A new bipartisan bill in U.S. Congress seeks to extend fatigue protections to cargo pilots.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal legislation introduced in Congress would extend fatigue protection rules to cargo pilots, closing what advocates call the “cargo carve out” that has exempted UPS, FedEx and DHL pilots from the same rest requirements passenger pilots have had since 2014.
Two U.S. representatives from Michigan and Pennsylvania — Democrat Hillary Scholten and Republican Rob Bresnahan — introduced the bill on Jan. 21, targeting pilot fatigue by limiting flight hours for cargo carriers.
The change would directly impact Louisville’s pilot community, given the massive UPS hub at WorldPort near Muhammad Ali International Airport.
Robert Travis, president of the Independent Pilots Association representing 3,500 UPS pilots, said the difference comes down to carrying people versus boxes.
“If I’m flying a 757 and American Airlines is right next to me on the parallel runway in a 757, they are more rested and have better fatigue protection than we do simply because we have boxes and cargo behind our bulk head instead of people,” Travis said.
The Cargo Airline Association (CAA) opposes the proposal, saying in a statement: “Cargo and passenger operations are different, and cargo carriers operate under a separate but no less safe set of rules that reflect these operational distinctions. Cargo crew scheduling is fundamentally different from passenger crews, operating primarily at night and around the globe, and our member carriers have robust fatigue management programs in place.”
Under current rules, Travis said passenger pilots flying at night can only fly for nine hours, with any extension beyond 30 minutes and up to 2 hours requiring flight crew approval. Cargo pilots can sometimes be extended to 15 hours nonstop without being asked if they agree to the extension.
“We are more fatigued and less rested because we fall under a different set of rules,” Travis said.
Congress passed fatigue protections for passenger pilots in 2014 following the 2009 Colgan Air crash that killed 50 people, but ultimately excluded cargo carriers. The administration at the time allowed cargo carriers to opt in to the new rules, but “to date, over a decade later, they have elected not to opt-in,” Travis said.
“We were actually carved out of that rule in the 11th hour by the administration at the time under heavy lobbying by the cargo industry,” he said, adding that it “creates a two-tier level of safety in aviation, and a dangerous one at that.”
Travis compared pilot fatigue to intoxication, noting that 17 hours of continuous duty is equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.05.
“We wouldn’t allow a truck driver on our roads to be more impaired than the bus driver in the lane next to them simply because the bus has children behind the driver, and UPS has boxes behind them,” he said.
CAA added: “The FAA has repeatedly reviewed these regulations and determined that the current framework provides the highest level of safety for the national airspace.”
Travis said while the UPS plane crash in Louisville that killed 15 people was not caused by pilot fatigue, the tragedy demonstrated the community impact of aircraft accidents.
“We did see tragically for those who were lost on the ground recently in Louisville the impact that a tragedy like that can have on the local community,” he said.
UPS referred comment requests to the Cargo Airline Association. The bill was referred to a House committee two weeks ago and remains in early stages.
