Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration July 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FMCSA announces its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and approval and invites public comment. The FMCSA requests approval to extend an existing ICR titled, ``Transportation of Hazardous Materials, Highway Routing.'' The information reported by States and Indian tribes is necessary to identify designated/restricted routes and restrictions or limitations affecting how motor carriers may transport certain hazardous materials on their highways, including dates that such routes were established and information on subsequent changes or new hazardous materials routing designations.

FMCSA announces its decision to grant an exemption to Daimler Trucks North America (Daimler) for one of its commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. Daimler requested a 5-year exemption from the Federal requirement to hold a U.S. commercial driver's license (CDL) for Mr. Sebastian Boehm, a project engineer for the Daimler Trucks and Bus Division. Mr. Boehm holds a valid German commercial license and wants to test drive Daimler vehicles on U.S. roads to better understand product requirements in ``real world'' environments, and verify results. Daimler believes the requirements for a German commercial license ensure that operation under the exemption will likely achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level that would be obtained in the absence of the exemption.

FMCSA announces the extension of the hours-of-service (HOS) exemption granted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on June 30, 2015, for certain commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The Agency extends the expiration date of the exemption to June 29, 2020 in response to section 5206(b)(2)(A) of the ``Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act'' (FAST Act). That section extends the expiration date of all HOS exemptions in effect on the date of enactment to 5 years from the date of issuance of the exemptions. The DOE exemption from the Agency's 30-minute rest break requirement is limited to DOE's contract motor carriers and their employee-drivers engaged in the transportation of security-sensitive radioactive materials. The Agency previously determined that CMV operations under this exemption would likely achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety that would be obtained in the absence of the exemption.

FMCSA amends the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) in response to several petitions for rulemaking from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and the American Trucking Associations (ATA), and two safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Specifically, the Agency adds a definition of ``major tread groove'' and an illustration to indicate the location of tread wear indicators or wear bars on a tire signifying a major tread groove; revises the rear license plate lamp requirement to eliminate the requirement for an operable rear license plate lamp on vehicles when there is no rear license plate present; amends the regulations regarding tires to prohibit the operation of a vehicle with speed-restricted tires at speeds that exceed the rated limit of the tire; provides specific requirements regarding when violations or defects noted on an inspection report must be corrected; amends two appendixes to the FMCSRs to include provisions for the inspection of antilock braking systems (ABS) and automatic brake adjusters, speed- restricted tires, and motorcoach passenger seat mounting anchorages; amends the periodic inspection rules to eliminate the option for a motor carrier to satisfy the annual inspection requirement through a violation-free roadside inspection; and amends the inspector qualification requirements as a result of the amendments to the periodic inspection rules. In addition, the Agency eliminates introductory regulatory text from an appendix to the FMCSRs because the discussion of the differences between the North American Standard Inspection out-of-service criteria and FMCSA's periodic inspection criteria is unnecessary.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) adopts, as final, certain regulations required by the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) enacted on December 4, 2015. The statutory changes went into effect on October 1, 2015, retroactively, and require that FMCSA make conforming changes to its regulations to ensure they are current and consistent with the statutory requirements. Adoption of these rules is a nondiscretionary, ministerial action that FMCSA may take without issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking and receiving public comment, in accordance with the good cause exception available to Federal agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

FMCSA announces receipt of applications from 18 individuals for exemption from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. They are unable to meet the vision requirement in one eye for various reasons. The exemptions will enable these individuals to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce without meeting the prescribed vision requirement in one eye. If granted, the exemptions would enable these individuals to qualify as drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce.

FMCSA confirms its decision to exempt 55 individuals from its rule prohibiting persons with insulin-treated diabetes mellitus (ITDM) from operating commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce. The exemptions enable these individuals to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

On January 23, 2015, FMCSA announced the results of the Agency's study on the feasibility of using a motor carrier's role in crashes in the assessment of the company's safety. This study assessed: Whether police accident reports (PARs) provide sufficient, consistent, and reliable information to support crash-weighting determinations; whether a crash-weighting determination process would offer an even stronger predictor of crash risk than overall crash involvement and how crash weighting would be implemented in the Agency's Safety Measurement System (SMS); and how FMCSA might manage a process for making crash- weighting determinations, including the acceptance of public input. Based on the feedback received in response to the January 23, 2015, Federal Register notice, FMCSA announced in a separate notice elsewhere in today's Federal Register that it conducted additional analysis in response to comments received. However, in this notice, FMCSA is proposing to develop and implement a demonstration program to determine the efficacy of a program to conduct preventability determinations on certain types of crashes that generally are less complex. This notice provides FMCSA's proposal for a demonstration program and seeks additional comment.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), FMCSA announces its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and approval and invites public comment. On February 17, 2016, FMCSA published a Federal Register notice announcing an increase in the Agency's estimate of the total information-collection (IC) burden of the driver qualification (DQ) regulations. It explained that the Agency's regulations had not changed, but the Agency was increasing its estimate of the IC burden to 9.8 million hours because both the population of CMV drivers and the frequency of their hiring had increased. Today the Agency further increases its burden estimate to 10.21 million hours in response to a comment received to that notice.

FMCSA announces its decision to exempt 19 individuals from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). They are unable to meet the vision requirement in one eye for various reasons. The exemptions will enable these individuals to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce without meeting the prescribed vision requirement in one eye. The Agency has concluded that granting these exemptions will provide a level of safety that is equivalent to or greater than the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these CMV drivers.

FMCSA corrects an error in its June 7, 2016, final rule ``Driving of Commercial Motor Vehicles: Use of Seat Belts.'' The amendatory language in the final rule inadvertently limited the applicability of the requirement for drivers to use their seat belts to operators of property-carrying vehicles. Today's correction fixes the error such that drivers of passenger-carrying vehicles will continue to be required to wear their seat belts.

FMCSA announces its decision to grant exemption renewals to Illumination Fireworks, LLC and ACE Pyro, LLC (the applicants) from the prohibition on driving commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) after the 14th hour after coming on duty. The applicants requested the exemption renewals for the period of June 28-July 8, for the next 5 years (2016- 2020 inclusive). The applicants were previously granted exemptions during the Independence Day periods of 2014 and 2015. The 5-year renewals will cover the drivers of approximately 50 CMVs employed by the applicants to stage fireworks shows celebrating Independence Day. The Agency has determined that the terms and conditions of the limited exemptions will ensure a level of safety equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety achieved without the exemptions.