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

Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
10 June 2019

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 111 (Monday, June 10, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26933-26934]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-12169]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2019-0102]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Renewal 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 (PRA), 
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. FMCSA requests 
approval to revise and renew an ICR titled ``Driver Qualification 
Files,'' OMB Control Number 2126-0004. The ICR estimates the burden 
commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and motor carriers incur to 
comply with the reporting and recordkeeping tasks required for motor 
carriers to maintain driver qualification (DQ) files. The Agency's 
regulations pertaining to maintaining DQ files 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 primarily because both the number 
of CMV drivers and the frequency of their hiring have increased since 
the Agency's 2016 estimate of this burden.

DATES: FMCSA must receive your comments to this notice on or before 
August 9, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System Number FMCSA-2019-0102 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, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Same as mail address above 
between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal 
holidays.
     Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name 
and 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.transportation.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 website. 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.

[[Page 26934]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Pearlie Robinson, Driver and 
Carrier Operations Division, DOT, 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. Part 391 of volume 49 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR) 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) (49 CFR 391.51). Motor carriers 
must obtain this information from sources specified in the regulations, 
such as the driver, previous employers of the driver, and officials of 
the State of driver licensure. Motor carriers are not required to 
forward DQ information to FMCSA, but must maintain the information in a 
DQ file and make it available to State and Federal safety investigators 
on demand.
    Through this ICR, FMCSA is asking OMB's approval to renew and 
revisee its estimate of the paperwork burden imposed by its DQ file 
regulations. The regulations have not been amended; the IC burden 
imposed on individual drivers and motor carriers by the regulations is 
unchanged. The current IC burden estimate approved by OMB is 10.21 
million hours. The Agency has increased its estimate of the total IC 
burden from 10.21 million hours to 12.26 million hours. The increase in 
burden hours is primarily the result of a larger driver population and 
a higher driver turnover rate, both of which affect the volume of 
documents produced and filed in DQ files. This revised ICR removes the 
medical examiner's certificate recordkeeping requirement from the 
estimate of burden hours and cost to eliminate double counting. 
Although the currently approved ICR did not monetize driver and motor 
carrier burden hours, the revised ICR monetizes such burden. The draft 
supporting statement for this ICR is available in the docket.
    Title: Driver Qualification Files.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0004.
    Type of Request: Renewal and revision of a currently-approved 
information collection.
    Respondents: CMV motor carriers and drivers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 6.89 million (6.35 million drivers 
+ 0.54 million motor carriers).
    Expiration Date: January 31, 2020.
    Frequency of Response: The information on some DQ documents is only 
provided one time, such as that furnished at the time the individual 
applies for employment as a driver. Other information must be obtained 
by the motor carrier within 30 days of the date the driver begins to 
drive a CMV for the employer. Other information, such as the driver's 
motor vehicle record, is only updated once a year.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 12.26 million hours.
    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 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 delegated in 49 CFR 1.87 on: June 4, 
2019.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2019-12169 Filed 6-7-19; 8:45 am]
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