Cargo Industry Duty/Rest Exemption

After the tragic crash of Colgan Air 3407 in 2009, a new law was passed by Congress and implemented by the FAA regarding minimum pilot experience and duty/rest times. Whereas prior to the new law, there was no requirement for both pilots to be ATP certified, now both pilots must possess an ATP which requires a minimum of 1500 hours of flight time. This is an increase from the 250 hours that are required for a commercial certificate. As far as rest times are concerned, the FAA made some changes to rest and duty time requirements, 

"The new regulations, which don't apply to cargo pilots, require that pilots get at least 10 hours of rest between shifts. Eight of those hours must involve uninterrupted sleep. In the past, pilots could spend those eight hours getting to and from the hotel, showering and eating. Pilots will be limited to flying eight or nine hours, depending on their start times. They must also have 30 consecutive hours of rest each week, a 25% increase over previous requirements." (Trejos, 2014)

These changes however, were not applied to the cargo industry. The current rules for a part 121 cargo operator are 8 hours total flying, 12 if there is a 3 or more pilot crew, and a maximum duty day of 16 hours. 

"Cargo pilots are allowed to fly up to 8 hours (as opposed to 9 hours for passenger carriers under their rules) then legally must have a rest period.  In a situation where there are three crew members or more, cargo pilots may fly up to 12 hours.  While, cargo pilots may be on duty for 16 hours, under no circumstance do they ever fly 16 hours without rest.  There is a very big difference between being on duty and actual flight time flying the aircraft.  These are base line rules – the labor management contract allows for even more rest, but it’s specific to each all-cargo carrier." (CAA, 2016)

I don't personally believe that cargo operators should be held to the same rest and duty requirements as passenger airlines, The nature of some cargo operations, i.e. on demand, would really preclude this type of system and would cause all kinds of scheduling issues. and may even cause some companies to be unable to support the need to keep more crews on payroll to ensure they can dispatch an aircraft at any time. 

The possible impact to my career personally, should the cargo industry be forced to adopt these new regulations, could go wither way. If cargo operators flying part 135 and 121 operations were required to hire additional pilots to cover the gaps in scheduling caused by the new rest rules, some could potentially go out of business, causing less jobs to be available, pay could decrease to facilitate the greater demand for pilots, and in the case of 135 operations, there could potentially be a decrease in minimum hours required by the company, resulting in less experienced pilots flying the aircraft. 

References:

 Trejos, N. (2014). New pilot fatigue rules go into effect this weekend. Retrieved October 08, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/01/03/pilot-fatigue-mandatory-rest-new-faa-rules/4304417/

 News. (2016, April 13). Retrieved October 08, 2016, from http://www.cargoair.org/2016/04/setting-the-record-straight-on-all-cargo-duty-and-rest-amendment/