State-Specific Calling Time Restrictions

The familiar 9am-9pm rule is the loose end of the spectrum. A long list of states pull that window in tighter, and several change the rule depending on the day of the week - a Sunday in particular often has a different start time or no calling at all. If your campaign uses a single nationwide window, you are almost certainly over-calling in some states. Each of these tighter windows is a Calling curfew you must respect for any Lead in that state, and they are encoded as Call times records that define your Permitted calling hours per day.

States stricter than the standard

Here are common examples of state windows that fall outside the standard 9am-9pm. Most of these are built into VICIdial and only need to be activated:

• Alabama - 9am-8pm Mon-Sat, no calling on Sundays
• Florida - 8am-8pm Mon-Sun
• Kentucky - 10am-9pm Mon-Sun
• Maine - 9am-5pm Mon-Sun
• Pennsylvania - 9am-9pm Mon-Sat and 1:30pm-9pm on Sundays
• Rhode Island - 9am-6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat, none on Sun
• Texas - 9am-9pm Mon-Sat and 12pm-9pm on Sundays
• Washington - 8am-8pm Mon-Sun

Notice the day-of-week pattern. Texas allows calls from noon on Sundays but a full day Monday through Saturday. Pennsylvania pushes Sunday's start to 1:30pm. Rhode Island has three different rules across weekdays, Saturday, and Sunday. That is why a real call time record is not a single pair of hours - it is a start and stop time for each day of the week. For where this fits in the larger ruleset, see the VICIdial compliance overview, and to wire these into a campaign, read how to activate state call times in VICIdial.

Choosing the right window per call

flowchart TD
  A[Lead with state and local time] --> B{State has stricter rule}
  B -- No --> C[Apply 9am-9pm standard]
  B -- Yes --> D[Apply state window]
  D --> E{What day is it}
  E -- Weekday --> F[Use weekday hours]
  E -- Saturday --> G[Use Saturday hours]
  E -- Sunday --> H[Use Sunday hours]
  C --> I[Dial if inside window]
  F --> I
  G --> I
  H --> I

The diagram shows the two-step decision: first pick the right window for the state, then pick the right hours for that day of the week. Once the correct hours are known, the dialer only places the call if the consumer's local time is inside them.

Keeping twenty-plus state windows accurate is exactly the kind of thing you do not want to maintain manually. VICIfast comes with the built-in state call times ready to switch on - see pricing for details.