Agency Information Collection Activities; New Information Collection Request: Entry Level Driver Training Survey for Commercial Drivers' Licenses |
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G. Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
November 7, 2014
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 216 (Friday, November 7, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66448-66451]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26563]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2014-0388]
Agency Information Collection Activities; New Information
Collection Request: Entry Level Driver Training Survey for Commercial
Drivers' Licenses
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (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 review
and approval. The purpose of this ICR is to examine, by a one-time
collection of survey data, the relationship of commercial driver
license (CDL) entry level driver training (ELDT), as influenced by any
subsequent employer training that may have been received, to safety
performance of the drivers. The goal of this research is to contribute
to other related research being done evaluating the relationship of CDL
ELDT to subsequent safety performance of the drivers.
The results of this study, along with others, will provide FMCSA
with information to support its consideration of the congressionally
mandated requirement to establish enhanced minimum training
requirements for CDL entry-level drivers from those currently required
at 49 CFR 380.503. There is no national database that contains or
collects data on the training received by drivers to enable them to
qualify for a CDL.
Recently licensed freight CDL drivers will be surveyed. (This will
contain both drivers without hazardous material endorsements and drives
with hazardous materials endorsements.) Motorcoach and bus drivers
recently observed to have begun driving such vehicles in the most
recent three years, as indicated by data in MCMIS, will be surveyed.
The goal is to obtain a better understanding of the amount and type of
total training they received, and its composition between that received
before obtaining the CDL, and that received after obtaining the CDL.
Type of training is divided into hours-based versus performance-based.
Data on the amount and type of training received will be collected
using a one-time survey effort. The data will be analyzed to describe
the details of the driver training reported by the survey participants.
Results of the training survey data will be analyzed in relation to
the safety performance data of the responding drivers available from
two databases: the State-operated Commercial Driver's License
Information System (CDLIS) and the Federally-operated Motor Carrier
Management Information System (MCMIS).
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before January 6, 2015.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2014-0388 using any of the
following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Services; U.S. Department of Transportation,
1200
[[Page 66449]]
New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building, Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m. e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and
docket number. For detailed instructions on submitting comments and
additional information on the exemption process, see the Public
Participation heading below. Note that all comments received will be
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading
below.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov, and follow the
online instructions for accessing the dockets, or go to the street
address listed above.
Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's
complete Privacy Act Statement for the Federal Docket Management System
published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2008 (73 FR 3316), or
you may visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdfE8-794.pdf.
Public Participation: The Federal eRulemaking Portal is available
24 hours each day, 365 days each year. You can obtain electronic
submission and retrieval help and guidelines under the ``help'' section
of the Federal eRulemaking Portal Web site. If you want us to notify
you that we received your comments, please include a self-addressed,
stamped envelope or postcard, or print the acknowledgement page that
appears after submitting comments online. Comments received after the
comment closing date will be included in the docket and will be
considered to the extent practicable.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Goettee, Research Division,
Office of Analysis, Research and Technology, Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Washington, DC 20590.
Telephone: (202-366-4097); email David.Goettee@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: CDL driving is a specialized skill, distinct in many
ways and more demanding than operating a smaller vehicle such as an
automobile.\1\ In the early 1970's the CDL Program (49 CFR Parts 383
and 384) did not exist.\2\ Thus, there were no standardized national
requirements that prevented a driver from operating a vehicle heavier
than 26,000 lbs. or that carries 16 or more persons without
demonstrating minimum knowledge and skills. Neither the Federal
government nor any State had CDL ELDT requirements. In States that did
have a classified licensing system, only a few required the driver
candidate to be skills-tested in a representative commercial vehicle.
As a result, many drivers were operating large commercial motor
vehicles that they may not have been qualified to drive.\3\
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\1\ National Transportation Safety Board. (1986) Safety
Recommendations H-86-27 through 34. Washington, DC.
\2\ Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. (1996). Purpose
and scope of this part and responsibility for compliance and
training. 49 CFR, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
\3\ Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Commercial
Driver's License Program (CDL/CDLIS). Retrieved from http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration-licensing/cdl/cdl.htm.
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Additionally, because there was no tracking of existing licenses,
there was no systematic method for preventing drivers from obtaining
multiple licenses from multiple States and spreading convictions of any
traffic violations over those licenses. That allowed them to avoid
having any driver license suspended or revoked in any jurisdiction as a
result of convictions for violations of moving traffic laws and thus
being reported to the National Driver Registry.
