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

G. Kelly Leone
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
June 24, 2014

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 121 (Tuesday, June 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35843-35844]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-14709]


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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. The 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: We must receive your comments on or before August 25, 2014.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2014-0189 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 Operations; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 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: Mr. Thomas Yager, Chief, FMCSA Driver 
and Carrier Operations Division Department of Transportation, FMCSA, 
West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 
20590. Telephone: 202-366-4325. Email: MCPSD@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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. On November 28, 1982, the Federal Highway Administration 
(FHWA), the agency responsible for administration of the Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR 350 et seq.)(FMCSRs) at that time, 
promulgated a final rule requiring motor carriers to ensure that their 
drivers record their duty status in a specified format and verify the 
accuracy of the HOS of each driver (47 FR 53383). The rule is codified 
at 49 CFR 395.8. The 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:

[[Page 35844]]

    (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 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. And, 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 181.28 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. The reduction is the result of 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.
    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.
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of 
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed 
collection is necessary for the performance of FMCSA's functions; (2) 
the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways for the FMCSA to enhance 
the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and 
(4) ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the 
quality of the information collected. The Agency will summarize or 
include your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this ICR.

    Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87 on: June 12, 2014.
G. Kelly Leone,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology and Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-14709 Filed 6-23-14; 8:45 am]
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