Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved Information Collection: Inspection, Repair and Maintenance

G. Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
21 June 2018

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 120 (Thursday, June 21, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28900-28902]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13319]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0118]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved 
Information Collection: Inspection, Repair and Maintenance

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 information collection concerns records of 
inspection, repair, and maintenance of commercial motor vehicles 
(CMVs). The FMCSA requests approval to revise and renew an ICR 
entitled, ``Inspection, Repair and Maintenance.'' FMCSA collects this 
information to ensure that motor carriers have adequate documentation 
of their inspection, repair, and maintenance programs necessary to 
reduce the likelihood of CMV crashes.

DATES: Please send your comments by July 23, 2018. OMB must receive 
your comments by this date in order to act quickly on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: All comments should reference Federal Docket Management

[[Page 28901]]

System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2018-0118. Interested persons are 
invited to submit written comments on the proposed information 
collection to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office 
of Management and Budget. Comments should be addressed to the attention 
of the Desk Officer, Department of Transportation/Federal Motor Carrier 
Safety Administration, and sent via electronic mail to 
oira_submission@omb.eop.gov, or faxed to (202) 395-6974, or mailed to 
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management 
and Budget, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street NW, Washington, 
DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Mike Huntley, Vehicle and Roadside 
Operations Division, Department of Transportation, Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-9209; email 
michael.huntley@dot.gov. Office hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal Holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Inspection, Repair and Maintenance.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0003.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved information 
collection.
    Respondents: Motor carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 543,061 motor carriers and 
5,739,712 drivers.
    Estimated Time per Response: Varies according to the requirements 
for specific records.
    Expiration Date: July 31, 2018.
    Frequency of Response: Varies according to requirements for 
specific records.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 13,791,001 hours [7,558,390 hours 
for inspection, repair, and maintenance + 5,536,622 hours for driver 
vehicle inspection reports + 194,586 hours for disposition of roadside 
inspection reports + 469,414 hours for periodic inspections + 16,904 
hours for records of inspector qualifications + 15,085 hours for 
records of brake inspector qualifications].
    Background: The Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) is 
authorized under the provisions of 49 U.S.C. 31502 to prescribe 
requirements for, among other things, safety of operations of equipment 
of motor carriers that operate CMVs in interstate commerce. Under 49 
U.S.C. 31136, the Secretary also has authority to prescribe regulations 
to ensure that CMVs are maintained, equipped, loaded and operated 
safely. And under 49 U.S.C. 31142 the Secretary must establish 
standards for annual or more frequent inspections of CMVs. The 
Secretary's authority to establish improved standards or methods to 
ensure brakes and brake systems of CMVs are inspected by appropriate 
employees and maintained properly is provided under 49 U.S.C. 31137(g).
    Motor carriers must maintain, or require maintenance of, records 
documenting the inspection, repair and maintenance activities performed 
on their owned and leased vehicles. There are no prescribed forms. 
Electronic recordkeeping is allowed (see 49 CFR 390.31(d)). Documents 
requiring a signature must be capable of replication (i.e., photocopy, 
facsimile, etc.) in such form that will provide an opportunity for 
signature verification upon demand. Also, if electronic recordkeeping 
is used, all of the relevant data on the original documents must be 
included in the electronic transmission for the records to be valid.
    The motor carrier industry has never questioned the need to keep 
CMV maintenance records. In fact, most motor carriers would keep some 
records without any regulatory requirements to do so. Records of 
inspection, repair, and maintenance; roadside inspection reports; 
driver vehicle inspection reports; the documentation of periodic 
inspections; the evidence of the qualifications of individuals 
performing periodic inspections; and the evidence of brake inspectors' 
qualifications contain the minimum amount of information necessary to 
document that a motor carrier has established a system of inspection, 
repair, and maintenance for its equipment which meets the standards in 
49 CFR part 396.
    FMCSA and its representatives use these records to verify motor 
carriers' compliance with the inspection, repair, and maintenance 
standards in part 396. This ICR supports the Department of 
Transportation's strategic goal of safety. The ICR also ensures that 
motor carriers have adequate records to document the inspection, 
repair, and maintenance of their CMVs, and to ensure that adequate 
measures are taken to keep their CMVs in safe and proper operating 
condition at all times. Compliance with the inspection, repair, and 
maintenance regulations helps to reduce the likelihood of accidents 
attributable, in whole or in part, to the mechanical condition of the 
CMV.
    The Agency does not intend to revise the substantive contents of 
this information collection, the frequency of information collection, 
or how it uses the information. Because the previous four updates to 
this information collection were developed in conjunction with 
rulemaking actions, only those sections of the information collection 
affected by the specific rulemaking changes were amended during the 
previous four updates and a comprehensive update of the information 
collection has not been done since 2006. This renewal includes updated 
data regarding the number of motor carriers subject to the Federal 
Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, vehicle counts, inspections, and 
other underlying data used to estimate the total burden hours. In 
addition, this revision corrects the manner in which: (1) The burden 
associated with routine inspection, repair and maintenance records is 
calculated, by including non-powered CMVs in addition to power units; 
and (2) the burden associated with periodic inspection records is 
calculated, by using only the records associated with the once-per-year 
inspection conducted in accordance with 49 CFR Chapter III, Subchapter 
B, Appendix G. Finally, this revision corrects the calculation of the 
burden associated with Driver-Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs) by 
including the 30 seconds required for motor carrier certification of 
corrective action for defect DVIRs that was inadvertently omitted in 
the calculation of this estimate in the December 2014 No-Defect DVIR 
rule.
    If the recordkeeping were required to be completed less frequently, 
it would greatly hinder the ability of FMCSA and State officials and 
representatives to ascertain that CMVs are satisfactorily maintained. 
The timely documentation of CMV inspection, repair, and maintenance 
enables FMCSA and State officials to evaluate the present state of a 
motor carrier's CMV maintenance program and to check the current level 
of regulatory compliance at any point in a carrier's maintenance 
schedule or program.
    The FMCSA has identified periodic inspection standards of 22 
States, the District of Columbia, the Alabama Liquefied Petroleum Gas 
Board, 10 Canadian Provinces, and one Canadian Territory that are 
comparable to, or as effective as, the Federal periodic inspection 
requirements. The FMCSA does not require Federal periodic inspections 
and the related recordkeeping for motor carriers that comply with these 
equivalent periodic inspection programs. The FMCSA is not aware of any 
other duplicative standards or recordkeeping

[[Page 28902]]

requirements that apply to motor carriers.
    The FMCSA does not employ this collection of information for 
statistical use.
    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 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.

    Issued under the authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.87 on: June 15, 
2018.
G. Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2018-13319 Filed 6-20-18; 8:45 am]
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