Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey

Sheleen Dumas
Department of Commerce
25 August 2021

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 162 (Wednesday, August 25, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47471-47472]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-18232]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on March 15, 2021 during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce.
    Title: Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0892.
    Form Number(s): TC-9501, TC-9502.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Reinstatement, 
with change of a previously approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 150,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 65 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 162,500.
    Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau requests clearance of the forms 
that will be used to conduct the 2021 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey 
(VIUS). Our sponsor for this joint statistical project is the Bureau of 
Transportation Statistics. The 2021 VIUS will collect data to measure 
the physical and operational characteristics of trucks from a sample of 
approximately 150,000 trucks. These trucks are selected from more than 
190 million private and commercial trucks registered with motor vehicle 
departments in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Census 
Bureau will collect the data for the sampled trucks from the registered 
truck owners. We will publish physical and operational vehicle 
characteristics estimates for each state, the District of Columbia, and 
the United States. A public-use file will be released that will contain 
unaggregated microdata information for each truck for which data are 
collected. The records on the

[[Page 47472]]

public-use file will be masked to avoid the disclosure of a sampled 
truck or owner.
    The VIUS is the only comprehensive source of information on the 
physical and operational characteristics of the Nation's truck 
population. The VIUS provides unique, essential information for 
government, business, and academia. The U.S. Department of 
Transportation, State Departments of Transportation, and transportation 
consultants compliment VIUS microdata as extremely useful and flexible 
to meet constantly changing requests that cannot be met with 
predetermined tabular publications. The planned microdata file will 
enable them to cross-tabulate data to meet their needs.
    Federal, state, and local transportation agencies use information 
from the VIUS for the analysis of safety issues, proposed investments 
in new roads and technology, truck size and weight issues, user fees, 
cost allocation, energy and environmental constraints, hazardous 
materials transport, and other aspects of the Federal-aid highway 
program. The Federal government uses information from the VIUS as an 
important part of the framework for: (1) The national investment and 
personal consumption expenditures component of the gross domestic 
product, (2) input-output tables, (3) economic development evaluation, 
(4) maintenance of vital statistics for prediction of future economic 
and transportation trends, (5) logistical requirements, (6) 
Metropolitan Planning Organization transportation development 
requirements, and (7) regulatory impact analysis.
    Business and academia use information from the VIUS to assess 
intermodal use, conduct market studies and evaluate market strategies, 
assess the utility and cost of certain types of equipment, and 
calculate the longevity of products. VIUS information also is used to 
determine fuel demands and needs for fuel efficiency, to produce trade 
publication articles and special data arrays, and to assess the effects 
of deregulation on the restructuring of the transportation industries.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; Business or other for-
profit organizations.
    Frequency: One time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., section 131 and 182.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website 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 and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-0892.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2021-18232 Filed 8-24-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P