Agency Information Collection Activities; Renewal of a Currently Approved Information Collection Request: Generic Clearance of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Thomas P. Keane
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
30 December 2020

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 250 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 86643-86644]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-28849]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2020-0204]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Renewal of a Currently 
Approved Information Collection Request: Generic Clearance of Customer 
Satisfaction Surveys

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: Executive Order 12862 directs Federal agencies to provide 
service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service 
available in the private sector. These principles were reaffirmed in 
Executive Order 13571. In order to work continuously to ensure that our 
programs are effective and meet our customers' needs, the Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) seeks to obtain OMB approval of a 
currently approved generic clearance to continue collecting feedback on 
our service delivery. By feedback we mean information that provides 
useful insights on perceptions and opinions, but are not statistical 
surveys that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the 
population of study.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before March 1, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2020-0204 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 Services; 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: West Building, Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, 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: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement for the Federal Docket Management System 
published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2008 (73 FR 3316), or 
you may visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdfE8-794.pdf.
    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: Ms. Roxane Oliver, FMCSA, Office of 
Analysis/MC-RAA. Telephone (202) 385-2324; or email 
Roxane.Oliver@dot.gov. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, 
DC 20590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Background: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
FMCSA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) approval to renew a previously approved 
information collection. Executive Order 12862 Setting Customer Service 
Standards, and most recently updated in Executive Order 13571, requires 
the Federal Government to provide the ``highest quality service 
possible to the American people.'' Under the order, the ``standard of 
quality for services provided to the public shall be: Customer service 
equal to the best in business.'' In order to work continuously to 
ensure that our programs are effective and meet our customers' needs, 
FMCSA seeks to obtain OMB approval of a generic clearance to collect 
qualitative feedback from our customers on our service delivery. The 
surveys covered in this generic clearance will provide a means for 
FMCSA to collect this data directly from our customers. By qualitative 
feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on 
perceptions and opinions, but are not statistical surveys that yield 
quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of 
study. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder 
perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an early warning of 
issues with service, or focus attention on areas of communication, 
training or changes in operations that might improve delivery of 
products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, 
collaborative and actionable communications between the Agency and its 
customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute 
directly to the improvement of program management.
    The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: timeliness, 
appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of 
service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. 
Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or 
maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this 
information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and 
stakeholders on the Agency's services will be unavailable.
    The Agency will submit a collection for approval under this generic 
clearance only if it meets the following conditions: that such 
collections are:
     voluntary;
     low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of 
total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per 
respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal 
Government;

[[Page 86644]]

     noncontroversial and do not raise issues of concern to 
other Federal agencies;
     targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents 
who have experience with the program or may have experience with the 
program in the near future;
     only collecting personally identifiable information (PII) 
to the extent necessary and not retaining it;
     only collecting information intended to be used only 
internally for general service improvement and program management, and 
any release outside the agency must indicate the qualitative nature of 
the information;
     not to be used for the purpose of substantially informing 
influential policy decisions; and
     intended to yield only qualitative information; the 
collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically 
reliable results or used as though the results are generalized to the 
population of study.
    This type of generic clearance for qualitative information will not 
be used for quantitative information collections that are designed to 
yield reliably actionable results, such as monitoring trends over time 
or documenting program performance. Such data uses require more 
rigorous designs that address: The target population to which 
generalizations will be made; the sampling frame, the sample design 
(including stratification and clustering), the precision requirements 
or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size; and the 
expected response rate, methods for assessing potential nonresponse 
bias, the protocols for data collection, and any testing procedures 
that were or will be undertaken prior to fielding the study. Depending 
on the degree of influence the results are likely to have, such 
collections may still be eligible for submission for other mechanisms 
that are designed to yield quantitative results. As a general matter, 
information collections will not result in any new system of records 
containing privacy information and will not ask questions of a 
sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious 
beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.
    Title: Generic Clearance of Customer Satisfaction Surveys.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0061.
    Type of Request: Renewal of currently approved collection.
    Respondents: State and local agencies, general public and 
stakeholders; original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and suppliers to 
the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) industry; fleets, owner-operators, 
state CMV safety agencies, research organizations and contractors; news 
organizations and safety advocacy groups.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 5,900 [5,000 customer satisfaction 
survey respondents + 100 listening sessions/stakeholder feedback forums 
respondents + 300 focus group respondents + 500 strategic planning 
customer satisfaction survey respondents].
    Estimated Time per Response: Range from 10 to 120 minutes.
    Expiration Date: August 31, 2021.
    Frequency of Response: Generally, on an annual basis.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 1,758 hours [833 hours for customer 
satisfaction surveys + 200 hours for listening sessions/stakeholder 
feedback forums + 600 hours for focus groups + 125 hours for strategic 
planning customer satisfaction surveys].
    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.

Thomas P. Keane,
Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Registration.
[FR Doc. 2020-28849 Filed 12-29-20; 8:45 am]
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