Reports, Forms, and Record Keeping Requirements, 70269-70273 [2016-24505]
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Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 196 / Tuesday, October 11, 2016 / Notices
Removed Burdens— Our previous
renewal of this collection included onetime cost estimates associated with
adding a new vehicle type, fuel and/or
propulsion system type, and four new
components (stability control, forward
collision avoidance, lane departure
prevention, and backover prevention) to
vehicle EWR reporting. These one-time
costs were estimated for manufacturers
to amend their reporting templates and
revise their software system to support
the new reporting requirements. See 78
FR 51415. Manufacturers were required
to make these changes to their vehicle
EWR reporting by January 1, 2015. See
79 FR 47591. As these one-time costs
have already been incurred and
manufacturers have already made the
necessary modifications to their
systems, a total of 39,296 burden hours
and $4.57 million dollars will be
removed from this collection.
Summary of Burden Estimate—Based
on the foregoing, we estimate the
burden hours for industry to comply
with the current EWR requirements,
foreign campaign requirements and Part
579.5 requirements total 49,243 burden
hours (47,514 for EWR requirements +
1,146 hours for foreign campaign
requirements + 583 hours for Part
579.5). This is a decrease of 35,950
hours from the currently approved
collection, mostly due to the one-time
costs we previously estimated and have
now removed from this collection. We
now estimate the cost burden for current
EWR requirements, foreign campaign
requirements, and Part 579.5
requirements to total $6,784,092
annually.
Estimated Number of Respondents—
NHTSA receives EWR submissions,
foreign campaigns, and Part 579.5
submissions from roughly 292
manufacturers per year.
In summary, we estimate that there
will be a total of 292 respondents per
year associated with OMB No. 2127–
0616.
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Issued on: October 4, 2016.
Michael L. Brown,
Acting Director, Office of Defects
Investigation.
[FR Doc. 2016–24526 Filed 10–7–16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–59–P
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration
[U.S. DOT Docket Number NHTSA–2016–
0065]
Reports, Forms, and Record Keeping
Requirements
National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S.
Department of Transportation.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
In compliance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice announces that the Information
Collection Request (ICR) abstracted
below has been forwarded to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and comment. The ICR describes
the nature of the information collections
and their expected burden. The Federal
Register Notice with a 60-day comment
period was published on June 27, 2016
(81 FR 41644).
DATES: Comments must be submitted to
OMB on or before November 10, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to the
Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, OMB, 725 17th Street NW.,
Washington, DC 20503, Attention: Desk
Officer.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alex
Ansley, Recall Management Division
(NVS–215), Room W48–301, NHTSA,
1200 New Jersey Ave., Washington, DC
20590. Telephone: (202) 493–0481.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,
before an agency submits a proposed
collection of information to OMB for
approval, it must first publish a
document in the Federal Register
providing a 60-day comment period and
otherwise consult with members of the
public and affected agencies concerning
each proposed collection of information.
The OMB has promulgated regulations
describing what must be included in
such a document. Under OMB’s
regulation, see 5 CFR 1320.8(d), an
agency must ask for public comment on
the following:
(i) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
agency, including whether the
information will have practical utility;
(ii) the accuracy of the agency’s
estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and
assumptions used;
(iii) how to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and
SUMMARY:
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70269
(iv) how to minimize the burden of
the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including the use
of appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology, e.g. permitting
electronic submission of responses.
In compliance with these
requirements, NHTSA asks for public
comments on the following collection of
information:
Title: Defect and Noncompliance
Reporting and Notification.
Type of Request: Extension of a
currently approved information
collection.
OMB Control Number: 2127–0004.
Affected Public: Businesses or
individuals.
Abstract: The 60-day notice for this
information collection received one (1)
comment submitted by Nissan North
America, Inc. (Nissan). Nissan agreed
with many of the estimates presented in
the 60-day notice but did offer
substantive comments on six different
estimates related to safety recall
reporting and owner notification
obligations. A summary of Nissan’s
comments are found below in the
corresponding burden estimate along
with the Agency’s response.
This collection covers the information
collection requirements found within
various statutory sections in the Motor
Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (Act), 49
U.S.C. 30101, et seq., that address and
require manufacturer notifications to
NHTSA of safety-related defects and
failures to comply with Federal Motor
Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) in
motor vehicles and motor vehicle
equipment, as well as the provision of
particular information related to the
ensuing owner and dealers notifications
and free remedy campaigns that follow
those notifications.
Pursuant to the Act, motor vehicle
and motor vehicle equipment
manufacturers are obligated to notify,
and then provide various information
and documents, to NHTSA in the event
a safety defect or noncompliance with
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
(FMVSS) is identified in products they
manufactured. See 49 U.S.C. 30118(b)
and 49 CFR 573.6 (requiring
manufacturers to notify NHTSA, and
provide certain information, when they
learn of a safety defect or
noncompliance). Manufacturers are
further required to notify owners,
purchasers, dealers and distributors
about the safety defect or
noncompliance. See 49 U.S.C. 30118(b),
30120(a), and 49 CFR 577.7, 577.13.
They are required to provide to NHTSA
copies of communications pertaining to
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recall campaigns that they issue to
owners, purchasers, dealers, and
distributors. See 49 U.S.C. 30166(f) and
49 CFR 573.6(c)(10).
Manufacturers are also required to file
with NHTSA a plan explaining how
they intend to reimburse owners and
purchasers who paid to have their
products remedied before being notified
of the safety defect or noncompliance,
and explain that plan in the
notifications they issue to owners and
purchasers about the safety defect or
noncompliance. See 49 U.S.C. 30120(d)
and 49 CFR 573.13. They are further
required to keep lists of the respective
owners, purchasers, dealers,
distributors, lessors, and lessees of the
products determined to be defective or
noncompliant and involved in a recall
campaign, and are required to provide
NHTSA with a minimum of six
quarterly reports reporting on the
progress of their recall campaigns. See
49 CFR 573.8 and 573.7, respectively.
The Act and Part 573 also contain
numerous information collection
requirements specific to tire recall and
remedy campaigns. These requirements
relate to the proper disposal of recalled
tires, including a requirement that the
manufacturer conducting the tire recall
submit a plan and provide specific
instructions to certain persons (such as
dealers and distributors) addressing that
disposal, and a requirement that those
persons report back to the manufacturer
certain deviations from the plan. See 49
U.S.C. 30120(d) and 49 CFR 573.6(c)(9).
They also require the reporting to
NHTSA of intentional and knowing
sales or leases of defective or
noncompliant tires.
