60-Day Notice of Renewal for Information Collection: Request for Renewal of Commercial Driver's License (CDL) Skills Testing Delays Annual Survey

Kenneth Riddle
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
10 June 2020

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 112 (Wednesday, June 10, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35496-35497]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-12567]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2020-0117]


60-Day Notice of Renewal for Information Collection: Request for 
Renewal of Commercial Driver's License (CDL) Skills Testing Delays 
Annual Survey

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 
renewal and invites public comment. This ICR is to collect data on the 
delays, by State, that applicants face when scheduling a CDL skills 
test. This information collection and subsequent data analysis is 
required by section 5506 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation 
Act, 2015 (FAST Act). FMCSA reported the results of the initial ICR 
request in a report to congress titled ``The Commercial Driver's 
License Skills Test Delays Report to Congress--CY 2016'' available on 
FMCSA's web page located here: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/mission/policy/commercial-drivers-license-skills-test-delays-report-congress-cy-2016.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before August 10, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA- 2020-0117 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 and 
additional information on the exemption process, 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: Nicole Michel, Office of Analysis, 
Research, and Technology/Research Division, Department of 
Transportation, FMCSA, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 
SE, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-4354; email 
nicole.michel@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background: Section 5506 of the FAST Act 
requires FMCSA to produce a study on CDL skills test delays on an 
annual basis. The requirements of the study are to submit an annual 
report describing:
    ``(A) the average wait time from the date an applicant requests to 
take a skills test to the date the applicant has the opportunity to 
complete such test;
    (B) the average wait time from the date an applicant, upon failure 
of a skills test, requests a retest to the date the applicant has the 
opportunity to complete such retest;
    (C) the actual number of qualified commercial driver's license 
examiners available to test applicants; and
    (D) the number of testing sites available through the State 
department of motor vehicles and whether this number has increased or 
decreased from the previous year.''
    The annual report is also required to describe ``specific steps the 
Administrator is taking to address skills testing delays in States that 
have average skills test or retest wait times of more than 7 days.'' If 
this information collection does not occur, FMCSA will not be able to 
continue to conduct the study on CDL skills test delays. This data 
collection aims to continue to create longitudinal data where currently 
there is none. If the information collection occurs on a less-than-
annual basis, FMCSA will not be able to make observations on yearly 
trends or analyze differences between States.
    For the initial 2017 survey FMCSA met with several stakeholders, 
including the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the 
Commercial Vehicle Training Association, and State Driver Licensing 
Agencies to ensure the information being collected was not already 
collected elsewhere and was not available to FMCSA. FMCSA conducted 
extensive background research to ensure the study was not duplicative. 
A previous study, done by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 
2015, asked for similar information but did not produce specific enough 
data to be used in this study.
    The survey will continue to be sent out via email, with the option 
for online completion using SurveyMonkey[supreg] or Qualtrics. Each 
State can continue to respond via email or the online survey tool 
depending on which method is more convenient for the respondent.

[[Page 35497]]

The welcome letter will continue to indicate that FMCSA prefers 
responses via the online survey tool.
    The information collected will continue to be published annually in 
a report to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 
the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of 
the House of Representatives.
    Title: Request for Renewal of Commercial Driver's License (CDL) 
Skills Testing Delays Annual Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0065.
    Type of Request: Renewal.
    Respondents: State CDL Coordinators (one from each of the 50 
States, and one from Washington, DC).
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 51.
    Estimated Time per Response: 2.3 hours (137.5 minutes).
    Expiration Date: February 28, 2019.
    Frequency of Response: Annually.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: The annual burden is estimated to be 
no more than 2.3 hours (137.5 minutes) per respondent, which equates to 
116.9 hours over the universe of 51 respondents. This estimate contains 
a maximum of 2 hours to gather information from State information 
systems, and an estimated maximum of 17.5 minutes to respond to the 
survey. While States that already track and report similar information 
may need much less than 2 hours to gather information, discussions with 
subject matter experts led to an agreement that 2 hours was a 
reasonable maximum time limit to use to estimate the maximum annual 
burden expected.
    The estimate time for survey completion was calculated using Versta 
Research's methodology for calculating an estimate of survey length, 
where each question is given a number of points based on the estimated 
burden required to respond to the question (for example, simple 
multiple choice questions are 1 point, whereas short answer questions 
are 3 points per expected short phrase). The total number of points for 
all questions is then divided by eight (the number of simple questions 
a user can respond to online in 1 minute) to determine the estimate 
required length for finishing the survey.
    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.
Kenneth Riddle,
Acting Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Registration.
[FR Doc. 2020-12567 Filed 6-9-20; 8:45 am]
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