Agency Information Collection Activities; Request for Comment; Revision of an Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations, Supporting Documents, 66019-66021 [E7-22879]
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Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 226 / Monday, November 26, 2007 / Notices
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VerDate Aug<31>2005
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Jkt 214001
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[FR Doc. 07–5805 Filed 11–23–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–M
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2007–0030]
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Request for Comment;
Revision of an Information Collection:
Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers
Regulations, Supporting Documents
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: In accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,
FMCSA announces its plans to submit
the Information Collection Request
described below to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and approval, and invites public
comment. The FMCSA invites
comments on its plan to request OMB
approval to revise an existing
information collection (IC) entitled,
‘‘Hours of Service of Drivers
Regulations,’’ OMB Control Number
2126–0001. The Agency has updated its
calculation of the paperwork burden of
the hours of service (HOS) rules to
reflect changes in the number of
commercial motor vehicle (CMV)
drivers, and to clarify the burden
associated with supporting documents.
The Agency requires most CMV drivers
to complete and maintain a record of
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
66019
duty status (RODS), commonly referred
to as a logbook, reflecting details of
changes in duty status during each 24hour period. Drivers retain the RODS for
a minimum period and then forward
them, along with supporting documents
(e.g., fuel receipts, road toll tickets), to
the motor carrier. The motor carrier uses
the supporting documents to assist in
reviewing the RODS for accuracy, and
retains the RODS and supporting
documents for a minimum of 6 months.
This IC promotes safety in the
operations of motor carriers of property
and passengers by assisting the carrier
and enforcement officials in ensuring
compliance with the HOS rules that
ensure drivers are provided adequate
opportunities for rest.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on
or before January 25, 2008.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by DOT Docket ID Number
0030, by any of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Docket Management Facility:
U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200
New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building
Ground Floor, Room W12–140,
Washington, DC 20590–0001
• Hand Delivery or Courier: West
Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140,
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., between
9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
• Fax: 202–493–2251
Privacy Act: Note that all comments
received will be posted without change
to https://www.regulations.gov, including
any personal information provided.
Anyone is able to search the electronic
form of all comments received into any
of our dockets by the name of the
individual submitting the comment (or
signing the comment, if submitted on
behalf of an association, business, labor
union, etc.). You may review DOT’s
complete Privacy Act Statement in the
Federal Register published on April 11,
2000 (65 FR 19477–78) or you may visit
https://DocketInfo.dot.gov.
Docket: For access to the docket to
read background documents or
comments received, go to https://
www.regulations.gov or the street
address listed above. Follow the online
instructions for accessing the dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.
Thomas Yager, Chief, FMCSA Driver
and Carrier Operations Division.
Telephone: 202–366–4325. E-mail:
MCPSD@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: The FMCSA regulates the
amount of time a driver may drive and
be on duty. A CMV driver must keep a
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66020
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 226 / Monday, November 26, 2007 / Notices
record of duty status (RODS), commonly
referred to as a logbook, that indicates
his or her duty status (driving, on duty
not driving, off duty, sleeper berth) for
all periods of the duty day. The RODS
must be maintained on the CMV for 7
days, and subsequently submitted to the
motor carrier along with any
‘‘supporting documents,’’ such as fuel
receipts and toll tickets, that could
assist in verifying the accuracy of
entries on the RODS. The motor carrier
must retain the RODS and supporting
documents for a minimum of 6 months
from date of receipt.
Statutory authority for regulating the
hours of service (HOS) of drivers
operating CMVs in interstate commerce
is derived from 49 U.S.C. 31136 and
31502. The penalty provisions are
located at 49 U.S.C. 521, 522 and 526,
as amended. On November 28, 1982, the
Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA), the agency previously
responsible for administration of the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations (49 CFR 350 et
seq.)(FMCSRs) promulgated a final rule
that required a motor carrier to verify
the accuracy of the HOS of each driver
and to ensure that drivers record their
duty status in a specified format (47 FR
53383). The rule as amended is codified
at 49 CFR 395.8. The FMCSRs also state
that:
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No driver shall operate a commercial motor
vehicle, and a commercial motor carrier shall
not require or permit a driver to operate a
commercial motor vehicle, while the driver’s
ability or alertness is so impaired, or so likely
to become impaired, through fatigue, illness,
or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for
him/her to begin or continue to operate the
commercial motor vehicle (49 CFR 392.3).