49 U.S.C. 30166(n), and its
implementing regulation found at 49
CFR 573.10, mandates that anyone who
knowingly and willfully sells or leases
for use on a motor vehicle a defective
tire or a tire that is not compliant with
FMVSS, and with actual knowledge that
the tire manufacturer has notified its
dealers of the defect or noncompliance
as required under the Act, is required to
report that sale or lease to NHTSA no
more than five working days after the
person to whom the tire was sold or
leased takes possession of it.
Estimated Burden: The approved
information collection associated with
49 CFR part 573 and portions of 49 CFR
part 577 presently holds an estimated
annual burden of 46,138 hours
associated with an estimated 280
respondents per year. For information
concerning how we calculated these
estimates please see the Federal
Register Notices 78 FR 51381 (August
20, 2013).
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Our prior estimates of the number of
manufacturers each year that would be
required to provide information under
49 CFR part 573, the number of recalls
for which 49 CFR part 573 information
collection requirements would need to
be met, and the number of burden hours
associated with the requirements
currently covered by this information
collection require adjustment as
explained below.
Based on current information, we now
estimate 275 distinct manufacturers
filing an average of 854 Part 573 Safety
Recall Reports each year. This is a
change from our previous estimate of
680 Part 573 Safety Recall Reports filed
by 280 manufacturers each year.
We originally estimated that it takes a
manufacturer an average of 4 hours to
complete each notification report to
NHTSA and that maintenance of the
required owner, purchaser, dealer, and
distributors lists requires 8 hours a year
per manufacturer. Nissan commented
that, in its experience, it spends ‘‘. . .
two (2) to (3) days (16–24 hours) to
complete each Defect Information
Report (DIR), based on an eight (8) hour
day. This varies based on the size and
complexity of the recall.’’ We thank
Nissan for its comment and do not
disagree with its estimated burden for
filing a Part 573 Recall Report (or ‘‘DIR’’
as referenced in Nissan’s comment).
However, most manufacturers who
conduct safety recalls are not major,
passenger vehicle manufacturers. And,
generally, most other manufacturers
include very few products in the
average safety recall. We presume that,
like Nissan, other major, passenger
vehicle manufacturers require similar
time and burden to prepare and file
their reports due to the size and
complexity of passenger vehicle recalls.
As such, we estimate that major,
passenger vehicle manufacturers will
require 20 burden hours, the average of
Nissan’s estimate, to prepare and file
their Part 573 Recall Reports.
By utilizing the metric associated
with NHTSA’s VIN Look-up Tool
regulation (See 49 CFR 573.15), we will
associate a higher burden hour estimate
for the major, passenger vehicle
manufacturers who produce more than
25,000 vehicles annually. The seventeen
(17) manufacturers that fit this annual
production criterion recall many more
products, on average, than other
manufacturers. Between 2013 and 2015,
the recalls for these major, passenger
vehicle manufacturers (including
Nissan) affected an average of 153,000
vehicles per recall. However, the recalls
for all other manufacturers (including
manufacturers for other vehicles and
motor vehicle equipment such as tires,
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child seats, etc.), affected an average of
32,000 products per recall. Between
2013 and 2015 the major, passenger
vehicle manufacturers conducted an
average of 45 recalls annually.
We estimate the annual burden hours
related to the reporting to NHTSA of a
safety defect or noncompliance for the
seventeen major, passenger vehicle
manufacturers to be 900 hours annually
(45 notices × 20 hours/report). We
estimate all other manufacturers to
require a total of 3,236 hours annually
to file their notices (809 notices × 4
hours/report). Accordingly, the
estimated annual burden hours related
to the reporting to NHTSA of a safety
defect or noncompliance is 6,336 hours
(900 hours + 3,236 hours) + (275 MFRs
× 8 hours to maintain purchaser lists).
We also estimated an additional 2
hours would be needed to add to a
manufacturer’s Part 573 Safety Recall
Report details relating to the intended
schedule for notifying its dealers and
distributors, and tailoring its
notifications to dealers and distributors
in accordance with the requirements of
49 CFR 577.13. Nissan commented that,
in its experience and depending on the
complexity of the recall, it ‘‘typically
works up to five (5) business days/forty
(40) hours to craft the Dealer
announcement with the appropriate
repair protocol and other essential
information to provide to dealers. The
announcement creation includes
coordinating with multiple departments
in order to notify and instruct the
dealers/retailers on how to execute the
remedy.’’ Similar to the burden hour
estimate for readying the Part 573 Recall
Report, we believe Nissan’s estimate is
realistic and should apply to the burden
hour calculation for the major,
passenger vehicle manufacturers. We
believe, however, that most other
manufacturers would require up to two
hours readying this notification. This
burden is now estimated at 3,418 hours
annually (809 notices × 2 hours/
notification + 45 notices × 40 hours/
notification).
49 U.S.C. 30166(f) requires vehicle
manufacturers to provide to the Agency
copies of all communications regarding
defects and noncompliances sent to
owners, purchasers, and dealerships.
Manufactures must index these
communications by the year, make, and
model of the vehicle as well as provide
a concise summary of the subject of the
communication. We estimate this
burden requires 30 minutes for each
vehicle recall. This would total to an
estimated 380 hours annually (760
vehicle recalls × .5 hours). Nissan
commented that they agreed with the
Agency’s estimate for this burden.
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In the event a manufacturer supplied
the defect or noncompliant product to
independent dealers through
independent distributors, that
manufacturer is required to include in
its notifications to those distributors an
instruction that the distributors are to
then provide copies of the
manufacturer’s notification of the defect
or noncompliance to all known
distributors or retail outlets further
down the distribution chain within five
working days. See 49 CFR
577.7(c)(2)(iv). As a practical matter,
this requirement would only apply to
equipment manufacturers since vehicle
manufacturers generally sell and lease
vehicles through a dealer network, and
not through independent distributors.
We believe our previous estimate of
roughly 80 equipment recalls per year
needs to be adjusted to 95 equipment
recalls per year to better reflect recent
recall figures. Although the distributors
are not technically under any regulatory
requirement to follow that instruction,
we expect that they will, and have
estimated the burden associated with
these notifications (identifying retail
outlets, making copies of the
manufacturer’s notice, and mailing) to
be 5 hours per recall campaign.
Assuming an average of 3 distributors
per equipment item, (which is a liberal
estimate given that many equipment
manufacturers do not use independent
distributors) the total number of burden
hours associated with this third party
notification burden is approximately
1,425 hours per year (95 recalls × 3
distributors × 5 hours). We received no
comments on this particular burden
estimate.
As for the burden linked with a
manufacturer’s preparation of and
notification concerning its
reimbursement for pre-notification
remedies, we estimated that the
preparation of a reimbursement plan
takes approximately 8 hours annually,
and that an additional 2 hours per year
is spent tailoring the plan to particular
defect and noncompliance notifications
to NHTSA and adding tailored language
about the plan to a particular safety
recall’s owner notification letters.
