HGV Hours rules
Comparisons with driving a heavy goods vehicle are somewhat miss leading, whilst the concentration required pre flight and during take off and landing is far higher once in the cruise it is boredom that needs addressing.
Driving a heavy goods vehicle you will be subject to more noise, changes in temp, delays and frustration plus the aggresion of other road user's, in an aircraft you can let your guard down at times (go down the back for a piss) and there are at least two of you.
If you work for any short haul airline (not just Loco) here in the UK you are going to work fairly hard for your money, where you live and have to work is a big factor and often results in the breakdown of relationship, not because of the stress that distance puts on a family, but all to often because you are away from home in hotel's with members of the opposite sex and a lot of (male) pilots can't keep their d**k in their pockets.
As for work induced fatigue, yes it happens, but in my experiance it is all too often to do with the changes between early/lates and lack of rest.
We have pilots who travel over 90 minutes to work, which means they must be up at 3 am and are heading back over the M62 at 5pm in the rush hour perhaps getting home at 7pm to do the same tomorrow, just 8 hours later. For many moving isn't an option even swapping house at the price level involves many Łk... in stamp duty and legal costs
A good friend at bmi regional is a case in point, he has travelled over the M62 for several years and last Autumn with high fuel prices he had enough and put his property up for sale, just last week he agreed a sale only to find out that bmi are pulling the aircraft and he could well be heading to ABZ
My point is that the fatigue is about far more than just the hours, my advice to anyone looking at coming into this industry, is to think long and hard about it, its not the Virgin add you see on telly, unless you are very lucky and get in with someone who doesn't play musical bases, then plan on living in a trailer or canal barge, i understand that bmi will not pay a penny in relocation cost, but may be forced to pay redundency if relocation is not a realistic propostion