diff --git a/man/crontab.5 b/man/crontab.5
index 740e393..bfc8414 100644
--- a/man/crontab.5
+++ b/man/crontab.5
@@ -143,6 +143,13 @@ specifications of the particular security context.  For more information,
 see
 .BR crontab (1)\ -s\ option.
 .PP
+The
+.I RANDOM_DELAY
+variable allows delaying job startups by random amount of minutes with
+upper limit specified by the variable. The random scaling factor is
+determined during the cron daemon startup so it remains constant for
+the whole run time of the daemon.
+.PP
 The format of a cron command is similar to the V7 standard, with a number
 of upward-compatible extensions.  Each line has five time-and-date fields
 followed by a
diff --git a/src/cron.c b/src/cron.c
index 6fd0c31..ec4ace7 100644
--- a/src/cron.c
+++ b/src/cron.c
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
+#include <sys/time.h>
 
 #ifdef WITH_INOTIFY
 # include <sys/inotify.h>
@@ -202,6 +203,9 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 	char *cs;
 	pid_t pid = getpid();
 	long oldGMToff;
+	struct timeval tv;
+	struct timezone tz;
+	char buf[256];
 
 	if ((ProgramName=strrchr(argv[0], '/')) == NULL) {
 		ProgramName = argv[0];
@@ -298,6 +302,15 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 	}
 
 	pid = getpid();
+
+	/* obtain a random scaling factor for RANDOM_DELAY */
+	if (gettimeofday(&tv, &tz) != 0)
+		tv.tv_usec = 0;
+	srandom(pid + tv.tv_usec);
+	RandomScale = random() / (double)RAND_MAX;
+	snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "RANDOM_DELAY will be scaled with factor %d%% if used.", (int)(RandomScale*100));
+	log_it("CRON", pid, "INFO", buf, 0);
+
 	acquire_daemonlock(0);
 	database.head = NULL;
 	database.tail = NULL;
@@ -508,8 +521,6 @@ static void run_reboot_jobs(cron_db * db) {
 
 static void find_jobs(int vtime, cron_db * db, int doWild, int doNonWild, long vGMToff) {
 	char *orig_tz, *job_tz;
-	time_t virtualSecond = vtime * SECONDS_PER_MINUTE;
-	time_t virtualGMTSecond = virtualSecond - vGMToff;
 	struct tm *tm;
 	int minute, hour, dom, month, dow;
 	user *u;
@@ -542,11 +553,7 @@ static void find_jobs(int vtime, cron_db * db, int doWild, int doNonWild, long v
 	} while (0)
 
 	orig_tz = getenv("TZ");
-	maketime(NULL, orig_tz);
 
-	Debug(DSCH, ("[%ld] tick(%d,%d,%d,%d,%d) %s %s\n",
-			(long) getpid(), minute, hour, dom, month, dow,
-			doWild ? " " : "No wildcard", doNonWild ? " " : "Wildcard only"));
 		/* the dom/dow situation is odd.  '* * 1,15 * Sun' will run on the
 		 * first and fifteenth AND every Sunday;  '* * * * Sun' will run *only*
 		 * on Sundays;  '* * 1,15 * *' will run *only* the 1st and 15th.  this
@@ -561,6 +568,8 @@ static void find_jobs(int vtime, cron_db * db, int doWild, int doNonWild, long v
 				uname = e->pwd->pw_name;
 			/* check if user exists in time of job is being run f.e. ldap */
 			if (getpwnam(uname) != NULL) {
+				time_t virtualSecond = (vtime - e->delay) * SECONDS_PER_MINUTE;
+				time_t virtualGMTSecond = virtualSecond - vGMToff;
 				job_tz = env_get("CRON_TZ", e->envp);
 				maketime(job_tz, orig_tz);
 				/* here we test whether time is NOW */
diff --git a/src/entry.c b/src/entry.c
index e9142f5..fa69524 100644
--- a/src/entry.c
+++ b/src/entry.c
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
+#include <errno.h>
 
 #include "bitstring.h"
 #include "funcs.h"
@@ -97,6 +98,7 @@ entry *load_entry(FILE * file, void (*error_func) (), struct passwd *pw,
 	char cmd[MAX_COMMAND];
 	char envstr[MAX_ENVSTR];
 	char **tenvp;
+	char *p;
 
 	Debug(DPARS, ("load_entry()...about to eat comments\n"));
 
@@ -297,6 +299,20 @@ entry *load_entry(FILE * file, void (*error_func) (), struct passwd *pw,
 	}
 	memset(e->pwd->pw_passwd, 0, strlen(e->pwd->pw_passwd));
 
+	p = env_get("RANDOM_DELAY", envp);
+	if (p) {
+		char *endptr;
+		long val;
+
+		errno = 0;    /* To distinguish success/failure after call */
+		val = strtol(p, &endptr, 10);
+		if (errno != 0 || val < 0 || val > 24*60) {
+			log_it("CRON", getpid(), "ERROR", "bad value of RANDOM_DELAY", 0);
+		} else {
+			e->delay = val * RandomScale;
+		}
+	}
+
 	/* copy and fix up environment.  some variables are just defaults and
 	 * others are overrides.
 	 */
diff --git a/src/env.c b/src/env.c
index 1ebea62..3ad8bf7 100644
--- a/src/env.c
+++ b/src/env.c
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ int env_set_from_environ(char ***envpp) {
 		"LC_IDENTIFICATION",
 		"LC_ALL",
 		"LANGUAGE",
+		"RANDOM_DELAY",
 		NULL
 	};
 	const char **name;
diff --git a/src/globals.h b/src/globals.h
index 4370974..e957c9a 100644
--- a/src/globals.h
+++ b/src/globals.h
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ XTRN char       MailCmd[MAX_COMMAND];
 XTRN char       cron_default_mail_charset[MAX_ENVSTR];
 XTRN int        EnableClustering;
 XTRN int	ChangePath;
+XTRN double	RandomScale;
  
 #if DEBUGGING
 XTRN int	DebugFlags INIT(0);
diff --git a/src/structs.h b/src/structs.h
index 200d20d..272777a 100644
--- a/src/structs.h
+++ b/src/structs.h
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ typedef	struct _entry {
 	bitstr_t	bit_decl(month,  MONTH_COUNT);
 	bitstr_t	bit_decl(dow,    DOW_COUNT);
 	int		flags;
+	int		delay;
 #define	MIN_STAR	0x01
 #define	HR_STAR		0x02
 #define	DOM_STAR	0x04