The rule provides three methods of
recording driver HOS:
(1) Paper RODS: This grid form
requires the driver to graph time and
location on a paper record over a 24hour period (Section 395.8(g)). It must
be present on the CMV in the absence
of a regulatory exception.
(2) Automatic On-Board Recording
Device (AOBRD): An electronic record is
permitted if it is created and maintained
by an AOBRD as defined by 49 CFR
395.15. The record must include all the
information that would appear on a
paper log, and the driver or carrier must
be capable of producing this
information upon demand.
(3) Time Record: The HOS regulations
allow certain ‘‘short haul’’ CMV drivers
to record their hours of service by
means of a time record, commonly
referred to as a time card, maintained at
the place of business (Section 395.1(e)).
The regulations do not require that these
records reflect each change of duty
VerDate Aug<31>2005
22:03 Nov 23, 2007
Jkt 214001
status, but they must show for each day:
the time a driver begins work, the time
the driver is released from work, and the
total hours worked. There are two
categories of CMV operators eligible for
the exception: (1) Drivers operating
certain lightweight CMVs over short
distances, and (2) drivers operating
within a 100 air-mile radius of the
normal work reporting location and
returning to that location for release
from duty within 12 hours of going on
duty.
The RODS is an important tool
because it provides the information the
carrier and enforcement personnel
require to determine the compliance of
a driver with the HOS rules. The
adherence of drivers and motor carriers
to the HOS requirements helps FMCSA
protect the public by reducing the
number of tired CMV drivers on the
highways.
Most States receive grants from
FMCSA under the Motor Carrier Safety
Assistance Program. As a condition of
receiving these grants, States agree to
adopt and enforce the FMCSRs,
including the HOS rules, as State law.
As a result, State enforcement
inspectors use the RODS and supporting
documents to determine whether CMV
drivers, in interstate or intrastate
commerce, are complying with the HOS
rules.
In addition, FMCSA uses the RODS
during on-site compliance reviews (CRs)
of motor carriers. The CR determines the
overall safety rating of a motor carrier,
and a negative review can be damaging
to a motor carrier’s CMV operations
because the results of CRs are public
information. Many shippers of property
use the results of these CRs, as well as
other records of a motor carrier’s crash
and violation history, in selecting a
motor carrier to transport their freight.
Finally, the RODS have traditionally
been the principal document accepted
by the judicial system as evidence to
support actions for violations of the
HOS regulations. This information
collection supports the DOT’s Strategic
Goal of Safety because the information
helps the Agency ensure the safe
operation of CMVs in interstate
commerce on our Nation’s highways.
On August 26, 1994, Congress
directed FHWA to revise the HOS rules
to improve both driver and motor carrier
compliance and the effectiveness of
HOS enforcement, at a cost reasonable
to the motor carrier industry (The
Hazardous Materials Transportation
Authorization Act of 1994 (HMTAA)
(Pub. L. 103–311, 108 Stat. 1673)).
Section 113(b) of the HMTAA directs
the Agency to specify the number, type,
and frequency of supporting documents
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Frm 00084
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
that must be maintained as well as the
‘‘identification items’’ that must appear
on the documents. The regulation in
place at that time remains in effect
today: ‘‘Each motor carrier shall
maintain records of duty status and all
supporting documents for each driver it
employs for a period of six months from
the date of receipt’’ (49 CFR 395.8(k)).
On April 20, 1998, FHWA proposed a
new rule for supporting documents (63
FR 19457). As the successor agency to
FHWA for motor carrier responsibilities,
FMCSA on May 2, 2000, proposed
additional regulatory language to clarify
the rules (65 FR 25540). The Agency
considered the comments it received
from the public on each proposal. On
November 3, 2004, FMCSA published a
Supplemental NPRM (SNPRM),
proposing further clarification of the
duties of motor carriers and drivers with
respect to supporting documents (69 FR
63997). The SNPRM addressed how a
motor carrier could systematically
monitor the RODS of its CMV drivers,
and discussed the use of supporting
documents by the Agency in enforcing
the HOS. The principal method for
motor carriers to ensure the compliance
of their CMV drivers with the HOS rules
was a ‘‘self-monitoring system’’
employing supporting documents. The
SNPRM contained a list of documents
that might serve as supporting
documents for a motor carrier’s selfmonitoring system.