In the early 1980's, before the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act
(CMVSA) was enacted, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office
of Motor Carriers (the predecessor to FMCSA) determined that there was
a need for technical guidance in the area of truck driver training. At
that time, only a few driver-training institutions offered a structured
curriculum or a standardized training program for any type of
commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver.
In 1986, 32 States issued some form of a classified driver's
license (i.e., a license that makes a distinction between types of
vehicles that the holder may operate). Of these 32 States, 12 required
State-conducted, behind-the-wheel skills testing of all applicants in a
vehicle that represented the type that the driver operated or expected
to operate. The other 20 of those 32 States waived testing if the
applicants met certain conditions, such as certification of training
and testing by their employer; two States recognized training schools.
The remaining 18 States and the District of Columbia did not require
applicants to demonstrate their driving skills in the types of vehicles
they drove or intended to drive, nor did they require certification of
training and testing by the employer or a recognized training school.
Drivers in those States who obtained a driver license to drive a
passenger car were also considered qualified to drive an 18-wheeler or
a three-axle intercity bus.
In 1986 Congress passed the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act \4\
(CMVSA), and subsequent amendments, explicitly to begin addressing
these issues. Implementation of the CDL Program and its supporting
information system, CDLIS, have been addressing many of these issues.
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\4\ U.S. Congress, (1986). Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act
of 1986. Title XII of Public Law 99-570, Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
49 U.S.C. 31301 et seq., Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office.
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The goal of the CDL program is to ensure that drivers of large
trucks and commercial passenger vehicles possess the knowledge and
skills necessary to obtain a CDL and operate those vehicles on public
highways, and that such drivers are uniformly sanctioned for specified
convictions. The CMVSA established the CDL Program and directed the
Secretary to establish minimum Federal standards that the States must
meet when licensing drivers required to have a CDL and sanctions for
convictions for specified violations. The CMVSA and implementing
regulations apply to virtually anyone who operates a CMV requiring a
CDL in interstate or intrastate commerce, including employees of
Federal, State, and local governments. There are very limited
exceptions.
One of the issues not addressed by the original CMVSA was
standardizing the ELDT to be received by those drivers before obtaining
a CDL. A 1995 FHWA-sponsored study titled Assessing the Adequacy of
Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Training (the Adequacy Report)
concluded, among other things, that effective entry-level driver
training needs to include behind-the-wheel instruction on how to
operate a heavy vehicle.\5\
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\5\ Dueker, R. L. (1995). Assessing the Adequacy of Commercial
Motor Vehicle Driver Training: Final Report (FHWA-MC-96-011).
Washington, DC: U.S. DOT FHWA Office of Motor Carriers.
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In 2004 FMCSA issued a Final Rule for such CDL ELDT, found at 49
CFR 380.503. The requirements of that rule were estimated to take on
average 10
[[Page 66450]]
hours of training to accomplish. However, the rule was challenged; the
court determined FMCSA needed to give more attention to its previous
research in establishing meaningful minimum CDL training standards, in
particular with regard to behind-the-wheel training requirements. The
court left the rule in effect but remanded it to FMCSA for further
action. In 2007 FMCSA issued a follow-on Notice of Proposed Rule Making
(NPRM), proposing revised ELDT standards for CDL drivers.
The 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21)
requirement expanded the scope of the needed rule. In January and March
2013, FMCSA held public listening sessions to obtain additional input.
In December 2012, FMCSA tasked its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory
Committee (MCSAC) with developing training recommendations; these were
delivered in June 2013. In September 2013, FMCSA withdrew the 2007 NPRM
in order to develop a new proposed rule responsive to the 2007 docket
comments, the MAP-21-directives, input from the listening sessions, the
MCSAC recommendations, and several research projects under way
(including this survey). In March 2014, it was announced that a
negotiated rulemaking was being considered to facilitate the rulemaking
process. On August 19, 2014, the agency announced initiation of the
process with the contracted convener (79 FR 49044).
Title: Entry Level Driver Training Survey for Commercial Drivers'
Licenses
OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
Type of Request: New information collection.
