Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of Reinstated Renewal for Information Request: Commercial Driver's License (CDL) Skills Testing Delays Annual Survey

Tom Keane
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
14 December 2020

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 240 (Monday, December 14, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 80887-80888]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-27376]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2020-0117]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of Reinstated 
Renewal for Information Request: 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.

DATES: Please send your comments by January 13, 2021. OMB must receive 
your comments by this date in order to act quickly 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: Dan Britton, Office of Analysis, 
Research, and Technology/Research Division, Department of 
Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 6th Floor, 
West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001. 
Telephone: 202-366-9980; Email Address: dan.britton@dot.gov. Office 
hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal 
Holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Commercial Driver's License (CDL) 
Skills Testing Delays Annual Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0065.
    Type of Request: Reinstatement of a renewal that was discontinued 
at the Agency's request.
    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: To be determined.
    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 estimated 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.

Background

    Section 5506 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act 
(``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. 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.

Prior Publication

    FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register (85 FR 35496) with 
a 60-day public comment period to

[[Page 80888]]

announce this proposed information collection on June 10, 2020. The 
agency received four total comments, three unique comments and one 
duplicated comment, in response to this notice.
    The three comments received in response to the 60-day notice were 
from the following persons and organizations:
    1. National School Transportation Association (NSTA)
    2. Texas Trucking Association (TXTA)
    3. Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA)
    The comment from NSTA was posted twice, but was the same comment. 
NSTA was supportive of the information collection request and felt that 
it was necessary and important information to collect, not only due to 
FAST Act requirements but also in light of the ongoing COVID-19 
situation, which has impacted SDLAs and their operating statuses, as 
well as many other aspects of the transportation sector. NSTA made 
several recommendations regarding issuances of CDLs for school bus 
drivers and inspections for school bus drivers that are outside the 
scope of this information collection request. These comments have been 
passed on to the appropriate parties in FMCSA, but did not result in 
any changes to the proposed information collection contained in this 
request.
    Similarly, TXTA made several comments regarding the actual 
licensing procedures and policies within Texas, which are outside the 
scope of this information collection. These comments have been passed 
on to the appropriate parties in FMCSA, but did not result in any 
changes to the proposed information collection contained in this 
request.
    CVTA was supportive of the information collection request itself 
but made several suggestions for improvement. First, CVTA suggested 
that FMCSA require States to respond to the survey. Furthermore, CVTA 
felt that FMCSA's analysis of the collected data was lacking and 
expressed concern with the definition of delays and wait times used by 
FMCSA in the original analysis. CVTA noted in their comment that they 
felt this was a failure of FMCSA to meet the requirements of the FAST 
Act statute. FMCSA does not have the authority to compel States to 
respond to the survey and re-asserts that responses to the survey must 
be voluntary. The prior survey received at least partial responses from 
the majority of States. FMCSA successfully delivered the 2017 report to 
Congress, which the Agency understood to fulfill the intent behind 
Section 5506 of the FAST Act. FMCSA did not make any changes to the 
proposed information collection as a result of this comment, which 
largely focused on the reporting out of results from the information 
collection as opposed to the collection of information itself.
    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.

Tom Keane,
Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Registration.
[FR Doc. 2020-27376 Filed 12-11-20; 8:45 am]
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