Nissan commented that this
requirement actually requires additional
burden hours from various departments
within the company. Nissan estimates
that its Consumer Affairs department
must maintain and update a
reimbursement Web site which requires
$24,000 annually. Further, updates to
this Web site take approximately four
(4) hours to complete, presumably per
recall (but this is not clarified). Another
twelve (12) annual hours are required to
‘‘. . . . disseminate internal documents
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to Consumer Affairs staff . . .’’ Nissan’s
Field Quality Assurance and Technical
Compliance departments also spend a
combined four and a half (4.5) hours,
per recall, creating the reimbursement
plan and adding specific language to the
owner notification letter.
We thank Nissan for its detailed
burden estimate for this requirement.
Regarding the Web site that Nissan
operates for managing reimbursement
submissions, this is not a current
burden imposed by the regulation in 49
CFR 577.11. Manufacturers must
disseminate reimbursement information
to owners through the owner
notification letter and provide owners a
physical mailing address to submit any
claims in writing. Manufacturers are not
required to create or maintain a Web site
for facilitating this pre-notification
remedy requirement. As such, we will
not include the $24,000 annual
maintenance costs related to Nissan’s
Web site or the four (4) hours spent on
updating the Web site.
However, we do agree with Nissan
regarding the four and a half (4.5) hours
required to create the reimbursement
plan and tailor the plan to each specific
recall. We previously estimated a
combined total of 10 hours for these
items but we will use Nissan’s estimate
going forward. Also, we will add an
additional 12 hours annually, as Nissan
estimates, for each manufacturer to
disseminate pre-notification
reimbursement to their company staff.
In sum, these required activities total
4,827 annual burden hours ((275 MFRs
× 4 hours to prepare plan) + (854 recalls
× .5 hours tailoring plan for each recall)
+ (275 MFRs × 12 hours to disseminate
plan information)).
The Safety Act and 49 CFR part 573
also contain numerous information
collection requirements specific to tire
recall and remedy campaigns, as well as
a statutory and regulatory reporting
requirement that anyone who
knowingly and intentionally sells or
leases a defective or noncompliant tire
notify NHTSA of that activity.
Manufacturers are required to include
specific information related to tire
disposal in the notifications they
provide NHTSA concerning
identification of a safety defect or
noncompliance with FMVSS in their
tires, as well as in the notifications they
issue to their dealers or other tire outlets
participating in the recall campaign. See
49 CFR 573.6(c)(9). We now estimate
that the Agency administers 12 tire
recalls each year, on average, revised
down from our previous estimate of 15
tire recall each year. We estimate that
the inclusion of this additional
information will require an additional
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70271
two hours of effort beyond the subtotal
above associated with non-tire recall
campaigns. This additional effort
consists of one hour for the NHTSA
notification and one hour for the dealer
notification for a total of 24 burden
hours (12 tire recalls a year × 2 hours
per recall).
Manufacturer owned or controlled
dealers are required to notify the
manufacturer and provide certain
information should they deviate from
the manufacturer’s disposal plan.
Consistent with our previous analysis,
we continue to ascribe zero burden
hours to this requirement since to date
no such reports have been provided and
our original expectation that dealers
would comply with manufacturers’
plans has proven true.
Accordingly, we estimate 24 burden
hours a year will be spent complying
with the tire recall campaign
requirements found in 49 CFR
573.6(c)(9).
Additionally, because the agency has
yet to receive a single report of a
defective or noncompliant tire being
intentionally sold or leased, our
previous estimate of zero burden hours
remains unchanged with this notice. We
received no comments regarding the
burden estimates for tire disposal
requirements or tire recall campaign
requirements.
The previous clearance for this
information collection allowed for startup costs for the Agency’s VIN Look-up
system and a new regulation that
required manufacturers to create a VIN
Look-up service on their respective Web
sites. As these systems were launched
successfully in August 2014, the startup estimates for costs and burden will
now be removed. The estimated costs to
industry for one-time infrastructure
expenses to create a VIN-based recalls
lookup service consisting of 108 hours,
and costing a total of $45,000, will now
be removed from this information
collection.
Each manufacturer was also required
to establish requirements, analysis, and
designs for their new recalls look-up
tools. These additional burdens
stemmed from: The creation of the VIN
search interface; database setup to host
the recall information; data refresh
procedures to populate recall
information; server side VIN code
lookup and recall status retrieval;
integration with existing manufacturer
Web site; and application testing. We
estimated these burdens to total 1,332
hours and $130,005 and these costs will
now be removed from this information
collection.
We continue to believe nine vehicle
manufacturers, who did not operate
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VIN-based recalls lookup systems prior
to August 2013, incur certain recurring
burdens on an annual basis. We
estimate that 100 burden hours will be
spent on system and database
administrator support. These 100
burden hours include: Backup data
management and monitoring; database
management, updates, and log
management; and data transfer,
archiving, quality assurance, and
cleanup procedures. We estimate
another 100 burden hours will be
incurred on web/application developer
support. These burdens include:
Operating system and security patch
management; application/web server
management; and application server
system and log files management. We
estimate these burdens will total 1,800
hours each year (9 MFRs × 200 hours).
We estimate the recurring costs of these
burden hours will be $30,000 per
manufacturer.1 We continue to estimate
that the total cost to the industry from
these recurring expenses will total
$270,000, on an annual basis (9 MFRs
× $30,000). Nissan commented that they
agreed with this estimate.
The Agency previously estimated onetime startup costs that manufacturers
would assume in order to meet certain
technical access requirements to
provide recall information to NHTSA’s
Web site. We estimated that the total
one-time costs to the industry from
these technical access requirements
would require 1,914 burden hours (27
MFRs × 72 hours) and total $189,270 (27
MFRs × $7,010) and we now remove
these costs from this information
collection.
The Agency previously estimated onetime startup costs manufacturers
incurred to create a VIN list for 15 years
of recall information. We estimated that
the total one-time costs to the industry
from this VIN list creation would
require 1,620 hours (27 MFRs × 60
hours). We remove these costs from this
information collection.
Changes to 49 CFR part 573 in 2013
required 27 manufacturers to update
each recalled vehicle’s repair status no
less than every 7 days, for 15 years from
the date the VIN is known to be
included in the recall. This ongoing
requirement to update the status of a
VIN for 15 years continues to add a
recurring burden on top of the one-time
burden to implement and operate these
online search tools. We calculate that 8
affected motorcycle manufacturers will
make recalled VINs available for an
1 $8,000 (for data center hosting for the physical
server) + $12,000 (for system and database
administrator support) + $10,000 (for web/
application developer support) = $30,000.