The Agency received 197 public
comments on the SNPRM, as well as
public comment on all the proposals
mentioned above. Some comments
indicated that the burden of the
paperwork associated with the
supporting documents is greater than
the estimates provided by FMCSA in
accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act. FMCSA reevaluated its
analysis of the rule as required by the
PRA. The Agency discovered that the
PRA analysis proposed for this rule, did
not account for the supporting
document collection and retention
burdens associated with the existing
driver RODS information collection
requirements.
In this Information Collection (IC)
revision, FMCSA proposes an increase
in the number of CMV drivers affected
by the HOS regulations. This accounts
for an increase in the total number of
CMV operators on the highways today,
as compared to 2005 when OMB last
approved this information collection.
The total number of interstate and
intrastate CMV drivers is currently
estimated to be 7.0 million. Of these, 4.6
million are required to complete RODS
and furnish supporting documents. The
remainder are ‘‘short haul’’ drivers or
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26NON1
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Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 226 / Monday, November 26, 2007 / Notices
others who are exempt from the RODS
requirement.
The FMCSA also describes its
calculation of the HOS paperwork
burden with greater specificity. To do
so, the Agency has reorganized its
breakdown of the various paperwork
tasks performed by drivers and motor
carriers. The revised organization
separates the paperwork burdens
imposed by the RODS requirements
from those imposed by the supporting
document requirements.
By this notice, the Agency seeks
public comment on its revised
calculations of the paperwork burden of
the HOS rules.
Title: Hours of Service (HOS) of
Drivers Regulations, Supporting
Documents.
OMB Control Number: 2126–0001.
Type of Request: Revision of a
currently-approved information
collection.
Respondents: Motor carriers, drivers
of CMVs.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
Drivers: Approximately 4.6 million;
Active Motor Carriers:
Approximately 700,000.
Estimated Time per Response: The
driver will take an average of 6.5
minutes to fill out a RODS, and 5
minutes to forward the completed RODS
to the employing motor carrier. The
motor carrier takes an average of 2
minutes to review a RODS, 1 minute per
day to maintain a RODS, and 1 minute
per day to maintain the supporting
documents of one RODS.
Expiration Date: 11/30/2008.
Frequency of Response:
Drivers: 240 days per year, on
average.
Motor Carriers: 240 days per year,
on average.
Total Number of Annual Responses
Expected:
A. DRIVER
(1) Filling Out the RODS:
1,104,000,000 (4.6 million drivers × 240
days);
(2) Forwarding the RODS to the Motor
Carrier: 115 million (4.6 million drivers
× 25 times per year) and
(3) Forwarding the Supporting
Documents to the Motor Carrier: 0 (the
activity is usual and customary).
B. MOTOR CARRIER
(1) Reviewing the RODS: 552 million
(2.3 million RODS reviewed daily × 240
days);
(2) Maintaining the RODS:
1,104,000,000 (4.6 million drivers × 240
days); and
(3) Maintaining the Supporting
Documents: 1,104,000,000 (4.6 million
drivers × 240 days).
Estimated Total Annual Burden:
184,380,000 hours [driver burden of
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22:03 Nov 23, 2007
Jkt 214001
129,180,000 hours and motor carrier
burden of 55,200,000 hours].
Public Comments Invited: You are
asked to comment on any aspect of this
information collection, including: (1)
Whether the proposed collection is
necessary for the performance of
FMCSA’s functions; (2) the accuracy of
the estimated burden; (3) ways for the
FMCSA to enhance the quality,
usefulness, and clarity of the collected
information; and (4) ways that the
burden could be minimized without
reducing the quality of the collected
information. The Agency will
summarize or include your comments in
the request for OMB’s clearance of this
information collection.
Issued on: November 15, 2007.
Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Research and
Information Technology.
