Agency Information Collection Activities; New Information Collection: Crime Prevention for Truckers

Kelly Regal
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
23 July 2019

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 141 (Tuesday, July 23, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35450-35452]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-15609]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0278]


Agency Information Collection Activities; New Information 
Collection: Crime Prevention for Truckers

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, the 
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (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. This request, titled ``Crime Prevention for 
Truckers,'' will allow for a study to understand the prevalence, 
seriousness, and nature of the problem of harassment and assaults 
against minority and female truckers.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before September 23, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2018-0278 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 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

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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: Jeff Loftus, Division Chief, 
Technology Division, Department of Transportation, FMCSA, West 
Building, 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. 
Telephone: 202-385-2363; email: jeff.loftus@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: FMCSA has accumulated evidence, both documentary and 
anecdotal, for a serious pattern of harassment- and assault-related 
crimes against female and minority male truckers. For example, Security 
Journal, in a 2006 article titled ``Workplace Violence against Female 
Long-haul Truckers,'' reported that 42 percent of female long-haul 
truckers reported experiencing one or more types of workplace violence. 
USA Today, in a 2017 article titled ``Rigged,'' gave accounts of 
repeated harassment of minority male truckers. Currently, FMCSA does 
not provide materials or training to truckers, including minority and 
female truckers, on how to protect themselves from being stalked, 
harassed, assaulted, or robbed. Before effective solutions for 
preventing or reducing these crimes against female and minority 
truckers can be developed and implemented, FMCSA must understand the 
prevalence, seriousness, and nature of the problem of harassment and 
assaults against truckers. Currently, there is insufficient data. The 
frequency and number of harassment- and assault-related crimes 
occurring, the portion that are unreported, and reasons for 
underreporting are unknown.
    The purpose of this research study is to gather information to 
answer these questions, to understand how serious the problem is, and 
to report it to FMCSA so the Agency can decide on further options for 
evaluation and action. FMCSA needs to explore and validate the problem 
of harassment- and assault-related crimes, especially against female 
and minority male truckers for two reasons. First, there seems to be a 
perception among these subpopulations of truckers that they are more 
vulnerable than others. Second, there is a critical shortage of 
truckers, and helping these subpopulations of truckers protect 
themselves from crimes could draw more truckers from these 
subpopulations, while stemming turnover, to alleviate the shortage.
    FMCSA has contracted with Battelle to create and execute a survey 
of truck drivers to gather this information. This exploratory survey 
will be limited in scale and scope. Quantitative and qualitative 
analysis of the data will help the Agency to understand the nature and 
extent of the problem and begin to formulate an approach to reducing 
it. The results will not be used for rulemaking.
    The survey of professional truck drivers will be limited to female 
and minority male drivers. The survey will ask whether the drivers have 
experienced race- or gender-related harassment or crimes on the job. If 
the driver has had such an experience, the survey will ask follow-up 
questions on where and when the incidents occurred, any information the 
respondent knows about the perpetrator, and whether the respondent 
reported the incident. The survey will be anonymous. None of the 
questions ask for information that could personally identify the 
respondent or any perpetrators involved. Some respondents will take the 
survey online, and others will take it in the form of an in-person 
interview. Identical questions will be asked of all drivers, but 
answers from males and females will be analyzed separately.
    A maximum of 440 males and 440 females will be included in the 
information collection. The information will be collected through a 
combination of an online survey and in-person interviews. Approximately 
160 in-person interviews will be completed, 80 females and 80 minority 
males. The balance will take the survey electronically. Some 
individuals may be eligible to participate in the survey but will not 
have had any recent experience of harassment or assault. These 
individuals will be included in the final results for calculation of 
prevalence. The total number of respondents targeted for those who 
experienced some sort of harassment or assault will be 400 in each 
group. If 400 targeted individuals are reached before the overall cap 
of 440 respondents, data collection will be stopped for that group. 
Individuals who are screened but fail to qualify as females and 
minority males, or with other criteria such as not being active 
drivers, will not be included in the interview counts, though a 
tabulation of the number of such contacts and reason for their 
disqualification will be reported to better understand resource needs 
and burden in future data collection efforts of this type. A $25 
incentive will be given to eligible respondents to the in-person 
interview or the online survey. For respondents to be eligible and to 
receive the incentive, they must report that they are a female or a 
minority male who has driven a truck professionally in the past 2 years 
and complete the survey--at least through the initial questions of what 
events, if any, they have experienced.
    Battelle statisticians experienced in surveys and in analyzing data 
for FMCSA will execute the data analysis plan. Findings will be 
presented in a report that will be made available on the Agency's 
website so that interested stakeholders and the general public will be 
aware of the findings. Battelle is required to deliver a public-use 
dataset at the conclusion of the project. By understanding the nature 
and prevalence of crimes against truckers, FMCSA will be able to 
formulate and promote programs to address the problem. The report may 
be useful to law enforcement personnel, motor carriers, truck drivers, 
operators of private truck stops, and others interested in addressing 
the situation.
    If study findings indicate a significant problem that merits 
action, FMCSA may consider developing training or outreach materials to 
help truckers protect themselves from crime or harassment. Such 
training or outreach materials could help foster motor carriers' 
employee retention efforts and help make the truck driving profession 
more attractive to a greater range of people.
    Title: Crime Prevention for Truckers.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Respondents: Female and minority male truck drivers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: Maximum of 880 truck drivers [80 
respondents reporting no incidents of harassment or crime + 800 
respondents reporting one or more incidents of harassment or crime].
    Estimated Time per Response: Varies. [8 minutes for respondents not 
reporting incidents of harassment or crime; 20 minutes for respondents 
reporting an incident of harassment or crime].
    Expiration Date: This is a new ICR.
    Frequency of Response: Once.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 277.3 hours [80 respondents 
reporting no incidents x (8 minutes / 60 minutes per hour) + 800 
respondents reporting one or more incidents x (20 minutes / 60 minutes 
per hour)].
    Public Comments Invited: FMCSA invites comments on any aspect of 
this

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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 comments in 
the request for OMB's clearance of this information collection.

    Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87 on: July 17, 2019.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2019-15609 Filed 7-22-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P