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average of 2 recalls each year and 19
affected passenger vehicle
manufacturers will make recalled VINs
available for an average of 8 recalls each
year. We believe it will take no more
than 1 hour, and potentially much less
with automated systems, to update the
VIN status of vehicles that have been
remedied under the manufacturer’s
remedy program. We continue to
estimate this will require 8,736 burden
hours per year (1 hour × 2 recalls × 52
weeks × 8 MFRs + 1 hour × 8 recalls ×
52 weeks × 19 MFRs) to support the
requirement to update the recalls
completion status of each VIN in a recall
at least weekly for 15 years. We received
no comments on this estimate.
As the number of Part 573 Recall
Reports has increased in recent years, so
has the number of quarterly reports
which track the completion of safety
recalls. Our previous estimate of 3,000
quarterly reports received annually is
now revised up to an average of 3,800
reports annually. Nissan commented
that they spend an average of ten (10)
minutes per quarterly report where we
previously estimated 4 hours per report.
We believe Nissan’s estimate of 10
minutes is much more realistic as this
process is likely automated through
electronic reporting. As such, we will
adopt Nissan’s estimate of 10 minutes
burden to gather the pertinent
information for each quarterly report.
Nissan further estimated that it
requires one (1) additional hour each
quarter to electronically submit all
quarterly reports (for up to 30 recalls in
a given quarter) totaling another four (4)
burden hours annually. As noted before,
the major, passenger vehicle
manufacturers often conduct more
recalls affecting more vehicles and this
can increase the quarterly reporting
burden for those manufacturers. We will
include an additional four (4) burden
hours for the seventeen major, passenger
vehicle manufacturers. The quarterly
reporting burden now totals 701 hours
((3,800 quarterly reports × 10 minutes/
report) + (17 MFRs × 4 hours for
electronic submission)).
NHTSA’s last update to this
information collection established a
new online recalls portal for the
submission of recall documents. We
continue to estimate a small burden of
2 hours annually in order to set up a
manufacturer’s online recalls portal
account with the pertinent contact
information and maintaining/updating
their account information as needed. We
estimate this will require a total of 550
hours annually (2 hours × 275 MFRs).
Nissan commented that they agree with
this estimate.
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Also updated in the last revision to
this information collection, NHTSA
established a requirement that
manufactures change or update recall
components in their Part 573 Safety
Recall Report. We continue to estimate
that 20 percent of Part 573 reports will
involve a change or addition. We
originally estimated that this burden
would require an additional 30 minutes
per amended report. Nissan commented
that this task requires up to one (1) hour
per amended report. We believe
Nissan’s estimate of one hour is
reasonable and we will adopt this
estimated burden calculation. At one
hour per amended report, this totals 171
burden hours per year (854 recalls × .20
= 171 recalls; 171 × 1 = 171 hours).
As to the requirement that
manufacturers notify NHTSA in the
event of a bankruptcy, we expect this
notification to take an estimated 2 hours
to draft and submit to NHTSA. We
continue to estimate that only 10
manufacturers might submit such a
notice to NHTSA each year, so we
calculate the total burden at 20 hours
(10 MFRs × 2 hours). We received no
comments on this particular estimate.
We continue to estimate that it takes
manufacturers an average of 8 hours to
draft their notification letters, submit
them to NHTSA for review, and then
finalize them for mailing to their
affected owners and purchasers. We
estimate that the 49 CFR part 577
requirements result in 6,832 burden
hours annually (8 hours per recall × 854
recalls per year). Nissan commented
that they agree with the Agency’s
estimate for this burden calculation.
The estimate associated with the
regulation which requires owner
notifications within 60 days of filing a
Part 573 Safety Recall Report remains
must similarly be revised with an
increase in recalls. We previously
calculated that about 25 percent of past
recalls did not include an owner
notification mailing within 60 days of
the filing of the Part 573 Safety Recall
Report. However, recent trends show
that only about 10 percent of recalls
require an interim owner notification
mailing. Under the regulation,
manufacturers must send two letters in
these cases: An interim notification of
the defect or noncompliance within 60
days and a supplemental letter notifying
owners and purchasers of the available
remedy.
We originally estimated these interim
letters would require 8 burden hours per
recall (similar to the standard owner
notification letters). However, Nissan
commented that preparation of the
interim letter can require up to ten (10)
hours if the letter is complex in nature.
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We believe Nissan’s estimate of 10
hours is reasonable and we will adopt
this estimate burden calculation.
Accordingly, we estimate that 850
burden hours are associated with this
60-day interim notification requirement
(854 recalls × .10 = 85 recalls; 85 recalls
times 10 hours per recall = 850 hours).
As for costs associated with notifying
owners and purchasers of recalls, we
continue to estimate this costs $1.50 per
first class mail notification, on average.
This cost estimate includes the costs of
printing, mailing, as well as the costs
vehicle manufacturers may pay to thirdparty vendors to acquire the names and
addresses of the current registered
owners from state and territory
departments of motor vehicles. In
reviewing recent recall figures, we
determined that an estimated 58.4
million letters are mailed yearly totaling
$87,600,000 ($1.50 per letter ×
58,400,000 letters). The requirement in
49 CFR part 577 for a manufacturer to
notify their affected customers within
60 days would add an additional
$8,760,000 (58,400,000 letters × .10
requiring interim owner notifications =
5,840,000 letters; 5,840,000 × $1.50 =
$8,760,000). In total we estimate that the
current 49 CFR part 577 requirements
cost manufacturers a total of
$96,360,000 annually ($87,600,000
owner notification letters + $8,760,000
interim notification letters =
$96,360,000). Nissan commented that
they agree with the Agency’s estimate
for this cost estimate.
Due to the past burdens associated
with the requirement that certain
vehicle manufacturers setup VIN Lookup systems for their recalled vehicles,
many estimates have been removed
from this information collection as these
burdens and costs have already
occurred. The 49 CFR part 573 and 49
CFR part 577 requirements found in
today’s notice will require 36,070 hours
each year for OMB Control Number
2127–0004, a decrease of 10,068 burden
hours from the previously approved
collection of 46,138 hours. Additionally,
manufacturers impacted by 49 CFR part
573 and 49 CFR part 577 requirements
will incur a recurring annual cost
estimated at $96,630,000 total.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
NHTSA receives reports of defect or
noncompliance from roughly 275
manufacturers per year. Accordingly,
we estimate that there will be
approximately 275 manufacturers per
year filing defect or noncompliance
reports and completing the other
information collection responsibilities
associated with those filings.
In summary, we estimate that there
will be a total of 275 respondents per
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:12 Oct 07, 2016
Jkt 241001
year associated with OMB No. 2127–
0004.
Issued on: October 4, 2016.
Michael L. Brown,
Acting Director, Office of Defects
Investigation.
[FR Doc. 2016–24505 Filed 10–7–16; 8:45 am]
70273
Issued in Washington, DC, on October 4,
2016, under authority delegated in 49 CFR
part 107.
