FedEx Pilots Respond to Release of Pilot Fatigue Rule

I'm so glad they think my wife and family will only have to deal with some property damage. Really, I have pretty much lost all respect for these goons.

while a passenger-operation accident can result in numerous fatalities, an all-cargo accident would consist primarily of property damage.”
 
I'm so glad they think my wife and family will only have to deal with some property damage. Really, I have pretty much lost all respect for these goons.

while a passenger-operation accident can result in numerous fatalities, an all-cargo accident would consist primarily of property damage.”

Its nothing personal. It's simply a factual statement, generally speaking (obviously, circumstances will differ). Still though, I think it's dumb to have it separated out anyway from pax, as any accident is bad regardless.
 
I'm so glad they think my wife and family will only have to deal with some property damage. Really, I have pretty much lost all respect for these goons.

while a passenger-operation accident can result in numerous fatalities, an all-cargo accident would consist primarily of property damage.”
And how insulting is it then to state out right, as this does, that the crew's lives are only worth as much as the packages that they carry. This is just beyond heinous.

One would hope that all cargo carriers would step up to the plate and do the right thing for their employees. I don't hold out much hope though. So much for the FAA's b.s. about "one level of safety across the aviation industry". Had they included all the cargo carriers, it would have leveled the playing field in regards to cost for all of them to enforce these new regs. Now, who wants to step forward and endure those costs knowing full well that their competitors will not. What a bonehead move on the part of the FAA. This token gesture by LaHood is just that and nothing more. It's pathetic and lame. DOT should get rid of the rest/duty rules for for truckers then. I mean who cares if they die and lose a load load of veggies. Idiots.
 
With sugar on top too?


The cargo cut out was ridiculous; thinking other cargo companies would follow a FEDEX/UPS voluntary action is a waste of breath.

I could see FedEx abiding by the new rules. UPS couldn't possibly care any less about the well-being of its own employees in my experience, they seem to be more focused on money and pinching pennies.
 
What's funny to me is that if this plea is by some stroke of luck successful, the FedEX pilots will owe thanks not to their union but to politicians and to their management. ALPA basically spoke out of both sides of their mouth when it came to FedEX saying to the press...we STRONGLY oppose the cargo cutout but we're throwing a victory party in the other room if you want to come by later! If I were a FedEX pilot I'd be fighting mad at ALPA national.
 
Cripes, they made these decisions before LaHood's car left the parking lot, I guess.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/pilot-fatigue-rules-unchanged-at-fedex-ups.html

Pilot-Fatigue Rules Unchanged at FedEx, UPS

FedEx Corp. (FDX) and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) said U.S. regulators failed to persuade the two cargo airlines to adopt pilot-fatigue rules imposed on passenger carriers.

“The reality is that one size does not fit all when it comes to maintaining pilot alertness,” Maury Donahue, a spokeswoman for FedEx, said in an e-mail. “Flight scheduling at a cargo airline is very different from passenger carriers.”

Representatives from Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx and UPS were among cargo executives who met today in Washington with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administration Acting Chief Michael Huerta. After announcing in December that cargo operators would be exempt from new anti- fatigue measures for passenger carriers, LaHood said he would ask them to voluntarily adopt the new standards.

LaHood and Huerta “had a productive meeting today with our cargo partners and look forward to working together to ensure the safety of our national air transportation system,” Justin Nisly, a Transportation Department spokesman, said in a statement.

Kara Gerhardt Ross, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based UPS, said the company currently operates under “a much higher standard” for fatigue prevention and doesn’t need to adopt the new rules. The airline is committed to working with the FAA to achieve “the best practices for fatigue mitigation,” she said in a phone interview. The company has opposed applying pilot- fatigue rules to its operations.

Cargo airlines, which operate more flights at night than passenger carriers, have argued that altering pilot schedules would be too costly and are unnecessary.

Under the rules, set to take effect in December 2013, passenger pilots would get longer rest periods between shifts and have their work hours curtailed during overnight flights or after crossing multiple time zones.
 
You know, I have to wonder where the FedEx and UPS pilots were when all of the hearings were being conducted that lead to the pilot fatigue rules.

ALPA did not get these rules passed. ALPA "tried" for over 30 years to get this done. ALPA failed. These rules were passed because of the 3407 families.

We didn't hear from the FedEx or UPS pilots until after the rules were in place. That was after their cargo companies (FedEx, UPS and others) bogged the pilot fatigue rules down in a last ditch effort in the White House OMB, to stop the rules for ALL pilots including 121 carriers.

They carried on this dog and pony show for 5 months after the congressional deadline to put the rules in place. During this 5 months we again did not hear from the FedEx and UPS pilots. I don't want to point fingers, but next time my sincere advise would be to get involved and not sit on the sidelines and give the standard, "the fatigue rules will never happen because it costs too much" bs that many spewed during this time.

I've got the feeling that if the fatigue rules had been killed for all of the pilots, as many were predicting that the Fedex and UPS pilots would not be nearly as ticked off as they are at this time.

With that being said, I do agree that the fatigue rules should apply to the cargo carriers. And that would have been done, already, if the cargo pilots had gotten involved in the process in the first place.

These fatigue rules are good for the pilots, the passengers and the airlines. It puts everyone on a level and safer playing field. It's too bad that it took 3407 to get it done.

Joe
 
That's just simply not true. While the 3407 families had a role in getting this done, it was really the lobbying power and the connections of ALPA that managed to not only get it done, but to get it done in a way that was completely science-based and in our favor, without resorting to any of the crazy stuff that some people were talking about like commuting rules. Flight 3407 was certainly the impetus that got the politicians to start moving after decades of ALPA pushing them, but it was ALPA that made sure that this was done, and done right.

As far as FedEx and UPS pilots not being involved, also completely false. A FedEx pilot sits on ALPA's Flight Time/Duty Time national committee, and was intimately involved with drafting ALPA's policy on FT/DT, and a UPS pilot sat on the Aviation Rulemaking Committee that made the recommendations to the FAA for the drafting of the rule. They have been involved from the beginning.

We're continuing to push to fix the cargo loophole. It was obviously a huge fault with the rule that was issued.
 
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