Agency Information Collection Activities; Extension of a Currently Approved Collection: Driver Qualification Files

Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
17 February 2016

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 17, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8122-8123]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-03183]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA 2015-0508]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Extension of a 
Currently Approved Collection: Driver Qualification Files

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 its 
review and approval, and invites public comment. The Agency's 
regulations pertaining to the qualification of operators of commercial 
motor vehicles (CMVs) are unchanged and impose no increased 
information-collection (IC) burden on individual drivers and motor 
carriers. However, the Agency increases its estimate of the total IC 
burden of these regulations because both the number of CMV drivers and 
the frequency of their hiring have increased since the Agency's 2012 
estimate of this burden.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before April 18, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System Number FMCSA- 2015-0508 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 Management Facility; 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: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT 
solicits comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking 
process. DOT posts these comments, without edit, including any personal 
information the commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as 
described in the system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can 
be reviewed at www.dot.gov/privacy.
     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. Robert F. Schultz, 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

    The Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984 [Pub.L. 98-554, Title II, 98 
Stat. 2834 (October 30, 1984)] requires the Secretary of Transportation 
to issue regulations pertaining to commercial motor vehicle (CMV) 
safety. These regulations are also issued under the authority provided 
by 49 U.S.C. 504, 31133, 31136, and 31502. Part 391 of volume 49 of the 
Code of Federal Regulations contains the minimum qualifications of 
drivers of CMVs in interstate commerce.
    Motor carriers may not require or permit an unqualified driver to 
operate a CMV. The foremost proof of driver qualification is the 
information that part 391 requires be collected and maintained in the 
driver qualification file (DQ file). Motor carriers must obtain this 
information from sources specified in the regulations (49 CFR 391.51). 
These include the driver, previous employers of the driver, and 
officials of the State of driver licensure.
    Motor carriers are not required to forward driver qualification 
information to FMCSA, but must maintain the information in a DQ file. 
The DQ file of each driver must be made available to State and Federal 
safety investigators on demand.
    The Agency is asking OMB to approve FMCSA's revised estimate of the 
paperwork burden imposed by its DQ file regulations. The regulations 
have not been amended; the information-collection (IC) burden imposed 
on individual drivers and motor carriers by the regulations is 
unchanged. However, the Agency has increased its estimate of the total 
IC burden of the DQ-file regulations because both the number of CMV 
drivers and the turnover rate in their hiring have increased since the 
Agency's 2012 estimate of this burden. The increase in the number of 
CMV drivers is partly the result of the Agency being directed by OMB to 
include intrastate as well as interstate drivers in the population of 
drivers incurring an IC burden under the DQ file regulations. The 
Agency had excluded intrastate drivers from its previous estimate, 
approved by OMB on July 8, 2013, on the ground that drivers who operate 
exclusively in intrastate commerce were maintaining DQ files pursuant 
to State, not Federal, law.
    Title: Driver Qualification Files.

[[Page 8123]]

    OMB Control Number: 2126-0004.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved ICR.
    Respondents: Motor carriers and drivers of commercial motor 
vehicles.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 6.2 million (5.7 million drivers 
and .5 million motor carriers.
    Estimated Time per Response: 28 minutes (average).
    Expiration Date: July 31, 2016.
    Frequency of Response: Responses to some regulatory requirements of 
the driver qualification rules occur on a random basis. Other responses 
occur more predictably. Some responses recur; others do not. For 
example, motor carriers are required to obtain and review the motor 
vehicle driving record of their drivers from the State of licensure. 
They must complete this task at the time of hiring and every year 
thereafter. The time-of-hiring requirement results in a random 
frequency of response, but, thereafter, the annual requirement results 
in a fixed frequency of response.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 9.8 million hours.

Definitions

    (1) ``Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations'' (FMCSRs) are 
parts 350-399 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. (2) 
``Commercial Motor Vehicle'' (CMV) is ``a self-propelled or towed 
vehicle used on the highways in interstate commerce to transport 
passengers or property, if the vehicle--
    (A) has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination 
weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, 
of at least 10,001 pounds, whichever is greater;
    (B) is designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers 
(including the driver) for compensation;
    (C) is designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers, 
including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for 
compensation; or
    (D) is used in transporting material found by the Secretary of 
Transportation to be hazardous under section 5103 of this title and 
transported in a quantity requiring placarding under regulations 
prescribed by the Secretary under section 5103.''

Public Comments Invited

    FMCSA requests that you comment on any aspect of this information 
collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed collection is necessary 
for 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. The agency will summarize or include your comments in the 
request for OMB's clearance of this information collection.

    Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87 on February 5, 2016.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2016-03183 Filed 2-16-16; 8:45 am]
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