William S. Schoonover,
Acting Associate Administrator, Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
[FR Doc. 2016–24417 Filed 10–7–16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–60–P
BILLING CODE 4910–59–P
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration
[Docket No. PHMSA 2016–0094; Notice No.
2016–17]
Hazardous Materials: Proposed
Termination of EX Classification
Approval EX1987030326
Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration
(PHMSA), DOT.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
Notice.
Mr.
Ryan Paquet, Director, Approvals and
Permits Division, Office of Hazardous
Materials Safety, (202) 366–4512,
PHMSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC 20590 or at explo@
dot.gov.
Correspondence with respect to the
EX classification approval
EX1987030326 should be sent to explo@
dot.gov with a subject line ‘‘EX
classification approval EX1987030326’’
and should be in writing; state in detail
any alleged errors of fact and law;
enclose any additional information
needed to support the request; and state
in detail the final decision sought.
Action: PHMSA will terminate the EX
classification approval EX1987030326
thirty (30) days after this notice is
published in the Federal Register,
unless the holder requests
reconsideration as outlined in 49 CFR
107.715.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Frm 00189
Fmt 4703
Office of the Secretary
Port Performance Freight Statistics
Working Group
Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS), Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Research and Technology
(OST–R), U.S. Department of
Transportation (USDOT).
ACTION: Port Performance Freight
Statistics Working Group: notice of
public meeting and public comment
period on draft work plan.
AGENCY:
This notice announces an
upcoming meeting of the Port
Performance Freight Statistics Working
Group (hereafter, ‘‘Working Group’’).
The Working Group will provide advice
and recommendations to the BTS
Director pursuant to Section 6018 of the
Fixing America’s Surface
Transportation (FAST) Act on matters
related to port performance measures,
including: (a) Specifications and data
measurements to be used in the Port
Performance Freight Statistics Program
established under subsection 6018(a);
and (b) a process for the Department to
collect timely and consistent data,
including identifying safeguards to
protect proprietary information
described in subsection 6018(b)(2). The
Working Group will operate in
accordance with the provisions of the
Federal Advisory Committee Act
(FACA) and the rules and regulations
issued in implementation of that Act.
This notice also announces the
opening of a 14-day public comment
period for the Working Group’s draft
Work Plan, available at https://
www.bts.gov/bts/port_performance.
This draft Work Plan identifies the
schedule, agenda items, and anticipated
follow-up actions for each of the
Working Group’s four meetings.
DATES: The Working Group meeting will
be held on November 18, 2016, from
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Eastern Standard
Time.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will be at the
U.S. Department of Transportation; 1200
New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington,
DC 20590. Any person requiring
accessibility accommodations should
SUMMARY:
PHMSA proposes to terminate
EX classification approval
EX1987030326, issued to BHT Products,
Inc. for a Division 4.1 classification. In
January and May 2016, PHMSA
attempted to contact BHT Products, Inc.
via letters delivered by certified mail.
These letters requested that BHT
Products, Inc. provide PHMSA with
background information, such as a copy
of the existing lab report and test data
to support the classification issued
under EX1987030326. To date, PHMSA
has not received any correspondence
from BHT Products, Inc. concerning
EX1987030326.
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Sfmt 4703
E:\FR\FM\11OCN1.SGM
11OCN1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 196 (Tuesday, October 11, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70269-70273]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-24505]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
[U.S. DOT Docket Number NHTSA-2016-0065]
Reports, Forms, and Record Keeping Requirements
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S.
Department of Transportation.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR)
abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of
the information collections and their expected burden. The Federal
Register Notice with a 60-day comment period was published on June 27,
2016 (81 FR 41644).
DATES: Comments must be submitted to OMB on or before November 10,
2016.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, OMB, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention:
Desk Officer.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alex Ansley, Recall Management
Division (NVS-215), Room W48-301, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey Ave.,
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 493-0481.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,
before an agency submits a proposed collection of information to OMB
for approval, it must first publish a document in the Federal Register
providing a 60-day comment period and otherwise consult with members of
the public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of
information. The OMB has promulgated regulations describing what must
be included in such a document. Under OMB's regulation, see 5 CFR
1320.8(d), an agency must ask for public comment on the following:
(i) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including
whether the information will have practical utility;
(ii) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
(iii) how to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and
(iv) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on
those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic
submission of responses.
In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA asks for public
comments on the following collection of information:
Title: Defect and Noncompliance Reporting and Notification.
Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved information
collection.
OMB Control Number: 2127-0004.
Affected Public: Businesses or individuals.
Abstract: The 60-day notice for this information collection
received one (1) comment submitted by Nissan North America, Inc.
(Nissan). Nissan agreed with many of the estimates presented in the 60-
day notice but did offer substantive comments on six different
estimates related to safety recall reporting and owner notification
obligations. A summary of Nissan's comments are found below in the
corresponding burden estimate along with the Agency's response.
This collection covers the information collection requirements
found within various statutory sections in the Motor Vehicle Safety Act
of 1966 (Act), 49 U.S.C. 30101, et seq., that address and require
manufacturer notifications to NHTSA of safety-related defects and
failures to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS)
in motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment, as well as the provision
of particular information related to the ensuing owner and dealers
notifications and free remedy campaigns that follow those
notifications.
Pursuant to the Act, motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment
manufacturers are obligated to notify, and then provide various
information and documents, to NHTSA in the event a safety defect or
noncompliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) is
identified in products they manufactured. See 49 U.S.C. 30118(b) and 49
CFR 573.6 (requiring manufacturers to notify NHTSA, and provide certain
information, when they learn of a safety defect or noncompliance).
Manufacturers are further required to notify owners, purchasers,
dealers and distributors about the safety defect or noncompliance. See
49 U.S.C. 30118(b), 30120(a), and 49 CFR 577.7, 577.13. They are
required to provide to NHTSA copies of communications pertaining to
[[Page 70270]]
recall campaigns that they issue to owners, purchasers, dealers, and
distributors. See 49 U.S.C. 30166(f) and 49 CFR 573.6(c)(10).
Manufacturers are also required to file with NHTSA a plan
explaining how they intend to reimburse owners and purchasers who paid
to have their products remedied before being notified of the safety
defect or noncompliance, and explain that plan in the notifications
they issue to owners and purchasers about the safety defect or
noncompliance. See 49 U.S.C. 30120(d) and 49 CFR 573.13. They are
further required to keep lists of the respective owners, purchasers,
dealers, distributors, lessors, and lessees of the products determined
to be defective or noncompliant and involved in a recall campaign, and
are required to provide NHTSA with a minimum of six quarterly reports
reporting on the progress of their recall campaigns. See 49 CFR 573.8
and 573.7, respectively.
