Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of a New Information Collection Request: Crime Prevention for Truckers

Kenneth Riddle
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
28 February 2020

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 40 (Friday, February 28, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12050-12051]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-04100]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0278]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of a New 
Information Collection Request: 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, 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. 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: Please send your comments by March 30, 2020. OMB must receive 
your comments by this date in order to act quickly on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: All comments should reference Federal Docket Management 
System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2018-0278. 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: Chris Flanigan, General Engineer, 
Technology Division, Department of Transportation, Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration, 6th Floor, West Building, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001. Telephone: 202-385-2384; 
Email Address: chris.flanigan@dot.gov. Office hours are from 9 a.m. to 
5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Crime Prevention for Truckers.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Respondents: Female and minority male commercial motor vehicle 
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 information collection.
    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)].
    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 longhaul 
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

[[Page 12051]]

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 are not female or minority male, 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.
    Public comments on this were requested in the Federal Register in a 
July 23, 2019 notice (Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0278). Three comments were 
received and are summarized below.
    Ellen Voie, President, Women In Trucking (WIT) Association, 
appreciates the initiative to better understand the challenges female 
and minority drivers face. WIT conducted research on best practices in 
hiring and retaining female professional drivers. The respondents 
indicated their level of safety at 4.4 on a scale of one to ten. She 
states that this is unacceptable and that once the survey has been 
completed and we can better understand the extent of crimes against 
female (and minority) drivers, we can better address how to eliminate 
any harassment and assaults directed against them. Overall, this 
information will assist WIT in their efforts to attract and retain more 
women in trucking.
    Desiree Wood, President, Real Women in Trucking, Inc. (RWIT), has 
been receiving distress calls related to sexual misconduct related to 
entry-level driver training fleets for over 10 years. RWIT is a truck 
driver organization formed by working female truck drivers, many of 
whom have had firsthand experience with sexual misconduct at a trucking 
company, including Ms. Wood. This led to her forming RWIT, which aims 
to assist women who have been raped, assaulted, harassed, and abandoned 
by their employing carrier by referring them to law firms and the EEOC. 
Ms. Wood recommends that FMCSA take immediate action to address these 
issues instead of conducting the survey.
    Bunny Sterling, East Calais, Vermont, described several types of 
harassment against women working in the trucking industry, but did not 
claim specifically that they happened to her. They included lude 
comments and gestures, unwanted physical advances and phone calls, and 
threats of losing employment if retaliation occurred.
    FMCSA appreciates the comments and support for examining this issue 
and plans to proceed with the data call to assess in more detail the 
extent of this problem. This could lead to the agency reaching out to 
driver training schools to encourage that they address these issues in 
their courses.
    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: February 
19, 2020.
Kenneth Riddle,
Acting, Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2020-04100 Filed 2-27-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P