60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Flexible Sleeper Berth Pilot Program |
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Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
27 June 2017
[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 122 (Tuesday, June 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29145-29146]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-13453]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2016-0394]
60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Flexible
Sleeper Berth Pilot Program
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: FMCSA is seeking approval from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, FMCSA is requesting
comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of
information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of
public comment. FMCSA proposes a pilot program to allow temporary
regulatory relief from the Agency's sleeper berth regulation for a
limited number of commercial drivers who have a valid commercial
driver's license (CDL), and who regularly use a sleeper berth to
accumulate their required 10 hours of non-duty work status. During the
pilot program, participating drivers would have the option to split
their sleeper berth time within parameters specified by FMCSA. Driver
metrics would be collected for the duration of the study, and
participants' safety performance and fatigue levels would be analyzed.
This pilot program seeks to produce statistically reliable evidence on
the question as to whether split sleeper berth time affects driver
safety performance and fatigue levels.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 28, 2017.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments bearing the Federal Docket
Management System (FDMS) Docket ID FMCSA-2016-0394 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 Ave. SE., West Building, Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West
Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590 between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and the
docket number. For detailed instructions on submitting comments, 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: Nicole Michel, Research Division,
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue
SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001, by email at nicole.michel@dot.gov, or
by telephone at (202) 366-4354. If you have questions on viewing or
submitting material to the docket, contact Docket Services, telephone
(202) 366-9826.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Flexible Sleeper Berth Pilot Program.
OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
Type of Request: New information collection.
Respondents: Large, medium, and small motor carriers; independent
owner-operators; commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 10 motor carrier responses; 1,000
CMV driver responses (this estimate includes responses to the online
application; not all of these drivers will be eligible or selected for
study participation).
Estimated Time per Response: Motor carriers: 1 hour (one-time
response). Drivers: online application--15 minutes (one-time response);
background questionnaire and tax form--30 minutes (one-time response);
daily field study data collection--30 minutes (daily, for a maximum of
90 days); weekly phone briefings--10 minutes (once weekly, for a
maximum of 13 weeks); debriefing questionnaire--15 minutes (one-time
response).
Expiration Date: N/A. This is a new information collection request
(ICR).
Frequency of Response: Motor carriers: One-time response. Drivers:
Varies; will not exceed daily responses for 90 days (see ``Estimated
Time for Response'' for more details).
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 4,423 hours (7 hours for carrier
tasks and 4,416 hours for driver tasks). The total annual number of
carrier responses is seven. Reviewing the study materials and granting
permission for drivers to participate is estimated to take 1 hour per
carrier. Participating driver burden is associated with completing the
online application, background questionnaire, daily data collection
during the field study period, weekly phone briefings, and debriefing
questionnaire. The online application is estimated to take 15 minutes,
the background questionnaire and tax form (completed together) is
estimated to take 30 minutes, and the debriefing questionnaire is
estimated to take 15 minutes. Daily data collection during the field
study is estimated to take 30 minutes per day, for up to 90 days.
Weekly phone briefings are estimated to take 10 minutes per week. It is
estimated that 40 drivers will participate for 14 days, 75 drivers will
participate for 30 days, 75 drivers will participate for 60 days, and
50 drivers will participate for the maximum 90 days.
I. Background
As described in 49 CFR 395.1(g)(1), a driver who operates a
property-carrying CMV equipped with a sleeper berth \1\ and who uses
the sleeper berth provision must take at least 8 consecutive hours in
the sleeper berth, plus a separate 2 consecutive hours either in the
sleeper berth, off duty, or any combination of the two, before
returning to on-duty status.
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\1\ A ``sleeper berth'' is a sleeping compartment installed on a
CMV that complies with the specifications in 49 CFR 393.76.
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During listening sessions for the hours-of-service (HOS)
rulemaking, the
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Agency heard from many drivers that they would like some regulatory
flexibility to be able to sleep when they get tired or as a
countermeasure to traffic congestion (i.e., an exemption from the
requirement for consolidated sleeper berth time). FMCSA has reviewed
the literature and conducted its own laboratory studies on the subject.
The majority of sleep studies to date demonstrate that well-timed split
sleep has either a positive or no effect on subsequent neurobehavioral
performance. To determine whether split sleeper berth time affects
driver safety performance and fatigue levels, FMCSA is introducing a
pilot program to allow temporary regulatory relief from 49 CFR
395.1(g)(1) (the sleeper berth provision) for a limited number of
commercial drivers who have valid commercial driver's licenses (CDLs)
and who regularly use sleeper berths.
