Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act Correlation Study |
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Raymond P. Martinez
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
21 August 2018
[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 162 (Tuesday, August 21, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42354-42355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-17987]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2017-0226]
Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act Correlation Study
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: On June 27, 2017, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
published its report titled, ``Improving Motor Carrier Safety
Measurement.'' This report was commissioned by FMCSA consistent with
the requirements of Section 5221 of the Fixing America's Surface
Transportation (FAST) Act. The FAST Act also requires that the Agency
develop a corrective action plan to address any identified deficiencies
and submit it to Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation's
(DOT) Office of Inspector General (OIG); this was completed on June 25,
2018. The purpose of this notice is to announce a public meeting to
discuss NAS recommendations 2, 3 and 4 and to solicit input to be
considered by the Agency.
DATES: The public meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 29,
2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time. A copy of the agenda
for the meeting will be available in advance of the meeting at https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/fastact/csa. If all interested participants have had
an opportunity to comment, the meeting may conclude early.
Public Comments: Comments must be received by October 22, 2018.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the FMCSA National Training
Center, 1310 N Courthouse Road, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22201-2508.
Those interested in attending this public meeting must register at:
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/fastact/csa. Participants have the option of
registering to attend in person, or via webinar.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about the public
meeting or for information on facilities or services for individuals
with disabilities or to request special assistance at the meeting,
contact Ms. Barbara Baker, Compliance Division, at (202) 366-3397 or by
email at Barbara.Baker@dot.gov, by August 27, 2018.
If you have questions regarding viewing or submitting material to
the docket, contact Docket Services, telephone (202) 366-9826.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 5221 of the FAST Act, titled ``Correlation Study,''
required FMCSA to commission the National Research Council of the
National Academies to conduct a study of FMCSA's Compliance, Safety,
Accountability (CSA) program and Safety Measurement System (SMS). SMS
is FMCSA's algorithm for identifying patterns of non-compliance and
prioritizing motor carriers for interventions. FMCSA is prohibited from
publishing SMS percentiles and alerts on the SMS website for motor
carriers transporting property until the NAS Correlation
[[Page 42355]]
Study is complete and all reporting and certification requirements
under the FAST Act are satisfied.
On June 27, 2017, NAS published the report titled, ``Improving
Motor Carrier Safety Measurement.'' The report is available at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24818/improving-motor-carrier-safety-measurement. A
copy of the report has been placed in the docket referenced at the
beginning of this notice.
Pursuant to the FAST Act, FMCSA submitted the results of this study
to both Congress and the DOT OIG on August 7, 2017. The FAST Act also
requires FMCSA to submit an action plan to the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and the House of Representatives
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
To solicit input during the development of the corrective action
plan, FMCSA hosted a public meeting on September 8, 2017. Information
from the public meeting was incorporated into the action plan. The
corrective action plan was transmitted on June 25, 2018. The OIG is
required to review the action plan and submit a report to Congress on
the responsiveness of the FMCSA's plan to the NAS report's
recommendations.
FMCSA's corrective action plan includes solicitation of input from
the public for recommendations 2, 3 and 4. As a result, FMCSA is
soliciting responses to the following questions at the public meeting
and through the docket referenced above.
NAS Recommendation 2
FMCSA should continue to collaborate with States and other agencies
to improve the quality of the Motor Carrier Management Information
System (MCMIS) data in SMS. Two specific data elements require
immediate attention: Carrier exposure and crash data. The current
exposure data (e.g., Power Unit (PU) and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
data) are missing with high frequency, and data that are collected are
likely of unsatisfactory quality.
Questions
1. What should FMCSA do to improve the collection of PU, VMT, and
driver count data? For example, should FMCSA use edit checks to verify
the accuracy of the data?
2. VMT, PU, and number of inspections are the current measures of
exposure used in SMS. Are there other ways FMCSA should consider
measuring carrier exposure with data that is already available to
FMCSA?
3. What are the current challenges that motor carriers face in
reporting VMT data?
4. What information is available from the States to improve
exposure data?
5. What additional data should FMCSA consider collecting from
carriers? Why?
6. What external sources of exposure and crash data should FMCSA
explore?
7. In addition to the data currently collected by FMCSA, what other
exposure data would motor carriers be willing to share?
i. More frequent updates to mileage and PU data
ii. Number/type of trips
iii. Mileage breakdown by State
iv. Other options?
8. What incentives would encourage motor carriers to share
additional information?
NAS Recommendation 3
FMCSA should investigate ways of collecting data that will likely
benefit the recommended methodology for safety assessment. This
includes data on carrier characteristics--such as information on driver
turnover rate, type of cargo, method and level of compensation, and
better information on exposure.
Questions
1. What additional data should FMCSA consider collecting to support
the recommended methodology for safety assessment (i.e., IRT model)?
a. Would this data be useful for safety assessments?
b. What are the challenges to collecting or using the data
recommended by NAS?
i. Driver turnover rate
ii. Type of cargo
iii. Method of compensation
iv. Level of compensation
v. Better information on exposure
2. What pay-related and/or driver-turnover-related data would
carriers be willing to share?
NAS Recommendation 4
FMCSA should structure a user-friendly version of the MCMIS data
file used as input to SMS without any personally identifiable
information to facilitate its use by external parties, such as
researchers, and carriers.
Questions
FMCSA is planning to develop a web page to make simplified MCMIS
data snapshots available to researchers, motor carriers, safety
consultants, and the public
1. What features should this web page include?
2. If the information collected in recommendation 3 above is used
within the IRT model, should it be made available publicly to allow a
full replication of the results?
3. What features should a user-friendly MCMIS data file include?
4. Would industry stakeholders find a user-friendly MCMIS data file
useful? Why?
5. How often should this user-friendly MCMIS data file be updated
(e.g., monthly, quarterly, annually etc.)?
Issued under the authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.87 on: August
13, 2018
Raymond P. Martinez,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-17987 Filed 8-20-18; 8:45 am]
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