The new pilot flight and duty regulations require that pilots get at least 10 hours of rest between shifts. To be more specific 8 of those 10 hours must be uninterrupted sleep. Pilots are also limited to only flying 8 or 9 hours straight depending on the time of day that they start (Trejos, 2014).  Also pilots must have at least 30 consecutive hours of rest each week. In the past pilots could use the eight hours of  "uninterrupted sleep" to basically due as they please.  For example these 8 hours were commonly used to get to or from the hotel and/or shower and eat. Previous regulations only required that pilots get at least 24 hours of rest straight a week.

Cargo Pilots are allowed to fly up to 8 hours but then must have a rest period unless there are three crew members or more. If this is the case a cargo pilot my fly up to 12 hours straight (Boxer, 2016). For example if a crew of 3 Boeing 747 pilots are flying from Detroit to Hong Kong the pilots can fly up to 12 hours straight. Cargo pilots can legally be on duty for up to 16 hours straight but it's illegal for them to fly 16 hours without rest.

I feel that cargo carriers have been excluded from these new rule changes for a number of reasons. For one I believe the public perception is that human lives are valued more then cargo and so the FAA molded these rules to that perception accordingly. Basically the FAA is saying that a 747 full of human passengers is more valuable then a 747 with millions of dollars of cargo therefore the passenger carrying 747 should be under more stringent safety regulations. This may make the pilots of the cargo companies feel like their lives are devalued in the eyes of the FAA but I do agree it's right for the cargo carriers to not be held to these stricter flight and duty regulations. I also believe many cargo companies made the argument that it would be hard or impossible for them to survive if they were subject to these stricter flight and duty regulations. I believe this is true especially when you consider the operating models of  "on demand" cargo companies.

I personally don't believe the cargo carriers should be held to these more stringent new rules and standards. It may not be morally correct but in business world morals aren't the highest priority, making money is. Numerous cargo carrying companies have shown through careful examinations that they would likely go out of business or be unable to operate under the new flight and duty regulations of the airlines.

 If cargo companies were subject to the new rules regarding flight and duty that airlines are it would be harder for a new inexperienced pilot to find cargo jobs because many of the on demand companies would go out of business and shut down. I also believe newly certificated commercial pilots working for cargo carriers would be more encouraged to break the regulations in order to get the cargo delivered on time.

References
Nancy Trejos, January 4th 2014, retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/01/03/pilot-fatigue-mandatory-rest-new-faa-rules/4304417/ on October 5th 2016
Senator Barbara Boxer, April 13th 2016, retrieved from http://www.cargoair.org/2016/04/setting-the-record-straight-on-all-cargo-duty-and-rest-amendment/ on October 6th 2016