The Act and Part 573 also contain numerous information collection
requirements specific to tire recall and remedy campaigns. These
requirements relate to the proper disposal of recalled tires, including
a requirement that the manufacturer conducting the tire recall submit a
plan and provide specific instructions to certain persons (such as
dealers and distributors) addressing that disposal, and a requirement
that those persons report back to the manufacturer certain deviations
from the plan. See 49 U.S.C. 30120(d) and 49 CFR 573.6(c)(9). They also
require the reporting to NHTSA of intentional and knowing sales or
leases of defective or noncompliant tires.
49 U.S.C. 30166(n), and its implementing regulation found at 49 CFR
573.10, mandates that anyone who knowingly and willfully sells or
leases for use on a motor vehicle a defective tire or a tire that is
not compliant with FMVSS, and with actual knowledge that the tire
manufacturer has notified its dealers of the defect or noncompliance as
required under the Act, is required to report that sale or lease to
NHTSA no more than five working days after the person to whom the tire
was sold or leased takes possession of it.
Estimated Burden: The approved information collection associated
with 49 CFR part 573 and portions of 49 CFR part 577 presently holds an
estimated annual burden of 46,138 hours associated with an estimated
280 respondents per year. For information concerning how we calculated
these estimates please see the Federal Register Notices 78 FR 51381
(August 20, 2013).
Our prior estimates of the number of manufacturers each year that
would be required to provide information under 49 CFR part 573, the
number of recalls for which 49 CFR part 573 information collection
requirements would need to be met, and the number of burden hours
associated with the requirements currently covered by this information
collection require adjustment as explained below.
Based on current information, we now estimate 275 distinct
manufacturers filing an average of 854 Part 573 Safety Recall Reports
each year. This is a change from our previous estimate of 680 Part 573
Safety Recall Reports filed by 280 manufacturers each year.
We originally estimated that it takes a manufacturer an average of
4 hours to complete each notification report to NHTSA and that
maintenance of the required owner, purchaser, dealer, and distributors
lists requires 8 hours a year per manufacturer. Nissan commented that,
in its experience, it spends ``. . . two (2) to (3) days (16-24 hours)
to complete each Defect Information Report (DIR), based on an eight (8)
hour day. This varies based on the size and complexity of the recall.''
We thank Nissan for its comment and do not disagree with its estimated
burden for filing a Part 573 Recall Report (or ``DIR'' as referenced in
Nissan's comment). However, most manufacturers who conduct safety
recalls are not major, passenger vehicle manufacturers. And, generally,
most other manufacturers include very few products in the average
safety recall. We presume that, like Nissan, other major, passenger
vehicle manufacturers require similar time and burden to prepare and
file their reports due to the size and complexity of passenger vehicle
recalls. As such, we estimate that major, passenger vehicle
manufacturers will require 20 burden hours, the average of Nissan's
estimate, to prepare and file their Part 573 Recall Reports.
By utilizing the metric associated with NHTSA's VIN Look-up Tool
regulation (See 49 CFR 573.15), we will associate a higher burden hour
estimate for the major, passenger vehicle manufacturers who produce
more than 25,000 vehicles annually. The seventeen (17) manufacturers
that fit this annual production criterion recall many more products, on
average, than other manufacturers. Between 2013 and 2015, the recalls
for these major, passenger vehicle manufacturers (including Nissan)
affected an average of 153,000 vehicles per recall. However, the
recalls for all other manufacturers (including manufacturers for other
vehicles and motor vehicle equipment such as tires, child seats, etc.),
affected an average of 32,000 products per recall. Between 2013 and
2015 the major, passenger vehicle manufacturers conducted an average of
45 recalls annually.
We estimate the annual burden hours related to the reporting to
NHTSA of a safety defect or noncompliance for the seventeen major,
passenger vehicle manufacturers to be 900 hours annually (45 notices x
20 hours/report). We estimate all other manufacturers to require a
total of 3,236 hours annually to file their notices (809 notices x 4
hours/report). Accordingly, the estimated annual burden hours related
to the reporting to NHTSA of a safety defect or noncompliance is 6,336
hours (900 hours + 3,236 hours) + (275 MFRs x 8 hours to maintain
purchaser lists).
We also estimated an additional 2 hours would be needed to add to a
manufacturer's Part 573 Safety Recall Report details relating to the
intended schedule for notifying its dealers and distributors, and
tailoring its notifications to dealers and distributors in accordance
with the requirements of 49 CFR 577.13. Nissan commented that, in its
experience and depending on the complexity of the recall, it
``typically works up to five (5) business days/forty (40) hours to
craft the Dealer announcement with the appropriate repair protocol and
other essential information to provide to dealers. The announcement
creation includes coordinating with multiple departments in order to
notify and instruct the dealers/retailers on how to execute the
remedy.'' Similar to the burden hour estimate for readying the Part 573
Recall Report, we believe Nissan's estimate is realistic and should
apply to the burden hour calculation for the major, passenger vehicle
manufacturers. We believe, however, that most other manufacturers would
require up to two hours readying this notification. This burden is now
estimated at 3,418 hours annually (809 notices x 2 hours/notification +
45 notices x 40 hours/notification).
49 U.S.C. 30166(f) requires vehicle manufacturers to provide to the
Agency copies of all communications regarding defects and
noncompliances sent to owners, purchasers, and dealerships.
Manufactures must index these communications by the year, make, and
model of the vehicle as well as provide a concise summary of the
subject of the communication. We estimate this burden requires 30
minutes for each vehicle recall. This would total to an estimated 380
hours annually (760 vehicle recalls x .5 hours). Nissan commented that
they agreed with the Agency's estimate for this burden.
[[Page 70271]]
In the event a manufacturer supplied the defect or noncompliant
product to independent dealers through independent distributors, that
manufacturer is required to include in its notifications to those
distributors an instruction that the distributors are to then provide
copies of the manufacturer's notification of the defect or
noncompliance to all known distributors or retail outlets further down
the distribution chain within five working days. See 49 CFR
577.7(c)(2)(iv). As a practical matter, this requirement would only
apply to equipment manufacturers since vehicle manufacturers generally
sell and lease vehicles through a dealer network, and not through
independent distributors. We believe our previous estimate of roughly
80 equipment recalls per year needs to be adjusted to 95 equipment
recalls per year to better reflect recent recall figures. Although the
distributors are not technically under any regulatory requirement to
follow that instruction, we expect that they will, and have estimated
the burden associated with these notifications (identifying retail
outlets, making copies of the manufacturer's notice, and mailing) to be
5 hours per recall campaign. Assuming an average of 3 distributors per
equipment item, (which is a liberal estimate given that many equipment
manufacturers do not use independent distributors) the total number of
burden hours associated with this third party notification burden is
approximately 1,425 hours per year (95 recalls x 3 distributors x 5
hours). We received no comments on this particular burden estimate.
