to: (a) four-platoon schedule formats, (b) the number of personnel required in the four-platoon schedule, (c) personnel and overtime costs associated with the four-platoon schedule, (d) the workgroup's interest in moving to a four-platoon schedule.Research procedures included a review of fire service publications and previous research on shift schedules, as well as interviews with local fire service leaders whose organization had changed to a four-platoon schedule. Hypothetical four-platoon schedules were constructed using past RFD data. The projected sick leave use and overtime costs were then evaluated against data from previous years. A questionnaire was provided to the RFD workgroup to determine their interest in a four-platoon schedule. Results from this research revealed a reduction in sick leave and overtime hours based upon the hypothetical four-platoon schedules. There is also interest within the work group to move to a four-platoon schedule. The results of this research and evaluation of the data however, were inconclusive in suggesting that a change to a four-platoon shift schedule would provide ongoing savings in personnel costs.Data provided from other fire agencies also indicated cost savings from the four-platoon schedule, but these were not long term results and showed some increase over specific time periods. The author recommends that additional four-platoon schedules be built based upon previous data and that the results from other agencies continue to be evaluated.