Respondents: Entry-level interstate \6\ freight and bus/motorcoach
drivers. The goal is to understand what entry-level training general
freight drivers without endorsements received to obtain their CDLs, and
what additional training the hazmat freight (H--non-tanker, X--tanker
endorsements) and bus/motorcoach drivers (P endorsement) received to
obtain the required endorsement(s). Respondents will therefore be from
one of two groups. The first group is CDL drivers newly licensed within
the past three years (for freight--non-hazmat and hazmat). The second
group is drivers first observed operating a motorcoach or bus as
demonstrated by MCMIS data within the last three years, regardless of
when they received their CDL. The criteria for selection of this second
group is different because such drivers could have obtained their CDL
in the past, but only recently obtained training and began driving bus/
motorcoaches. In order to have more safety performance data available,
all drivers must be driving for a carrier authorized to operate
interstate. To avoid specific bias caused by a higher than usual
inspection rate at the border for international drivers, the carriers
must operate solely in the United States.\7\
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\6\ Intrastate drivers do not cross jurisdictions, and often do
not operate on interstate highways. Therefore, they tend toward
having minimal number of inspections and traffic citations from
either a MCSAP or non-MCSAP officers. This lack of safety
performance data would make it harder to evaluate any relationship
between their training and early subsequent safety performance.
Therefore, due to this lower availability of safety performance
data, intrastate drivers are not included in the target population.
\7\ Drivers who cross the Canadian and Mexican borders have a
high number of inspections at the border and would bias the sample.
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Recent entry-level freight CMV drivers for purposes of this survey
are defined as those who received their initial commercial license
within the past three years. This will be verified by examining the
date the CDL index record was added to the CDLIS index. The drivers
also must have received an inspection within the past 12 months. This
is to verify they were recently, and thus may still be, driving a CMV
for a living. (Previous survey research from CDL drivers, found while
the response rate by CDL drivers was quite low, drivers who were
currently driving were more likely to respond.) Those drivers who also
have an H or X endorsement will automatically be routed to additional
questions regarding training for those endorsements.
Recent entry-level Bus/Motorcoach (P) CMV drivers are defined as
having had an inspection or crash recorded in MCMIS in the past three
years while driving a bus or motorcoach vehicle.\8\ (As noted above,
entry level bus/motorcoach drivers are defined differently from the
freight drivers because drivers can enter the profession of bus/
motorcoach driving many years after obtaining their CDL.)
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\8\ Neither CDLIS nor MCMIS contains the date when an
endorsement was earned. Therefore, this research assumes that when a
driver has their first inspection operating a motor vehicle
requiring a P endorsement, it is more likely they recently completed
training, likely from the employer, to operate that type vehicle.
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Estimated Number of Invitees: 82,207 drivers will be invited to
participate in the survey.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 7,399.
Estimated Time Per Response: Between 12 and 21 minutes per
response, primarily via online technology to a secure Web site for
completing only one survey instrument by the invited drivers. The
necessary login information will be provided in their solicitation
letter. The length of time required depends on which survey instrument
applies to that type of driver (see detailed calculation below.) The
average is 15.4 minutes because of the small number of drivers with H,
X or P endorsements that will be included in the invited sample.
Expiration Date: N/A. This is a new ICR for a one-time survey.
Frequency of Response: Once per respondent.
Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 1903 hours [6620 general freight
survey responses x 15 minutes/60 minutes = 1655; 498 hazmat endorsement
freight survey responses x 21 minutes/60 minutes = 174.3; 109 bus
survey responses x 12 minutes/60 minutes = 21.8; 172 motorcoach survey
responses x 18 minutes/60 minutes = 51.6; total estimated burden thus
is 1902.7, rounded to 1903 hours].
Form(s): MCSA-5890, ``Entry-Level CMV CDL Truck Driver Training
Survey,'' MCSA-5891, ``Entry-Level CMV CDL Bus Driver Training
Survey,'' and MCSA-5892, ``Entry-Level CMV CDL Motorcoach Driver
Training Survey.''
Analysis
This study will obtain safety performance data from both MCMIS and
CDLIS to analyze the safety performance in relation to the amount and
type of training received by recently licensed CDL drivers who chose to
respond to this survey.
FMCSA maintains the MCMIS, which contains violations of Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) found during roadside
inspections (including driver out-of-service orders) and crash data
submitted by States supported by Motor Carrier Safety Assistance
Program (MCSAP) funding. CDLIS Index data are maintained by the
American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). The
licensing States maintain the detailed CDLIS driver records that
contain convictions on State and local traffic infractions,
suspensions, and revocations.
This study will ensure confidentiality regarding the identity and
responses of the participating drivers. Only summarized data will be
published. Results of this study will provide FMCSA with information to
support its considerations of establishing minimum entry-level training
requirements for CDL drivers.
Public Comments Invited: On whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance
[[Page 66451]]
of the functions of the Department, including whether the information
will have practical utility; the accuracy of the Department's estimates
of the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to enhance
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on
respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87 on: October 31, 2014.
G. Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information
Technology and Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-26563 Filed 11-6-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P