[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 22 (Friday, February 2, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5098-5099]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-1750]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2007-27123]


Hours of Service of Drivers: Quality Driveaway, Inc. Application 
for Exemption

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of application for exemption; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: FMCSA announces that it has received from Quality Driveaway, 
Inc. (Quality) an application for an exemption from the Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Regulations regarding maximum driving time for drivers 
of passenger-carrying vehicles. The exemption would allow Quality 
drivers delivering new buses without any passengers to be governed by 
the hours-of-service (HOS) requirements for drivers of property-
carrying vehicles. Quality states that the level of safety will be 
equivalent or greater than the level of safety that would be obtained 
by complying with the HOS regulations for drivers of passenger-carrying 
vehicles. FMCSA requests public comment on Quality's application for 
exemption.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 5, 2007.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT DMS Docket Number 
FMCSA-2007-27123 using any of the following methods:
     Web site: http://dmses.dot.gov/submit/. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401, 
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery: 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.
     Federal eRulemaking 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 for this notice. Note that all comments received will be 
posted without change to http://dms.dot.gov including any personal 
information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading for further 
information.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time or 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. The Docket Management System (DMS) is 
available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. If you want us to 
notify you that we received your comments, please include a self-
addressed, stamped envelope or postcard or print the acknowledgement 
page that appears after submitting comments on-line.
    Privacy Act: Anyone may search the electronic form of all comments 
received into any of DOT's 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, or other 
entity). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the 
Federal Register published on April 11,

[[Page 5099]]

2000 (65 FR 19477, Apr. 11, 2000). This statement is also available at 
http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Thomas Yager, Chief, Driver and 
Carrier Operations Division, Office of Bus and Truck Standards and 
Operations, MC-PSD, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 400 
Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Telephone: 202-366-
4009. E-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 4007 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century 
(Pub. L. 105-178, 112 Stat. 107, June 9, 1998) amended 49 U.S.C. 31315 
and 31136(e) to provide authority to grant exemptions from motor 
carrier safety regulations. Under its regulations, FMCSA must publish a 
notice of each exemption request in the Federal Register (49 CFR 
381.315(a)). The Agency must provide the public an opportunity to 
inspect the information relevant to the application, including the 
conducting of any safety analyses. The Agency must also provide an 
opportunity for public comment on the request.
    The Agency reviews the safety analyses and the public comments, and 
determines whether granting the exemption would likely achieve a level 
of safety equivalent to, or greater than, the level that would be 
achieved by the current regulation (49 CFR 381.305). The decision of 
the Agency must be published in the Federal Register (49 CFR 
381.315(b)) with the reason for denying or, in the alternative, the 
specific person or class of persons receiving the exemption, and the 
regulatory provision or provisions from which exemption is granted. The 
notice must also specify the effective period of the exemption (up to 2 
years), and explain the terms and conditions of the exemption. The 
exemption may be renewed (49 CFR 381.300(b)).

Request for Exemption

    Quality Driveaway, Inc. (Quality) is a registered motor carrier 
whose principal office is located in Goshen, Indiana. It provides 
extensive transportation services to manufacturers of various types of 
motor vehicles, including motor homes, tractors, trucks, and buses, and 
has more than 750 drivers delivering vehicles in a driveaway-towaway 
operation. A ``driveaway-towaway operation'' is defined in 49 CFR 390.5 
as ``an operation in which an empty or unladen motor vehicle with one 
or more sets of wheels on the surface of the roadway is being 
transported:
    (1) Between vehicle manufacturer's facilities;
    (2) Between a vehicle manufacturer and a dealership or purchaser;
    (3) Between a dealership, or other entity selling or leasing the 
vehicle, and a purchaser or lessee;
    (4) To a motor carrier's terminal or repair facility for the repair 
of disabling damage (as defined in Sec.  390.5) following a crash; or
    (5) To a motor carrier's terminal or repair facility for repairs 
associated with the failure of a vehicle component or system; or
    (6) By means of a saddle-mount or tow-bar.''
    Quality was recently awarded a contract to transport buses in a 
driveaway-towaway operation from a manufacturing facility in Lafayette, 
Georgia, to purchasers. Quality uses approximately 300 experienced 
drivers to meet its contractual requirements.
    The Federal hours-of-service (HOS) regulations for commercial motor 
vehicle (CMV) drivers in 49 CFR 395.5 apply to motor carriers and 
drivers operating passenger-carrying vehicles. According to FMCSA's 
regulatory guidance, a driver of a CMV ``designed or used to transport 
* * * passengers* * *'' (49 CFR 390.5 definition of CMV) would be 
considered to be passenger-carrying regardless of whether there were 
actually any passengers in the vehicle. This prevents a requirement for 
drivers to switch to the HOS rules for property-carrying vehicles each 
time the bus becomes empty. However, this also means that drivers of 
the empty buses Quality delivers (drives) from the manufacturer to the 
dealer are always subject to the HOS rules for passenger vehicles.
    Quality states that, given the variety of vehicles it delivers, its 
drivers are currently required to be familiar with HOS regulations 
applicable to property and passenger-carrying vehicles. Not only is 
compliance with these two sets of regulations difficult for the 
drivers, it is also extremely complex for Quality to audit the drivers' 
records of duty status (RODS) to ensure compliance because the 
applicable regulatory standard could change on every trip.
    Quality submits that it does not make any ``regulatory common 
sense'' to apply the passenger-carrying HOS rule when the new bus is 
being delivered in a driveaway-towaway operation from a point of 
manufacture to a dealer, because there are never any passengers on the 
vehicle. Furthermore, unless the request for an exemption is granted, 
Quality will continue to be confronted with having to comply with two 
different sets of HOS regulations for a significant class of its 
drivers, and also have to audit two different sets of RODS.
    Quality therefore requests that the ``described class'' of drivers 
be granted an exemption from 49 CFR 395.5 when these drivers are 
delivering new buses without passengers from a point of manufacture in 
a driveaway-towaway operation. A copy of Quality's exemption 
application is in the docket identified at the beginning of this 
notice.

Request for Comments

    In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 31315(b)(4) and 31136(e), FMCSA 
requests public comment on Quality's application an exemption from 49 
CFR 395.5. The Agency will consider all comments received by close of 
business on March 5, 2007. Comments will be available for examination 
in the docket at the location listed under the ``ADDRESSES'' section of 
this notice. The Agency will file comments received after the comment 
closing date in the public docket, and will consider them to the extent 
practicable. In addition to late comments, FMCSA will also continue to 
file, in the public docket, relevant information that becomes available 
after the comment closing date. Interested persons should monitor the 
public docket for new material.

    Issued on: January 26, 2007.
John H. Hill,
Administrator.
 [FR Doc. E7-1750 Filed 2-1-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P