[FR Doc. E7–22879 Filed 11–23–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2007–0056]
Hours of Service of Drivers: Dart
Transit Company Application for
Exemption
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of application for
exemption; request for comments.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: FMCSA has received from
Dart Transit Company (Dart) an
application for an exemption from
certain commercial motor vehicle driver
hours-of-service provisions of the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations. Dart requests an exemption
for 200 of its owner-operators from the
prohibition against driving after the
14th hour of coming on-duty, following
10 consecutive hours off-duty, and the
requirement that drivers using two
sleeper-berth periods to accumulate the
equivalent of 10 consecutive hours offduty spend at least 8 but less than 10
consecutive hours in the sleeper-berth
during one of those two periods. As
requested by Dart, exempt drivers
would be allowed to drive up to 11
hours within a 24-hour period between
3 a.m. one day and 3 a.m. the next day,
be required to complete a minimum of
6 consecutive off-duty or sleeper-berth
hours between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m., and
complete additional periods of off-duty
or sleeper-berth time to total at least 10
hours of rest within any ‘‘floating’’ 24hour period. Dart would implement a
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Frm 00085
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
66021
detailed, performance-based Fatigue
Risk Management System to help
prevent overall driver fatigue, and
require the use of Electronic On-Board
Recorders. Dart believes the terms and
conditions of the exemption would
ensure that the level of safety will be
equivalent to or greater than the level of
safety that would be obtained absent the
exemption. FMCSA requests public
comment on Dart’s application for
exemption.
Comments must be received on
or before December 26, 2007.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
identified by Federal Docket
Management System Number FMCSA–
2007–0056 by any of the following
methods:
• Web site: www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting
comments on the Federal electronic
docket site.
• Fax: 1–202–493–2251.
• Mail: Docket Management Facility,
U.S. Department of Transportation,
Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590–
0001.
• Hand Delivery: Ground Floor, Room
W12–140, DOT Building, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC,
between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. e.t., Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: All submissions must
include the Agency name and docket
number. For detailed instructions on
submitting comments and additional
information on the exemption process,
see the Public Participation heading
below. Note that all comments received
will be posted without change to
https://www.regulations.gov, including
any personal information provided.
Please see the Privacy Act heading
below.
Docket: For access to the docket to
read background documents or
comments received, go to https://
www.regulations.gov at any time or to
the ground floor, room W12–140, DOT
Building, New Jersey Avenue, SE.,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m. e.t., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search
the electronic form of all comments
received into any of our dockets by the
name of the individual submitting the
comment (or signing the comment, if
submitted on behalf of an association,
business, labor union, etc.). You may
review DOT’s complete Privacy Act
Statement in the Federal Register
published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR
19477–78) or you may visit https://
www.regulations.gov.
DATES:
E:\FR\FM\26NON1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 226 (Monday, November 26, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66019-66021]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-22879]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2007-0030]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Request for Comment;
Revision of an Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of
Drivers Regulations, Supporting Documents
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FMCSA
announces its plans to submit the Information Collection Request
described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review
and approval, and invites public comment. The FMCSA invites comments on
its plan to request OMB approval to revise an existing information
collection (IC) entitled, ``Hours of Service of Drivers Regulations,''
OMB Control Number 2126-0001. The Agency has updated its calculation of
the paperwork burden of the hours of service (HOS) rules to reflect
changes in the number of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers, and to
clarify the burden associated with supporting documents. The Agency
requires most CMV drivers to complete and maintain a record of duty
status (RODS), commonly referred to as a logbook, reflecting details of
changes in duty status during each 24-hour period. Drivers retain the
RODS for a minimum period and then forward them, along with supporting
documents (e.g., fuel receipts, road toll tickets), to the motor
carrier. The motor carrier uses the supporting documents to assist in
reviewing the RODS for accuracy, and retains the RODS and supporting
documents for a minimum of 6 months. This IC promotes safety in the
operations of motor carriers of property and passengers by assisting
the carrier and enforcement officials in ensuring compliance with the
HOS rules that ensure drivers are provided adequate opportunities for
rest.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before January 25, 2008.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by DOT Docket ID Number
0030, by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: 202-493-2251
Privacy Act: Note that all comments received will be posted without
change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information provided. Anyone is able to search the electronic form of
all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the
individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted
on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may
review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register
published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit https://
DocketInfo.dot.gov.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov or the street
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the
dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Thomas Yager, Chief, FMCSA Driver
and Carrier Operations Division. Telephone: 202-366-4325. E-mail:
MCPSD@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background: The FMCSA regulates the amount
of time a driver may drive and be on duty. A CMV driver must keep a
[[Page 66020]]
record of duty status (RODS), commonly referred to as a logbook, that
indicates his or her duty status (driving, on duty not driving, off
duty, sleeper berth) for all periods of the duty day. The RODS must be
maintained on the CMV for 7 days, and subsequently submitted to the
motor carrier along with any ``supporting documents,'' such as fuel
receipts and toll tickets, that could assist in verifying the accuracy
of entries on the RODS. The motor carrier must retain the RODS and
supporting documents for a minimum of 6 months from date of receipt.
