Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations

G. Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
September 12, 2014

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 177 (Friday, September 12, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54776-54777]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-21781]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2014-0189]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved 
Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations

AGENCY: FMCSA, DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: 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. FMCSA requests approval 
to revise and extend an ICR entitled, ``Hours of Service (HOS) of 
Drivers Regulations.'' The HOS rules require most commercial motor 
vehicle (CMV) drivers to maintain on the CMV a record of duty status 
(RODS) current to the last change in duty status. The RODS is critical 
to FMCSA's safety mission because it helps roadside enforcement 
officials determine if CMV drivers are complying with the HOS rules 
limiting driver on-duty and driving time and requiring periodic off-
duty time. The information helps FMCSA protect the public by reducing 
the number of tired CMV drivers on the highways.

DATES: Please send your comments by October 14, 2014. OMB must receive 
your comments by this date in order to act on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: All comments should reference Federal Docket Management 
System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA 2014-0189. 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 
oirasubmission@omb.eop.gov, or 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: Mr. Robert F. Schultz, Driver and 
Carrier Operations Division, Department of Transportation, Federal 
Motor Carrier Safety Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-4325; email 
buz.schultz@dot.gov. Office hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal Holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0001.
    Type of Request: Revision of an information collection.
    Respondents: Motor Carriers of Property and Passengers, Drivers of 
CMVs.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 3.17 million (2.84 million CMV 
drivers + 0.33 million motor carriers).
    Estimated Time per Response: CMV driver using paper RODS: 11 
minutes. CMV driver using technology: 2 minutes. Motor carrier: 3 
minutes.
    Expiration Date: 12/31/2014.
    Frequency of Response: Drivers: 240 days per year; Motor Carriers: 
240 days per year.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 106.89 million hours.
    Background: Statutory authority for regulating the 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. The rule is codified at 49 CFR 395.8. The FMCSRs also 
state:

    ``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 FMCSA regulates the amount of time a CMV driver may drive or 
otherwise be on duty, in order to ensure that adequate time is 
available to the driver for 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 record of duty status (RODS) must be 
made on a specified grid (Section 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 (Section 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. The HOS rules do not 
require motor carriers to submit this information to FMCSA. However, 
motor carriers must retain these records for a minimum of 6 months from 
the date of receipt and make them available to enforcement officials 
upon request (Section 395.8(k)(1)). The HOS rules provide three 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: ``Short haul'' CMV drivers do not have to maintain 
a RODS onboard the vehicle if their motor carrier maintains a time 
record showing for each duty day when driver reported for duty, when he 
or she was released from duty, and the total hours on duty (Section 
395.1(e)).
    (3) Automatic On-Board Recording Device (AOBRD): An electronic 
record is permitted if it is created and maintained by an AOBRD as 
defined by Section 395.2. 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.
    On March 28, 2014, the Agency published a supplemental notice of 
proposed rulemaking proposing rules that would require motor carriers 
to use on-board technology to record their HOS regulations, and seeking 
public comment on them (79 FR 17656). This rulemaking does not affect 
this ICR because compliance with the final rule, when published, will 
not be required until after the 3-year timeframe of this PRA estimate.
    As a condition of receiving certain federal grants, States agree to 
adopt and enforce the FMCSRs, including the HOS

[[Page 54777]]

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. In addition, Federal and State courts rely upon the RODS as 
evidence of driver and 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 PRA burden estimate is currently 184.38 million hours, approved 
by OMB on December 11, 2011. The expiration date of this ICR is 
December 31, 2014. Through this ICR, FMCSA requests a revision of the 
paperwork burden of 2126-0001. The Agency requests a reduction in the 
burden hours based on two program adjustments and is not the result of 
amendments of the HOS rules. The program adjustments are: (1) A lower 
estimate of the number of CMV drivers who are subject to the HOS rules; 
and (2) an estimate of the burden reduction experienced by those CMV 
drivers voluntarily using electronic HOS technology. First, the Agency 
reduces its estimate of the number of drivers subject to the HOS 
recordkeeping requirements from 4.6 million to 2.84 million. Second, 
FMCSA estimates that 10% of drivers currently are obtaining burden 
reductions because they use electronic HOS technology.
    On June 24, 2014, FMCSA published a Federal Register notice 
allowing for a 60-day comment period on this ICR. The agency received 
no comment in response to that notice.
    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 FMCSA to perform its 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.

    Issued under the authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.87 on: 
September 5, 2014.
G. Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Information Technology 
and Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-21781 Filed 9-11-14; 8:45 am]
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