Hours of Service of Drivers |
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Topics: FMCSA
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Anne S. Ferro (Federal Register)
May 9, 2011
[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 89 (Monday, May 9, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 26681-26682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-11150]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
49 CFR Parts 385, 386, 390, and 395
[Docket No. FMCSA-2004-19608]
RIN 2126-AB26
Hours of Service of Drivers
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice; availability of supplemental documents; reopening of
comment period.
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SUMMARY: FMCSA has placed four additional documents in the public
docket of its recent notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning
hours of service (HOS) for commercial motor vehicle drivers. The Agency
is reopening the comment period on the NPRM to allow for review and
discussion of these documents and FMCSA's possible consideration of
their findings in the development of the final rule. Comments will only
be considered on the four documents listed below.
DATES: Comments are due by June 8, 2011.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket
Management System Number FMCSA-2011-0039 using any of the following
methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department
of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue, SE., 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. The
telephone number is 202-366-9329.
Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and
docket number (FMCSA-2011-0039) for this rulemaking. To avoid
duplication, please use only one of these four methods. Note that all
comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided.
Please refer to the Privacy Act heading for further information.
Comments received after the comment closing date will be included
in the docket and we will consider late comments only to the extent
practicable. FMCSA may issue a final rule at any time after the close
of the comment period.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to
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.
Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form for all
comments
[[Page 26682]]
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 the
U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) complete Privacy Act
Statement in the Federal Register published 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. Thomas Yager, Chief, Driver and
Carrier Operations Division, Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366-4325.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Availability of Supplemental Documents
For a full background on this rulemaking, please see the preamble
to the NPRM (75 FR 82170, December 29, 2010). The docket (FMCSA-2004-
19608) contains all of the background information for this rulemaking,
including comments. FMCSA has placed these four research reports in the
docket:
Blanco, M., Hanowski, R., Olson, R., Morgan, J.,
Soccolich, S., Wu, S.C., and Guo, F., ``The Impact of Driving, Non-
Driving Work, and Rest Breaks on Driving Performance in Commercial
Motor Vehicle Operations,'' FMCSA, April 2011.
Jovanis, J.P., Wu, K.F., and Chen, C., ``Hours of Service
and Driver Fatigue--Driver Characteristics Research,'' FMCSA, April
2011.
Sando, T., Angel, M., Mtoi, E., and Moses, R., ``Analysis
of the Relationship Between Operator Cumulative Driving Hours and
Involvement in Preventable Collisions,'' Transportation Research Board
of the National Academies' 2011 90th Annual Meeting, Paper No.: 11-
4165, November 2010.
Sando, T., Mtoi, E., and Moses, R., ``Potential Causes Of
Driver Fatigue: A Study On Transit Bus Operators In Florida,''
Transportation Research Board of the National Academies' 2011 90th
Annual Meeting, Paper No.: 11-3398, November 2010.
The two Sando, et al., reports discuss research similar to that
which the Florida Department of Transportation Transit Office submitted
to the docket on March 4, 2011 (docket item 23834: Sando, T., Moses,
R., Angel, M., and Mtoi, E., ``Safety Implications of Transit Operator
Schedule Policies,'' University of North Florida and Florida Department
of Transportation, October 2010). The two additional reports by Sando
and his colleagues were published by the Transportation Research Board
of the National Academies for its 2011 90th Annual Meeting. They were
provided to 2011 Annual Meeting participants on digital video disk and
are available for downloading at http://www.trb.org.
FMCSA may consider these four reports in its rulemaking and invites
comment on their relevance to the NPRM.
FMCSA is reopening the comment period only for comments on these
documents and their relationship to the proposed HOS regulations.
Comments unrelated to the studies and/or to their relationship to the
NPRM will not be evaluated.
Rulemaking Schedule
FMCSA advises the public of an adjustment to the rulemaking
schedule agreed to in litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit (Case No. 09-1094). Pursuant to an
October 26, 2009, agreement between Public Citizen, et al.
(Petitioners), and FMCSA, the Agency was to publish a final rule within
21 months of
the date of the settlement agreement. FMCSA will receive and
analyze all comments to this notice before it completes its work on a
final rule, however. This extra comment period will require additional
time that was not envisioned in 2009, and thus the Agency will be
unable to publish a final rule by July 26, 2011. FMCSA has advised
Petitioners of this delay to the rulemaking schedule.
Issued on: May 3, 2011.
Anne S. Ferro,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2011-11150 Filed 5-6-11; 8:45 am]
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