Statutory authority for regulating the hours of service (HOS) of
drivers operating CMVs in interstate commerce is derived from 49 U.S.C.
31136 and 31502. The penalty provisions are located at 49 U.S.C. 521,
522 and 526, as amended. On November 28, 1982, the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA), the agency previously responsible for
administration of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR
350 et seq.)(FMCSRs) promulgated a final rule that required a motor
carrier to verify the accuracy of the HOS of each driver and to ensure
that drivers record their duty status in a specified format (47 FR
53383). The rule as amended is codified at 49 CFR 395.8. The FMCSRs
also state that:
No driver shall operate a commercial motor vehicle, and a
commercial motor carrier shall not require or permit a driver to
operate a commercial motor vehicle, while the driver's ability or
alertness is so impaired, or so likely to become impaired, through
fatigue, illness, or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for him/
her to begin or continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle (49
CFR 392.3).
The rule provides three methods of recording driver HOS:
(1) Paper RODS: This grid form requires the driver to graph time
and location on a paper record over a 24-hour period (Section
395.8(g)). It must be present on the CMV in the absence of a regulatory
exception.
(2) Automatic On-Board Recording Device (AOBRD): An electronic
record is permitted if it is created and maintained by an AOBRD as
defined by 49 CFR 395.15. The record must include all the information
that would appear on a paper log, and the driver or carrier must be
capable of producing this information upon demand.
(3) Time Record: The HOS regulations allow certain ``short haul''
CMV drivers to record their hours of service by means of a time record,
commonly referred to as a time card, maintained at the place of
business (Section 395.1(e)). The regulations do not require that these
records reflect each change of duty status, but they must show for each
day: the time a driver begins work, the time the driver is released
from work, and the total hours worked. There are two categories of CMV
operators eligible for the exception: (1) Drivers operating certain
lightweight CMVs over short distances, and (2) drivers operating within
a 100 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location and
returning to that location for release from duty within 12 hours of
going on duty.
The RODS is an important tool because it provides the information
the carrier and enforcement personnel require to determine the
compliance of a driver with the HOS rules. The adherence of drivers and
motor carriers to the HOS requirements helps FMCSA protect the public
by reducing the number of tired CMV drivers on the highways.
Most States receive grants from FMCSA under the Motor Carrier
Safety Assistance Program. As a condition of receiving these grants,
States agree to adopt and enforce the FMCSRs, including the HOS rules,
as State law. As a result, State enforcement inspectors use the RODS
and supporting documents to determine whether CMV drivers, in
interstate or intrastate commerce, are complying with the HOS rules.
In addition, FMCSA uses the RODS during on-site compliance reviews
(CRs) of motor carriers. The CR determines the overall safety rating of
a motor carrier, and a negative review can be damaging to a motor
carrier's CMV operations because the results of CRs are public
information. Many shippers of property use the results of these CRs, as
well as other records of a motor carrier's crash and violation history,
in selecting a motor carrier to transport their freight. Finally, the
RODS have traditionally been the principal document accepted by the
judicial system as evidence to support actions for violations of the
HOS regulations. This information collection supports the DOT's
Strategic Goal of Safety because the information helps the Agency
ensure the safe operation of CMVs in interstate commerce on our
Nation's highways.
On August 26, 1994, Congress directed FHWA to revise the HOS rules
to improve both driver and motor carrier compliance and the
effectiveness of HOS enforcement, at a cost reasonable to the motor
carrier industry (The Hazardous Materials Transportation Authorization
Act of 1994 (HMTAA) (Pub. L. 103-311, 108 Stat. 1673)). Section 113(b)
of the HMTAA directs the Agency to specify the number, type, and
frequency of supporting documents that must be maintained as well as
the ``identification items'' that must appear on the documents. The
regulation in place at that time remains in effect today: ``Each motor
carrier shall maintain records of duty status and all supporting
documents for each driver it employs for a period of six months from
the date of receipt'' (49 CFR 395.8(k)).