As for the burden linked with a manufacturer's preparation of and
notification concerning its reimbursement for pre-notification
remedies, we estimated that the preparation of a reimbursement plan
takes approximately 8 hours annually, and that an additional 2 hours
per year is spent tailoring the plan to particular defect and
noncompliance notifications to NHTSA and adding tailored language about
the plan to a particular safety recall's owner notification letters.
Nissan commented that this requirement actually requires additional
burden hours from various departments within the company. Nissan
estimates that its Consumer Affairs department must maintain and update
a reimbursement Web site which requires $24,000 annually. Further,
updates to this Web site take approximately four (4) hours to complete,
presumably per recall (but this is not clarified). Another twelve (12)
annual hours are required to ``. . . . disseminate internal documents
to Consumer Affairs staff . . .'' Nissan's Field Quality Assurance and
Technical Compliance departments also spend a combined four and a half
(4.5) hours, per recall, creating the reimbursement plan and adding
specific language to the owner notification letter.
We thank Nissan for its detailed burden estimate for this
requirement. Regarding the Web site that Nissan operates for managing
reimbursement submissions, this is not a current burden imposed by the
regulation in 49 CFR 577.11. Manufacturers must disseminate
reimbursement information to owners through the owner notification
letter and provide owners a physical mailing address to submit any
claims in writing. Manufacturers are not required to create or maintain
a Web site for facilitating this pre-notification remedy requirement.
As such, we will not include the $24,000 annual maintenance costs
related to Nissan's Web site or the four (4) hours spent on updating
the Web site.
However, we do agree with Nissan regarding the four and a half
(4.5) hours required to create the reimbursement plan and tailor the
plan to each specific recall. We previously estimated a combined total
of 10 hours for these items but we will use Nissan's estimate going
forward. Also, we will add an additional 12 hours annually, as Nissan
estimates, for each manufacturer to disseminate pre-notification
reimbursement to their company staff.
In sum, these required activities total 4,827 annual burden hours
((275 MFRs x 4 hours to prepare plan) + (854 recalls x .5 hours
tailoring plan for each recall) + (275 MFRs x 12 hours to disseminate
plan information)).
The Safety Act and 49 CFR part 573 also contain numerous
information collection requirements specific to tire recall and remedy
campaigns, as well as a statutory and regulatory reporting requirement
that anyone who knowingly and intentionally sells or leases a defective
or noncompliant tire notify NHTSA of that activity.
Manufacturers are required to include specific information related
to tire disposal in the notifications they provide NHTSA concerning
identification of a safety defect or noncompliance with FMVSS in their
tires, as well as in the notifications they issue to their dealers or
other tire outlets participating in the recall campaign. See 49 CFR
573.6(c)(9). We now estimate that the Agency administers 12 tire
recalls each year, on average, revised down from our previous estimate
of 15 tire recall each year. We estimate that the inclusion of this
additional information will require an additional two hours of effort
beyond the subtotal above associated with non-tire recall campaigns.
This additional effort consists of one hour for the NHTSA notification
and one hour for the dealer notification for a total of 24 burden hours
(12 tire recalls a year x 2 hours per recall).
Manufacturer owned or controlled dealers are required to notify the
manufacturer and provide certain information should they deviate from
the manufacturer's disposal plan. Consistent with our previous
analysis, we continue to ascribe zero burden hours to this requirement
since to date no such reports have been provided and our original
expectation that dealers would comply with manufacturers' plans has
proven true.
Accordingly, we estimate 24 burden hours a year will be spent
complying with the tire recall campaign requirements found in 49 CFR
573.6(c)(9).
Additionally, because the agency has yet to receive a single report
of a defective or noncompliant tire being intentionally sold or leased,
our previous estimate of zero burden hours remains unchanged with this
notice. We received no comments regarding the burden estimates for tire
disposal requirements or tire recall campaign requirements.
The previous clearance for this information collection allowed for
start-up costs for the Agency's VIN Look-up system and a new regulation
that required manufacturers to create a VIN Look-up service on their
respective Web sites. As these systems were launched successfully in
August 2014, the start-up estimates for costs and burden will now be
removed. The estimated costs to industry for one-time infrastructure
expenses to create a VIN-based recalls lookup service consisting of 108
hours, and costing a total of $45,000, will now be removed from this
information collection.
Each manufacturer was also required to establish requirements,
analysis, and designs for their new recalls look-up tools. These
additional burdens stemmed from: The creation of the VIN search
interface; database setup to host the recall information; data refresh
procedures to populate recall information; server side VIN code lookup
and recall status retrieval; integration with existing manufacturer Web
site; and application testing. We estimated these burdens to total
1,332 hours and $130,005 and these costs will now be removed from this
information collection.
We continue to believe nine vehicle manufacturers, who did not
operate
[[Page 70272]]
VIN-based recalls lookup systems prior to August 2013, incur certain
recurring burdens on an annual basis. We estimate that 100 burden hours
will be spent on system and database administrator support. These 100
burden hours include: Backup data management and monitoring; database
management, updates, and log management; and data transfer, archiving,
quality assurance, and cleanup procedures. We estimate another 100
burden hours will be incurred on web/application developer support.
These burdens include: Operating system and security patch management;
application/web server management; and application server system and
log files management. We estimate these burdens will total 1,800 hours
each year (9 MFRs x 200 hours). We estimate the recurring costs of
these burden hours will be $30,000 per manufacturer.\1\ We continue to
estimate that the total cost to the industry from these recurring
expenses will total $270,000, on an annual basis (9 MFRs x $30,000).
Nissan commented that they agreed with this estimate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ $8,000 (for data center hosting for the physical server) +
$12,000 (for system and database administrator support) + $10,000
(for web/application developer support) = $30,000.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Agency previously estimated one-time startup costs that
manufacturers would assume in order to meet certain technical access
requirements to provide recall information to NHTSA's Web site. We
estimated that the total one-time costs to the industry from these
technical access requirements would require 1,914 burden hours (27 MFRs
x 72 hours) and total $189,270 (27 MFRs x $7,010) and we now remove
these costs from this information collection.
The Agency previously estimated one-time startup costs
manufacturers incurred to create a VIN list for 15 years of recall
information. We estimated that the total one-time costs to the industry
from this VIN list creation would require 1,620 hours (27 MFRs x 60
hours). We remove these costs from this information collection.
