I suspect the problem is the difference in the original flight and duty time rules.
In Australia CAO48 was reasonably conservative, didn't allow too many extreme duties and generally speaking didn't result in too many people driving aeroplanes totally shagged.
Overseas some of the flight and duty rules were a lot less restrictive and as a result would allow some duties that here in oz we would look at with horrified faces. From memory the FAA and JAA rules allowed some huge days with not a lot of rest between.
Along comes "fatigue science" which is a misnomer given that fatigue is such an individual thing, nevertheless the brains trust decides to try and put some "science" around the very loose rules that some overseas regulators used and bring them closer to what would be considered reasonable. Not a bad idea...
Here in oz, because of our unending inferiority complex and inability to see that sometimes things invented here are actually better than overseas things I.e. Just because America or Europe designed something it isn't automatically better, we decide in our wisdom that we need one of those shiny new FRMS things as well, because if the big overseas regulators are doing it then it MUST be better.
So we end up taking rules that were quite conservative and went the wrong way by introducing FRMS when the overseas jurisdictions reigned in their flight and duty rules by applying FRMS.
Talk about clutching defeat from the jaws of victory!
We can now do some huge days with two crew, admittedly sometimes in a benign weather environment, but sometimes not and the crews end up completely knackered. You have a head cold and you can't take a codral because the damp police might get you, so you either go flying feeling like crap or go sick (and many go flying because they don't feel sick enough to take a sick leave or URTI day), you battle through all the bull**** imposed by security because they want to make everyone feel better with visible shows of ineffective security, you can't go for a leak without having a cabin crew member coming into the flight deck to babysit the remaining pilot..
Yep, we have made things safer.....
Truck Masters? Anyone got the number for truck masters?