On April 20, 1998, FHWA proposed a new rule for supporting
documents (63 FR 19457). As the successor agency to FHWA for motor
carrier responsibilities, FMCSA on May 2, 2000, proposed additional
regulatory language to clarify the rules (65 FR 25540). The Agency
considered the comments it received from the public on each proposal.
On November 3, 2004, FMCSA published a Supplemental NPRM (SNPRM),
proposing further clarification of the duties of motor carriers and
drivers with respect to supporting documents (69 FR 63997). The SNPRM
addressed how a motor carrier could systematically monitor the RODS of
its CMV drivers, and discussed the use of supporting documents by the
Agency in enforcing the HOS. The principal method for motor carriers to
ensure the compliance of their CMV drivers with the HOS rules was a
``self-monitoring system'' employing supporting documents. The SNPRM
contained a list of documents that might serve as supporting documents
for a motor carrier's self-monitoring system.
The Agency received 197 public comments on the SNPRM, as well as
public comment on all the proposals mentioned above. Some comments
indicated that the burden of the paperwork associated with the
supporting documents is greater than the estimates provided by FMCSA in
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. FMCSA reevaluated its
analysis of the rule as required by the PRA. The Agency discovered that
the PRA analysis proposed for this rule, did not account for the
supporting document collection and retention burdens associated with
the existing driver RODS information collection requirements.
In this Information Collection (IC) revision, FMCSA proposes an
increase in the number of CMV drivers affected by the HOS regulations.
This accounts for an increase in the total number of CMV operators on
the highways today, as compared to 2005 when OMB last approved this
information collection. The total number of interstate and intrastate
CMV drivers is currently estimated to be 7.0 million. Of these, 4.6
million are required to complete RODS and furnish supporting documents.
The remainder are ``short haul'' drivers or
[[Page 66021]]
others who are exempt from the RODS requirement.
The FMCSA also describes its calculation of the HOS paperwork
burden with greater specificity. To do so, the Agency has reorganized
its breakdown of the various paperwork tasks performed by drivers and
motor carriers. The revised organization separates the paperwork
burdens imposed by the RODS requirements from those imposed by the
supporting document requirements.
By this notice, the Agency seeks public comment on its revised
calculations of the paperwork burden of the HOS rules.
Title: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations, Supporting
Documents.
OMB Control Number: 2126-0001.
Type of Request: Revision of a currently-approved information
collection.
Respondents: Motor carriers, drivers of CMVs.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
Drivers: Approximately 4.6 million;
Active Motor Carriers: Approximately 700,000.
Estimated Time per Response: The driver will take an average of 6.5
minutes to fill out a RODS, and 5 minutes to forward the completed RODS
to the employing motor carrier. The motor carrier takes an average of 2
minutes to review a RODS, 1 minute per day to maintain a RODS, and 1
minute per day to maintain the supporting documents of one RODS.
Expiration Date: 11/30/2008.
Frequency of Response:
Drivers: 240 days per year, on average.
Motor Carriers: 240 days per year, on average.
Total Number of Annual Responses Expected:
A. DRIVER
(1) Filling Out the RODS: 1,104,000,000 (4.6 million drivers x 240
days);
(2) Forwarding the RODS to the Motor Carrier: 115 million (4.6
million drivers x 25 times per year) and
(3) Forwarding the Supporting Documents to the Motor Carrier: 0
(the activity is usual and customary).
B. MOTOR CARRIER
(1) Reviewing the RODS: 552 million (2.3 million RODS reviewed
daily x 240 days);
(2) Maintaining the RODS: 1,104,000,000 (4.6 million drivers x 240
days); and
(3) Maintaining the Supporting Documents: 1,104,000,000 (4.6
million drivers x 240 days).
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 184,380,000 hours [driver burden of
129,180,000 hours and motor carrier burden of 55,200,000 hours].
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed
collection is necessary for the performance of FMCSA's functions; (2)
the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways for the FMCSA to enhance
the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and
(4) ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the
quality of the collected information. The Agency will summarize or
include your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this
information collection.
Issued on: November 15, 2007.
Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Research and Information Technology.
[FR Doc. E7-22879 Filed 11-23-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P
