[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 158 (Friday, August 15, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48987-48989]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-20932]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

[Docket No. OST-2003-15794]


Motor Carrier Financial Information Reporting Requirements--
Request for Public Comments

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), DOT.

ACTION: Request for Public Comments.

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SUMMARY: DOT has received a petition from the Truckload Carriers 
Association (TCA), requesting that DOT grant a general exemption to all 
motor carriers of property that are required to file financial reports 
with DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). The petition also 
requests that DOT docket the petition and request public comments. DOT 
is seeking public comments on the merits of the TCA petition.

DATES: Comments must be received by October 14, 2003.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments (identified by DMS Docket Number 
OST-2003-15794) through the following methods:

[[Page 48988]]

    [sbull] Web Site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
    [sbull] Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
    [sbull] Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401, 
Washington, DC 20590-001.
    [sbull] Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400
    [sbull] Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
    [sbull] Federal Rulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without 
change to http://dms.dot.gov, including any personal information 
provided. You should know that 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 in the Federal 
Register published on April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 
19477-78) or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room PL-401 on the 
plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., 
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas M. McNamara, Office of 
Transportation Policy Development, Department of Transportation, 400 
Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, 20590-0001, (202) 366-4462; 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: TCA is a national trade association with 
approximately 500 motor carrier members providing intercity truck 
transportation for a variety of commercial, industrial, and consumer 
products, primarily in full trailer-load quantities. (See TCA Petition, 
Page 2.) In its petition, which we have included in the docket, TCA 
requests that DOT use its general exemption authority (see 49 U.S.C. 
13541) to exempt all motor carriers of property from the mandatory 
financial reporting requirements contained in 49 U.S.C. 14123. (See 
also 49 CFR part 1420.) According to TCA, DOT should grant this 
regulatory relief because BTS ``has made it abundantly clear that it 
will not exercise its own delegated authority to grant exemptions under 
subsection 14123(c) from either the filing or the public release of 
motor carrier reports.'' (See TCA Petition, Page 2.)
    The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) collected financial data 
from regulated motor carriers from the 1930s until the end of 1995, 
when the ICC was abolished and data collection was transferred to DOT. 
(See 49 U.S.C. 11145 and implementing regulations at 49 CFR part 1420.) 
Between 1978 and 1994, the ICC reduced the reporting requirements by 
shortening report forms and easing record retention requirements. These 
changes followed the shift in the ICC's focus from close economic 
regulation of the motor carrier industry to broad industry oversight.
    Upon transfer of the program and an additional program review, BTS 
further reduced the carriers' reporting burden (see 64 FR 13916, 13918; 
March 23, 1999). Currently, for common and contract motor carriers of 
property, the BTS regulations create three carrier classes based on 
revenue: Class I, with annual operating revenues of $10 million or 
more, file the annual report (Form M) and quarterly reports (Form QFR); 
Class II, with annual operating revenues of between $3 million and $10 
million, file only the annual report (Form M); and Class III, with 
annual operating revenues of less than $3 million, are exempt from any 
filing requirements.
    The reporting forms require the motor carriers to provide certain 
financial information (see 49 U.S.C. 14123(a)(1)): ``at a minimum, such 
reports shall include balance sheets and income statements.''
    Unless a motor carrier requests an exemption from filing or from 
public release, the information is made publicly available. (See 49 
U.S.C. 14123(c)(1) and (2) and the implementing regulations at 49 CFR 
1420.8 and 1420.9.) BTS grants an exemption from filing to an 
individual carrier that shows that ``an exemption is required to avoid 
competitive harm and preserve confidential business information that is 
not otherwise publicly available.'' (See 49 U.S.C. 14123(c)(1).) The 
carrier must submit a written request containing sufficient supporting 
documentation, before BTS will consider a proposed exemption.
    BTS grants an exemption from public release upon a showing that the 
carrier is not a publicly-held corporation or not subject to financial 
reporting requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and 
that the exemption is necessary to avoid substantial competitive harm 
and to avoid the disclosure of information that qualifies as a trade 
secret or privileged or confidential information under 5 U.S.C. 
552(b)(4) (the fourth exemption of the Freedom of Information Act). 
Again, the carrier must submit a written request containing supporting 
information.
    The statutory standards for issuing an ``exemption from filing'' 
and an ``exemption from public release'' are very similar. However, the 
TCA states ``BTS disregarded the Congressional intent by making 
exemptions from reporting or public release available only in theory, 
while denying them in fact.'' (TCA Petition, Page 5.) In addition, the 
TCA argues, ``any benefits of the reporting scheme are far outweighed 
by its burdens'' (TCA Petition, Page 4), and it urges the Department to 
exempt all motor carriers of property from the requirement to file 
these financial reports.

Request for Public Comments

    We are issuing this invitation for comments on the TCA petition and 
views on whether DOT's motor carrier financial reporting requirements 
should be retained, amended, supplemented, replaced, or removed, 
including the selected forms and reports involved with the requirement. 
We are posing a series of questions in the hope that public comments 
will address several issues in particular:
    (1) Do you use DOT's motor carrier financial information and, if 
so, how do you use it?
    (2) Should the criteria used to evaluate whether a carrier has 
demonstrated that it will suffer competitive harm by release of its 
financial information be changed? (The criteria used by BTS are those 
in Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4): 
the information is commercial or financial and received from a source 
outside the Government, and its disclosure would likely lead to 
significant competitive harm to the supplier of the information or make 
it harder for the Government to obtain similar information in the 
future.)
    (3) Should DOT change the reporting thresholds for Class I and II 
carriers of property and, if so, what level of annual operating 
revenues should be used? (Raising the reporting thresholds would reduce 
the number of carriers required to report, while lowering the 
thresholds would increase the number of carriers.)

[[Page 48989]]

    (4) Should DOT continue to require Class I carriers of property to 
submit quarterly reports (Form QFR)?
    (5) Should DOT eliminate or add specific line items in the annual 
report (Form M) and, if so, which specific line items should be 
eliminated/added?
    (6) If your company is subject to the current Form M reporting 
requirements, what is the annual cost for your company to comply with 
those requirements? Please explain, in detail, how you calculated this 
total cost.

    Issued in Washington, DC on August 12, 2003.
Emil Frankel,
Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy.
[FR Doc. 03-20932 Filed 8-14-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P