Notice of Request To Revise a Currently-Approved Information Collection Request: Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program |
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Kelly Leone
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
September 9, 2010
[Federal Register: September 9, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 174)]
[Notices]
[Page 54943-54945]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09se10-135]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2010-0246]
Notice of Request To Revise a Currently-Approved Information
Collection Request: Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program
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 review
and approval and invites public comment. The FMCSA requests approval to
revise an ICR entitled ``Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program
(MCSAP).'' The information required consists of grant application
preparation, quarterly reports and electronic data documenting the
results of driver/vehicle inspections performed by the States. This ICR
is being revised due to an increase in the estimated number of State
inspections that will be performed annually resulting in change to the
estimated burden to perform this activity.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before November 8, 2010.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments bearing the Department of
Transportation (DOT) Docket Management System (DMS) Docket Number
FMCSA-2010-0246 using any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting
comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington DC, 20590-0001 between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Each submission must include the Agency name and the docket number for
this Notice. Note that DOT posts all comments received without change
to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
included in a comment. Please see the Privacy Act heading below.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or Room W12-140
on the ground level of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE.,
Washington, DC, 20590-0001 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays. The DMS is available 24 hours each
day, 365 days each year. If you want acknowledgement that we received
your comments, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope or
post card or print the acknowledgement page that appears after
submitting them on-line.
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 of the person 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/pdf/E8-785.pdf.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr. John E. Kostelnik, Office of Safety Programs, State Programs
Division, Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE.,
Washington DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-5721; e-mail:
Jack.kostelnik@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program.
OMB Control Number: 2126-0010.
Type of Request: Revision of a currently-approved information
collection.
Respondents: State MCSAP lead agencies.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 52.
Estimated Time per Response: Grant application preparation: 79.5
hours each; quarterly report preparation: 8 hours each; and inspection
and data upload: 1 minute each.
Expiration Date: February 28, 2011.
Frequency of Response: Grant application: 1 annually; quarterly
reports: 4 annually; and inspection and data upload: about 3.4 million
annually.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 13,550 hours. The methods used to
calculate the hours necessary to prepare grant applications, upload
data, and prepare quarterly reports are based on interviews with the
State and Federal personnel charged with those responsibilities. The
information required to prepare the applications for grants and the
subsequent reports is based on general information ordinarily
maintained by the States in the general course of business, and only
simple computations are required to determine burden hours. The grant
applications and reports are submitted by the 50 States, 4 Territories,
Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Each entity submits one
grant request per year and four quarterly reports. About 3.4 million
inspection reports are uploaded each year.
The figures reflect only 20 percent of the total estimated hours to
perform the activities, since MCSAP reimburses 80 percent of the
eligible costs incurred in the administration of an approved plan as
set forth in 49 CFR 350.303, 350.309 and 350.311. Labor hours are
estimated and an average hourly rate for professional personnel is
applied. The four territories of American Samoa, Guam, U.S. Virgin
Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands receive
100 percent Federal
[[Page 54944]]
funding for their MCSAP activities; therefore they are not included in
the computation of burden.
Background: Sections 401 through 404 of the Surface Transportation
Assistance Act of 1982 (STAA) (Pub. L. 97-424) established a program of
financial assistance to the States to implement programs to enforce:
(a) Federal rules, regulations, standards, and orders applicable to
commercial motor vehicle safety; and (b) compatible State rules,
regulations, standards and orders. This grant-in-aid program is known
as the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP). Section 402(c)
of the STAA requires that the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary),
on the basis of reports submitted by the States and the Secretary's own
inspections, make a continuing evaluation of the manner in which each
State is carrying out its approved safety enforcement plan. The STAA's
MCSAP provisions are codified at 49 U.S.C. 31102.
The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) (Pub.
L. 105-178) further revised the MCSAP by broadening its purpose beyond
enforcement activities and programs by requiring participating States
to assume greater responsibility for improving motor carrier safety.
Section 4003 of TEA-21 required States to develop performance-based
plans reflecting national priorities and performance goals, revised the
MCSAP funding distribution formula, and created a new incentive funding
program. As a result, States have greater flexibility in designing
programs to address national and State goals of reducing the number and
severity of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) accidents.
The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation
Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) (Pub. L. 109-59) amended 49
U.S.C. 31102(b)(1) to modify and augment the conditions a State must
meet to qualify for basic program funds under the MCSAP. The statute
requires a State to document in its State Commercial Vehicle Safety
Plan (CVSP) its commitment to meet the following additional conditions:
Deploy technology to enhance the efficiency and
effectiveness of CMV safety programs;
Include, in both the training manual for the licensing
examination to drive a non-CMV and the training manual for the
licensing examination to drive a CMV, information on best practices for
driving safely in the vicinity of noncommercial and commercial motor
vehicles;
Conduct comprehensive and highly visible traffic
enforcement and CMV safety inspection programs in high-risk locations
and corridors; and
Except in the case of an imminent or obvious safety
hazard, ensure that an inspection of a vehicle transporting passengers
for a motor carrier of passengers is conducted at a station, terminal,
border crossing, maintenance facility, destination, or other location
where a motor carrier may make a planned stop.
Additionally, section 4106 of SAFETEA-LU amended 49 U.S.C. 31102(c) to
provide that States may use a portion of MCSAP basic grant funds to
conduct documented enforcement of State traffic laws--both laws and
regulations designed to promote the safe operation of CMVs and laws and
regulations relating to non-CMVs, when necessary to promote the safe
operation of CMVs.