II. Abstract of Pilot Program
The Flexible Sleeper Berth Pilot Program requires that
participating drivers be provided relief from Part 395 concerning
consolidated sleeper berth time requirements. Participating drivers
will be asked if they have completed the Driver Education Module of the
North American Fatigue Management Program (NAFMP) prior to study
enrollment. If drivers have not completed the program, they will be
given information on the program and encouraged, but not required, to
complete these modules prior to participation in the study. During the
pilot program, participating drivers will have the option to split
their sleeper berth time, within parameters specified by FMCSA (i.e.,
participants will have exemption from the requirement for consolidated
sleeper berth time). Driver metrics will be collected for the duration
of the study, as discussed in Section III of this notice. Upon
completion of the program, participants' safety performance and fatigue
levels will be analyzed, according to provision use, using a ``within-
subject and between-subject'' study design. In this analysis, drivers
will be compared among themselves and against other participating
drivers. This pilot program seeks to produce statistically reliable
evidence of the relationship between the degree of HOS flexibility and
safety outcomes.
III. Data Collection Plan
Details of the data collection plan for this pilot program are
subject to change based on comments to the docket and further review by
analysts. Participating drivers will drive an instrumented vehicle for
up to 3 consecutive months. At a minimum, FMCSA will gather the
following data during the study:
Electronic logging device (ELD) data, to evaluate duty
hours and timing, driving hours and timing, rest breaks, off-duty time,
and restart breaks.
Onboard monitoring system (OBMS) data, to evaluate driving
behaviors, safety-critical events (or SCEs, which include crashes,
near-crashes, and other safety-related events), reaction time, fatigue,
lane deviations, and traffic density, road curvature, and speed
variability.
Roadside violation data (from carriers and drivers),
including vehicle, duty status, hazardous materials, and cargo-related
violations (contingent upon inspections).
Wrist actigraphy data,\2\ to evaluate total sleep time,
time of day sleep was taken, sleep latency, and intermittent
wakefulness.
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\2\ Participants will wear wrist actigraphy devices (similar to
commercially available smart fitness watches) throughout their time
in the study. Actigraphy is a minimally obtrusive, validated
approach to assessing sleep/wake patterns.
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Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) \3\ data, to evaluate
drivers' behavioral alertness based on reaction times.
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\3\ For this study, drivers will be required to complete daily
iterations of a brief PVT, a 3-minute behavioral alertness test
which measures drivers' alertness levels by timing their reactions
to visual stimuli.
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Subjective sleepiness ratings, using the Karolinska
Sleepiness Scale (KSS),\4\ to measure drivers' perceptions of their
fatigue levels.
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\4\ The KSS is a 9-point Likert-type scale ranging from
``extremely alert'' to ``extremely sleepy'' and has been widely used
in the literature as a subjective assessment of alertness.
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Sleep logs, in which drivers will document when they are
going to sleep, when they wake up, and whether they are using the
sleeper berth. For split-sleep days, drivers will record how and why
they chose to split their sleep.
Other information that may be needed, such as vehicle miles
traveled (VMT), will also be collected through the participating
carrier. Every effort will be made to reduce the burden on the carrier
in collecting and reporting this data.
IV. Paperwork Reduction Act
The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520)
prohibits agencies from conducting information collection (IC)
activities until they analyze the need for the collection of
information and how the collected data will be managed. Agencies must
also analyze whether technology could be used to reduce the burden
imposed on those providing the data. The Agency must estimate the time
burden required to respond to the IC requirements, such as the time
required to complete a particular form. The Agency submits its IC
analysis and burden estimate to OMB as a formal ICR; the Agency cannot
conduct the information collection until OMB approves the ICR.
V. Request for Public Comments
FMCSA asks for comment on the IC requirements of this study.
Comments can be submitted to the docket as outlined under ADDRESSES at
the beginning of this notice. 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 FMCSA to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity
of the collected information.
4. Ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the
quality of the collected information.
5. Whether the data collection efforts proposed for carriers and
drivers are burdensome enough to discourage their participation.
6. How data collection efforts should differ for team drivers.
Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87 on: June 20, 2017.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2017-13453 Filed 6-26-17; 8:45 am]
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