Changes to 49 CFR part 573 in 2013 required 27 manufacturers to
update each recalled vehicle's repair status no less than every 7 days,
for 15 years from the date the VIN is known to be included in the
recall. This ongoing requirement to update the status of a VIN for 15
years continues to add a recurring burden on top of the one-time burden
to implement and operate these online search tools. We calculate that 8
affected motorcycle manufacturers will make recalled VINs available for
an average of 2 recalls each year and 19 affected passenger vehicle
manufacturers will make recalled VINs available for an average of 8
recalls each year. We believe it will take no more than 1 hour, and
potentially much less with automated systems, to update the VIN status
of vehicles that have been remedied under the manufacturer's remedy
program. We continue to estimate this will require 8,736 burden hours
per year (1 hour x 2 recalls x 52 weeks x 8 MFRs + 1 hour x 8 recalls x
52 weeks x 19 MFRs) to support the requirement to update the recalls
completion status of each VIN in a recall at least weekly for 15 years.
We received no comments on this estimate.
As the number of Part 573 Recall Reports has increased in recent
years, so has the number of quarterly reports which track the
completion of safety recalls. Our previous estimate of 3,000 quarterly
reports received annually is now revised up to an average of 3,800
reports annually. Nissan commented that they spend an average of ten
(10) minutes per quarterly report where we previously estimated 4 hours
per report. We believe Nissan's estimate of 10 minutes is much more
realistic as this process is likely automated through electronic
reporting. As such, we will adopt Nissan's estimate of 10 minutes
burden to gather the pertinent information for each quarterly report.
Nissan further estimated that it requires one (1) additional hour
each quarter to electronically submit all quarterly reports (for up to
30 recalls in a given quarter) totaling another four (4) burden hours
annually. As noted before, the major, passenger vehicle manufacturers
often conduct more recalls affecting more vehicles and this can
increase the quarterly reporting burden for those manufacturers. We
will include an additional four (4) burden hours for the seventeen
major, passenger vehicle manufacturers. The quarterly reporting burden
now totals 701 hours ((3,800 quarterly reports x 10 minutes/report) +
(17 MFRs x 4 hours for electronic submission)).
NHTSA's last update to this information collection established a
new online recalls portal for the submission of recall documents. We
continue to estimate a small burden of 2 hours annually in order to set
up a manufacturer's online recalls portal account with the pertinent
contact information and maintaining/updating their account information
as needed. We estimate this will require a total of 550 hours annually
(2 hours x 275 MFRs). Nissan commented that they agree with this
estimate.
Also updated in the last revision to this information collection,
NHTSA established a requirement that manufactures change or update
recall components in their Part 573 Safety Recall Report. We continue
to estimate that 20 percent of Part 573 reports will involve a change
or addition. We originally estimated that this burden would require an
additional 30 minutes per amended report. Nissan commented that this
task requires up to one (1) hour per amended report. We believe
Nissan's estimate of one hour is reasonable and we will adopt this
estimated burden calculation. At one hour per amended report, this
totals 171 burden hours per year (854 recalls x .20 = 171 recalls; 171
x 1 = 171 hours).
As to the requirement that manufacturers notify NHTSA in the event
of a bankruptcy, we expect this notification to take an estimated 2
hours to draft and submit to NHTSA. We continue to estimate that only
10 manufacturers might submit such a notice to NHTSA each year, so we
calculate the total burden at 20 hours (10 MFRs x 2 hours). We received
no comments on this particular estimate.
We continue to estimate that it takes manufacturers an average of 8
hours to draft their notification letters, submit them to NHTSA for
review, and then finalize them for mailing to their affected owners and
purchasers. We estimate that the 49 CFR part 577 requirements result in
6,832 burden hours annually (8 hours per recall x 854 recalls per
year). Nissan commented that they agree with the Agency's estimate for
this burden calculation.
The estimate associated with the regulation which requires owner
notifications within 60 days of filing a Part 573 Safety Recall Report
remains must similarly be revised with an increase in recalls. We
previously calculated that about 25 percent of past recalls did not
include an owner notification mailing within 60 days of the filing of
the Part 573 Safety Recall Report. However, recent trends show that
only about 10 percent of recalls require an interim owner notification
mailing. Under the regulation, manufacturers must send two letters in
these cases: An interim notification of the defect or noncompliance
within 60 days and a supplemental letter notifying owners and
purchasers of the available remedy.
We originally estimated these interim letters would require 8
burden hours per recall (similar to the standard owner notification
letters). However, Nissan commented that preparation of the interim
letter can require up to ten (10) hours if the letter is complex in
nature.
[[Page 70273]]
We believe Nissan's estimate of 10 hours is reasonable and we will
adopt this estimate burden calculation. Accordingly, we estimate that
850 burden hours are associated with this 60-day interim notification
requirement (854 recalls x .10 = 85 recalls; 85 recalls times 10 hours
per recall = 850 hours).
As for costs associated with notifying owners and purchasers of
recalls, we continue to estimate this costs $1.50 per first class mail
notification, on average. This cost estimate includes the costs of
printing, mailing, as well as the costs vehicle manufacturers may pay
to third-party vendors to acquire the names and addresses of the
current registered owners from state and territory departments of motor
vehicles. In reviewing recent recall figures, we determined that an
estimated 58.4 million letters are mailed yearly totaling $87,600,000
($1.50 per letter x 58,400,000 letters). The requirement in 49 CFR part
577 for a manufacturer to notify their affected customers within 60
days would add an additional $8,760,000 (58,400,000 letters x .10
requiring interim owner notifications = 5,840,000 letters; 5,840,000 x
$1.50 = $8,760,000). In total we estimate that the current 49 CFR part
577 requirements cost manufacturers a total of $96,360,000 annually
($87,600,000 owner notification letters + $8,760,000 interim
notification letters = $96,360,000). Nissan commented that they agree
with the Agency's estimate for this cost estimate.
Due to the past burdens associated with the requirement that
certain vehicle manufacturers setup VIN Look-up systems for their
recalled vehicles, many estimates have been removed from this
information collection as these burdens and costs have already
occurred. The 49 CFR part 573 and 49 CFR part 577 requirements found in
today's notice will require 36,070 hours each year for OMB Control
Number 2127-0004, a decrease of 10,068 burden hours from the previously
approved collection of 46,138 hours. Additionally, manufacturers
impacted by 49 CFR part 573 and 49 CFR part 577 requirements will incur
a recurring annual cost estimated at $96,630,000 total.
Estimated Number of Respondents: NHTSA receives reports of defect
or noncompliance from roughly 275 manufacturers per year. Accordingly,
we estimate that there will be approximately 275 manufacturers per year
filing defect or noncompliance reports and completing the other
information collection responsibilities associated with those filings.
In summary, we estimate that there will be a total of 275
respondents per year associated with OMB No. 2127-0004.
Issued on: October 4, 2016.
Michael L. Brown,
Acting Director, Office of Defects Investigation.
[FR Doc. 2016-24505 Filed 10-7-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P