In order for FMCSA to evaluate program effectiveness, it is
necessary for the State to provide and maintain information concerning
past, present and future program activity. The Final Rule that revised
Part 350 to implement the changes to the MCSAP made by SAFETEA-LU was
published in the Federal Register on July 5, 2007 (72 FR 36769) . The
State's grant application, known as the CVSP, must contain the
information required by 49 CFR 350.201, 350.211 and 350.213. This
information is necessary to enable FMCSA to determine whether a State
meets the statutory and administrative criteria to be eligible for a
grant. It is necessary that a State's work activities and
accomplishments be reported so that FMCSA can monitor and evaluate a
State's progress under its approved plan and make the determinations
and decisions required by 49 CFR 350.205 and 350.207. The FMCSA is
required to determine whether each State's efforts meet the intended
objectives of its plan. In the event of nonconformity with any approved
plan and failure on the part of a State to remedy deficiencies, FMCSA
is required to take action to cease Federal participation in that
State's plan.
This information collection supports the DOT Strategic Goal of
Safety (i.e., reducing commercial truck-related fatalities) by
providing financial and technical support to State CMV enforcement
efforts.
The FMCSA uses the information in the CVSP to determine whether a
State has the necessary resources and authority to undertake the
program intended by Congress. After a grant has been awarded to a
State, a continuing evaluation of the State's activities is performed
to determine whether continued funding is appropriate and if revisions
in the State's CVSP should be made. A quarterly report is submitted by
the States using Standard Form PPR (SF-PPR) along with a narrative
addendum to provide the minimum necessary information to assist in
appropriate monitoring of a State's performance, compared to its CVSP,
and to permit FMCSA to determine whether the effort of a State is cost
efficient and whether Federal assistance should be continued. In
addition, inspection data and reports are submitted electronically by
the inspecting officer from the field to FMCSA at the time of
completion of the inspection.
SAFETEA-LU provides that States may conduct traffic enforcement
activities against non-CMVs to promote the safe operation of CMVs. The
States have been routinely conducting traffic enforcement activities on
CMVs and been reimbursed, provided an appropriate inspection was
conducted at the time. Previously, non-CMV traffic enforcement was not
an eligible MCSAP activity for reimbursement so the States have not
captured activity levels for this type of enforcement. The number of
non-CMV enforcement activities conducted by the States has been
relatively minimal since SAFETEA-LU limits the amount of MCSAP grant
funding that can be used for non-CMV traffic enforcement activities to
no more than five percent of the basic amount a State receives
annually.
The quarterly report is created by the State and submitted to FMCSA
using inspection data and other information. The collection of uniform
data permits analysis and comparison of State programs and facilitates
program administration and reporting (e.g., comparison of the data from
a single State to the national average, equipment violation and out-of-
service trends, etc.).
The FMCSA routinely uses quarterly report information to measure
individual and collective State program accomplishment and to assist
with future program development.
Description of MCSAP forms:
a. Form MCSAP-1, Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program: Use of
the MCSAP-1 form is being discontinued. States will be required to
submit their grant applications electronically using grants.gov
beginning in Fiscal Year 2011. The SF-424 form (OMB No. 4040-0004),
available via grants.gov, will be used in place of the previously
approved MCSAP-1 form.
b. Form MCSAP-2, Grant Agreement: The MCSAP-2 form is the grant
agreement that specifies the total
[[Page 54945]]
amount of the State Program, the State and Federal participating
shares, the period of the grant, and the signatures of the responsible
State official and the FMCSA Division Administrator.
c. Form MCSAP-2A, Grant Amendment for Fiscal Year----: The MCSAP-2A
form is used to modify the terms of the grant. It is used to increase
or decrease the amount of the grant, or to extend the period of the
grant. It contains the signatures of the responsible State official and
the FMCSA Division Administrator.
In addition, the following documents are provided as part of the
CVSP package:
a. State Training Plan (optional format): This document is a
request for commercial vehicle training courses. It is used by the
FMCSA's National Training Center to more effectively schedule training
courses to meet the needs of State enforcement agencies.
b. State Certification: The CVSP must contain a State Certification
signed by the Governor, the State Attorney General, or other specially
designated State official. The Certification includes conditions that
must be met by the State to receive MCSAP grant funds.
Virtually all (99%) of the information required by the grant is
submitted electronically. This includes over 3.4 million inspection
reports, which are uploaded electronically from laptop computers at
inspection sites in the field to FMCSA annually. The near-universal use
of laptops for submitting these inspection reports has resulted in a
dramatic reduction in the time burden. The annual CVSPs require signed
certifications by State personnel and these certification documents are
not, therefore, electronically transmitted.
The FMCSA is the only Federal agency authorized to enforce safety
regulations applicable to commercial trucks and buses in interstate
commerce. The type of information to be gathered from the States
through this information collection is unique to MCSAP. No duplication
was identified through the rulemaking process to implement relevant
sections of SAFETEA-LU.
Under MCSAP grants are extended to the States predicated on annual
submission of CVSPs. The FMCSA has determined that although monthly or
bimonthly reports are not needed, a semiannual report would not be
sufficiently frequent to allow for timely evaluation and changes in
State program direction. Therefore, quarterly reports were determined
to be the most appropriate, considering burden and Federal need. If the
reports were submitted less frequently, FMCSA would be unable to
exercise appropriate oversight and administration of the program as
envisioned by the Congress.
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 on: September 2, 2010.
Kelly Leone,
Director, Office of Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2010-22462 Filed 9-8-10; 8:45 am]
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