Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved Information Collection: Training Certification for Entry-Level Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators

Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
3 July 2019

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 3, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31982-31984]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-14227]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2019-0157]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved 
Information Collection: Training Certification for Entry-Level 
Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators

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. FMCSA requests approval 
to revise an ICR titled ``Training Certification for Entry-Level 
Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators,'' which will now be used to 
register providers of entry-level driver training and to provide State 
Drivers' Licensing Agencies with information on individuals who have 
completed said training. If approved, this revision would obviate the 
need for FMCSA to seek renewal on the ICR.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before September 3, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2019-0157 using any of the 
following methods:

[[Page 31983]]

     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 Avenue SE., West Building, Ground 
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001 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, 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 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pearlie Robinson, Driver and Carrier 
Operations Division, Department of Transportation, Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-4225; email: 
pearlie.robinson@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (CMVSA) 
(49 U.S.C. 31301 et seq.) established the commercial driver's license 
(CDL) program and directed the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), 
FMCSA's predecessor agency, to establish minimum qualifications for 
issuance of a CDL. These standards were published by FHWA originally in 
1985. On May 21, 2004, FMCSA prohibited a motor carrier from allowing 
an entry-level driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle until it 
received a written certificate that the driver received training in 
four specified subject areas (driver qualifications, hours-of-service 
of drivers, driver wellness, and whistleblower protection) (69 FR 
29384). That final rule established the collection of information that 
is the subject of this request. The most recent renewal for this 
collection is set to expire on April 30, 2020.
    On July 6, 2012, President Obama signed legislation titled the 
``Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act'' (MAP-21) (Pub. L. 
112-141, 126 Stat. 405, 791). Section 32304 of MAP-21 directed FMCSA to 
develop and establish minimum driver training standards for applicants 
for a CDL and/or certain CDL endorsements. On December 8, 2016, FMCSA 
published a final rule revising entry-level driver training 
requirements (81 FR 88732), implementing Section 32304 of MAP-21. That 
final rule eliminated the existing driver training regulations under 
subpart E of part 380, established new minimum training standards for 
entry-level drivers, and in doing so established two separate 
information collection actions: (1) Training providers must submit 
information to FMCSA to ensure that they meet the new training provider 
eligibility requirements and can therefore be listed on a new Training 
Provider Registry (TPR); and (2) after an individual driver-trainee 
completes training administered by a training provider listed on the 
TPR, that training provider must submit training certification 
information regarding the driver-trainee to the TPR. However, because 
the compliance dates for that final rule were set as three years after 
its publication, FMCSA did not, at that time, revise the collection of 
information to reflect these two new provisions, opting to provide an 
update at the time of the next renewal for the collection. 
Subsequently, on March 6, 2019, FMSCA published a separate final rule 
titled ``Commercial Driver's License Upgrade from Class B to Class A'' 
(84 FR 8029), that amended the ELDT regulations that were published on 
December 8, 2016, by adopting a new Class A CDL theory instruction 
upgrade curriculum to reduce the training time and costs incurred by 
Class B CDL holders upgrading to a Class A CDL. This March 6, 2019, 
final rule does not substantively affect the paperwork collection 
burden associated with the ELDT regulations, therefore no action was 
taken to update the collection of information at that time.
    For the purpose of developing and reporting the revised burden 
estimates for this ICR, the ``Training Provider Registration'' 
information collection activities and the ``Driver Training 
Certification Information'' information collection activities 
(described above) are each addressed below as a separate information 
collection (IC), IC-1 and IC-2, respectively. This is done because 
although training providers are the respondent in each case, the nature 
of the information for each activity is substantively different, with 
the ``Training Provider Registration'' IC focused on information 
pertaining to training providers, and the ``Driver Training 
Certification Information'' IC focused on information pertaining to 
individual entry-level drivers. Furthermore, a forthcoming proposed 
rule titled ``Partial Extension of Compliance Date for Entry-Level 
Driver Training'' (RIN 2126-AC25) would extend by two years, from 
February 7, 2020, to February 7, 2022, the compliance date for the 
requirement for training providers to submit training certification 
information to the TPR for each individual driver-trainee that 
completes training. The three-year period covered by this ICR is 2020 
through 2022. Therefore, these two ICs would now also occur during 
different time frames of the three-year period covered by this ICR. IC-
1 ``Training Provider Registration'' will occur during all three years 
2020 through 2022, consistent with the February 7, 2020, compliance 
date of the training provider registration provision of the December 
2016 ELDT final rule. IC-2 ``Driver Training Certification 
Information'' would now occur only during 2022, the final year covered 
by this ICR, consistent with the forthcoming proposed rule titled 
``Partial Extension of Compliance Date for Entry-Level Driver 
Training'' (RIN 2126-AC25).
    Title: Training Certification for Entry-Level Commercial Motor 
Vehicle Operators.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0028.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently-approved information 
collection.

[[Page 31984]]

IC-1 (Training Provider Registration)

    Respondents: Training providers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents (average per year): 15,805.
    Estimated Time per Response (average): 1.24 hours.
    Expiration Date: April 30, 2020.
    Frequency of Response: All training providers will need to 
initially register once. Additionally, all registered training 
providers must update their information at least biennially. They are 
also required to provide an update if any key information (company 
name, address, phone number, types of training offered, etc.) changes 
prior to their biennial update.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 21,629 hours.

IC-2 (Driver Training Certification)

    Respondents: Training providers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents (average per year): 6,837.
    Estimated Time per Response: 5 minutes.
    Expiration Date: April 30, 2020.
    Frequency of Response: After an individual driver-trainee completes 
training administered by a training provider listed on the TPR, that 
training provider must submit training certification information 
regarding the driver-trainee to the TPR.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 12,946 hours.
    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 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; 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: June 24, 2019.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2019-14227 Filed 7-2-19; 8:45 am]
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