Agency Information Collection Activities; Request for Comment; Extension of an Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations, 50313-50315 [2011-20584]

Agencies

• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 156 (Friday, August 12, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50313-50315]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-20584]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2011-0177]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Request for Comment; 
Extension of an Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of 
Drivers Regulations

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

[[Page 50314]]

(PRA), FMCSA announces its plan to submit the Information Collection 
Request (ICR) described below to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and approval and invites public comment. The FMCSA 
requests OMB approval to revise and extend an existing ICR entitled, 
``Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations.'' The HOS rules 
require most commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers to maintain in the 
CMV an accurate record of duty status (RODS) in either paper or 
electronic form. The Agency, effective June 4, 2010, authorized the use 
of electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) to create driver RODS. This 
ICR estimates, for the first time, the PRA burden of motor carriers 
voluntarily directing their drivers to employ EOBRs. This ICR promotes 
safety in CMV operations by assisting motor carriers and enforcement 
officials in monitoring compliance with the HOS rules. On June 6, 2011, 
FMCSA published a Federal Register notice allowing for a 60-day comment 
period on the ICR (76 FR 32388). One comment was received.

DATES: Please send your comments by September 12, 2011. OMB must 
receive your comments by this date in order to act quickly on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: All comments should reference Federal Docket Management 
System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2011-0177. Interested persons are 
invited to submit written comments on the proposed information 
collection to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office 
of Management and Budget. Comments should be addressed to the attention 
of the Desk Officer, Department of Transportation/Federal Motor Carrier 
Safety Administration, and sent via electronic mail to oira_submission@omb.eop.gov, faxed to (202) 395-6974, or mailed to the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, 
DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert F. Schultz, Jr., FMCSA Driver 
and Carrier Operations Division. Telephone: 202-366-4325. E-mail: 
MCPSD@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0001.
    Type of Request: Revision and extension of a currently-approved 
information collection.
    Respondents: Motor Carriers, Drivers of CMVs.
    Estimated Annual Respondents: 4.93 million [4.60 million drivers + 
0.33 million active motor carriers].
    Estimated Time per Response: A driver employing a paper RODS takes 
an average of 6.5 minutes to complete it; a driver employing an EOBR 
takes an average of 2 minutes to complete it. A driver takes an average 
of 5 minutes to forward a paper RODS to the motor carrier; a driver 
employing an EOBR is relieved of this task by automation. Whether using 
a paper or EOBR RODS, a motor carrier takes 2 minutes to review a RODS 
and its corresponding supporting documents, and 1 additional minute to 
maintain those supporting documents. For those motor carriers using an 
EOBR, the ICR burden of maintaining the RODS is eliminated by 
automation; for those motor carriers using paper RODS, 1 minute is 
required to maintain the RODS.
    Expiration Date: 8/31/2011.

Estimated Frequency of Response

    Drivers: 240 days per year, on average.
    Motor Carriers: 240 days per year, on average.
    Estimated Annual Responses: 3,843.59 million--the sum of the 
following:

A. Driver Tasks

    (1) Filling out the RODS: 1,104 million, and
    (2) Forwarding the RODS to the motor carrier: 102.23 million.

B. Motor Carrier Tasks

    (1) Reviewing the RODS: 552 million,
    (2) Maintaining the RODS: 981.36 million, and
    (3) Maintaining the supporting documents: 1,104 million.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 172.08 million burden hours [118.92 
million driver hours + 53.16 million carrier hours].
    Background: The FMCSA regulates the amount of time a CMV driver may 
drive or otherwise be on duty, in order to ensure that an adequate 
period of time is available to the driver to rest. A driver must 
accurately record his or her duty status (driving, on duty not driving, 
off duty, sleeper berth) at all points during the 24-hour period 
designated by the motor carrier (49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)). This RODS must be 
made on a grid specified by subsection 395.8(g). The term ``logbook'' 
is often used in the industry to denote the collection of the most 
recent RODS of the driver. A driver must have the RODS for the previous 
7 consecutive days in the CMV at all times (395.8(k)(2)). The RODS must 
be 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, and the motor carrier must retain 
these records for a minimum of 6 months from the date of receipt (49 
CFR 395.8(k)(1)).
    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 responsible for administration of the 
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) (49 CFR 350 et seq.) 
at that time, promulgated a final rule requiring motor carriers to 
ensure that their drivers record their duty status in a specified 
format and verify the accuracy of the HOS of each driver (47 FR 53383). 
The rule is codified at 49 CFR 395.8.
    The HOS rules provide the following four methods of recording 
driver duty status:
    (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) Time Record: The HOS regulations allow certain ``short haul'' 
CMV drivers to avoid the onboard-the-CMV RODS requirement if their 
employing motor carrier records their HOS by means of a time record or 
time card maintained at the place of business (Section 395.1(e)). To 
qualify for this exception, short-haul drivers generally must return at 
the end of the duty day to the same location at which they began the 
day, and must remain within a certain distance of that location at all 
times during the duty day. The time record must show the time the 
driver began work, was released from work, and the total hours worked.
    (3) 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 395.2. The record must include all the information 
that would appear on a paper RODS, and the driver or carrier must be 
capable of producing this information upon demand.
    (4) EOBR: Motor carriers subject to an FMCSA remedial directive 
must use an electronic record created and maintained by an EOBR as 
defined in 49 CFR 395.2. Other motor carriers may voluntarily employ 
EOBRs.
    The RODS is important because it provides motor carriers and 
enforcement personnel a significant tool

[[Page 50315]]

for determining driver compliance with the HOS rules. Compliance 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 are complying 
with the HOS rules. In addition, FMCSA uses the RODS during on-site 
compliance reviews (CRs) and targeted reviews of motor carriers. The CR 
is a public record. An unfavorable review can be damaging to a motor 
carrier's business because customers may access the CRs before 
selecting a motor carrier to hire. Finally, Federal and State judicial 
systems generally accept RODS as evidence in actions alleging driver or 
motor carrier 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.
    The currently-approved PRA burden estimate is 181.28 million hours, 
as approved by OMB on August 20, 2010. The expiration date of this IC 
is August 31, 2011. In this ICR, FMCSA proposes to reduce the PRA 
burden by approximately 9.20 million burden hours, or by slightly over 
5 percent. FMCSA seeks OMB approval of its revised estimated PRA burden 
of 172.08 million burden hours. In today's submission, FMCSA for the 
first time estimates the extent of voluntary EOBR use by motor 
carriers, and subtracts that same number from its estimate of the 
extent of the use of paper RODS. The Agency maintains its OMB-approved 
estimates of the total number of CMV drivers subject to the HOS rules, 
and the total number of CMV drivers subject to an Agency remedial HOS 
directive.
    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 information collected.

    Issued on: August 8, 2011.
Kelly Leone,
Associate Administrator for Research and Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2011-20584 Filed 8-11-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P