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

Kenneth H. Riddle
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
7 April 2020

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 67 (Tuesday, April 7, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19570-19572]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07221]


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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 will allow FMCSA to 
collect information on registered training providers and entry-level 
driver training certification information until 2022.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before May 7, 2020. OMB must 
receive your comments by this date in order to act on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joshua Jones, Commercial Driver's 
License Division, Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier 
Safety Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 
SE,

[[Page 19571]]

Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-7332; email: 
Joshua.jones@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    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.

IC-1 (Training Certification for Entry-Level Drivers Under Subpart E)

    Respondents: Entry-level Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) operators.
    Estimated Number of Respondents (average per year): 235,824.
    Estimated Time per Response (average): 10 minutes.
    Expiration Date: April 30, 2020.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion. Entry-level interstate CDL 
holders receive a certificate when they successfully complete mandatory 
training, and must present a copy of it to their employer in order to 
be qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in interstate 
commerce. The employer keeps a copy of the training certificate in the 
driver qualification file.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden for IC-1: 39,304 hours.

IC-2 (Training Provider Registration)

    Respondents: Training providers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents (average per year): 6,837.
    Estimated Time per Response (average): 1.84 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 for IC-2: 15,026 hours.

IC-3 (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 Training 
Provider Registry (TPR), that training provider must submit training 
certification information regarding the driver-trainee to the TPR.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden for IC-3: 12,946 hours.
    Estimated Total Burden Under this ICR: 67,276 hours.

Background

    Section 4007(a)(2) of the Intermodal Surface Transportation 
Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) (Pub. L. 102-240, December 18, 1991) 
directed the Federal Highway Administration (predecessor Agency to 
FMCSA) to ``. . . commence a rulemaking proceeding on the need to 
require training of all entry level drivers of commercial motor 
vehicles.'' FMCSA subsequently published the final rule titled 
``Minimum Training Requirements for Entry-Level Commercial Motor 
Vehicle Operators'' (69 FR 29384) on May 21, 2004, with an effective 
date of July 20, 2004, implementing Section 4007(a)(2) of ISTEA. The 
rule mandated training for interstate CMV drivers on four topics: 
Driver qualifications, hours-of-service of drivers, driver wellness, 
and whistle-blower protection. Under Subpart E of the existing Entry 
Level Driver Training (ELDT) requirements of 49 CFR part 380, employers 
are prohibited from allowing an entry-level driver to operate a CMV 
without ensuring that the driver has received this ELDT as specified 
under 49 CFR 380.503. These entry-level interstate CDL drivers receive 
a certificate when they successfully complete the mandatory training, 
and must present a copy of it to their employer to be qualified to 
drive a CMV in interstate commerce. The employer keeps a copy of the 
training certificate in the driver qualification file. During an 
investigation, the certificate serves as proof that the CDL driver 
completed the required training. The currently approved collection of 
information with OMB Control Number 2126-0028 titled ``Training 
Certification for Entry-Level Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators'' 
which was most recently approved on April 19, 2017, and which has an 
expiration date of April 30, 2020, reflects these existing ELDT 
requirements under Subpart E of 49 CFR part 380.
    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. FMCSA subsequently published 
the final rule titled ``Minimum Training Requirements for Entry-Level 
Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators'' (81 FR 88732) (ELDT final rule) on 
December 8, 2016, with a compliance date of February 7, 2020, 
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 may 
therefore be listed on a new 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.
    On February 4, 2020, the Agency published an interim final rule 
titled ``Extension of Compliance Date for Entry-Level Driver Training'' 
(85 FR 6088) that further amends the ELDT regulations that were 
published on December 8, 2016, by extending the compliance date for the 
rule from February 7, 2020, to February 7, 2022. This compliance date 
extension will provide FMCSA additional time to complete development of 
the TPR, and provides State Driver Licensing Agencies with time to 
modify their information technology systems and procedures, as 
necessary, to accommodate their receipt of driver-specific ELDT data 
from the TPR. In a July 18, 2019, proposed rule titled ``Partial 
Extension of Compliance Date for Entry-Level Driver Training'' (84 FR 
34324), FMCSA had proposed extending the compliance date from February 
7, 2020, to February 7, 2022, only for the

[[Page 19572]]

requirement for training providers to submit training certification 
information to the TPR for each individual driver-trainee that 
completes training. The compliance date for the ``Training Provider 
Registration'' information collection activities was proposed to have 
remained February 7, 2020. Under the February 4, 2020, interim final 
rule, FMCSA is now delaying the entire ELDT final rule, as opposed to a 
partial delay as originally proposed, due to delays in implementation 
of the TPR that were not foreseen when the proposed rule was published.
    Under this revision, the existing entry-level driver training 
requirements and information collection activities under 49 CFR 380 
Subpart E that will continue to be in force for the first two years, 
2020 and 2021, of the three-year period covered by this ICR are treated 
as a separate information collection (IC), IC-1. The ``Training 
Provider Registration'' information collection activities, and the 
``Driver Training Certification Information'' information collection 
activities, that go into effect as of February 7, 2022, under the new 
ELDT requirements are also treated as separate information collections, 
IC-2 and IC-3, respectively.
    On July 3, 2019, FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register 
allowing for a 60-day comment period on this ICR. The Agency received 
one comment to that notice. The Commercial Vehicle Training Association 
(CVTA) stated their support for OMB to approve the new collections 
under what are now IC-2 (Training Provider Registration) and IC-3 
(Driver Training Certification Information). CVTA also sought 
clarification as to why there were separate ICs presented in the 60-day 
notice for the ``Training Provider Registration'' function and the 
``Driver Training Certification Information'' function. The Agency 
clarifies that it presented those two activities as separate ICs in 
order to improve the clarity and transparency of the analysis. Guidance 
from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at OMB 
regarding the preparation of ICRs and Supporting Statements recommends 
that each form or collection instrument have a separate IC within a 
given ICR, in order to provide a more meaningful and easily understood 
estimate of the burden associated with each form or collection. OIRA 
also recommends that agencies present separate ICs within an ICR if the 
Agency believes that doing so would be informative.

Public Comments Invited

    FMCSA requests that you 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.

Kenneth Riddle,
Acting Associate Administrator for Registration and Research.
[FR Doc. 2020-07221 Filed 4-6-20; 8:45 am]
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