[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 99 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29031-29032]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-9947]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2007-27510]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Request for Comment; 
Revision of an Information Collection: Driver Qualification Files

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, ``Driver Qualification Files,'' which is used 
to promote safety in the operations of motor carriers of property and 
passengers by promoting the hiring and retention of responsible drivers 
of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before July 23, 2007.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by any of the following 
methods. Please identify your comments by the FMCSA Docket Number 
FMCSA-2007-27510.
     Web site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow instructions for 
submitting comments to the Docket.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
     Mail: U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Management 
Facility, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Plaza level, Washington, DC 20590-
0001.
     Hand Delivery: Plaza level of the Nassif, Building, 400 
Seventh Street, SW., Washington DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., e.t., 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Docket: For access to the Docket Management System (DMS) to read 
background documents or comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at 
any time or to the plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh 
Street, S.W., Washington DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., e.t., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays. The DMS is available 
electronically 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. If you want 
notification of receipt of your comments, please include a self-
addressed, stamped envelope, or postcard or print the acknowledgement 
page that appears after submitting comments on-line.

[[Page 29032]]

    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 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 on April 11, 
2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit 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: The Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984 (Pub. L. 98-554, 
Title II, 98 Stat 2834 (October 30, 1984)) requires the Secretary of 
Transportation (Secretary) to issue regulations pertaining to CMV 
safety. The regulations require motor carriers to maintain specified 
information in a driver qualification (DQ) file for each CMV driver it 
employs. The DQ file contains the minimum information necessary to 
document the qualifications of a driver to operate a CMV in interstate 
commerce and in intrastate commerce under compatible State laws and 
regulations. The authority to require carriers to maintain DQ files is 
49 U.S.C. 504, 31133, 31136, and 31502, and 49 CFR 1.73 and 391.51.
    This information is available to FMCSA investigators to 
substantiate the qualifications of each driver to operate a CMV in 
interstate commerce safely. A qualified driver means fewer crashes.
    Title: Driver Qualification Files.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0004.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved information 
collection.
    Respondents: Motor Carriers; and Drivers who are also Motor 
Carriers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 7 million.
    Estimated Time per Response: An average of 28 minutes.
    Expiration Date: June 30, 2007.
    Frequency of Response: Many of these obligations concern activities 
involving the hiring of a driver. They also include the obligations of 
all entities that have employed this applicant-driver in the past 3 
years in a safety-sensitive position; usually these are other motor 
carriers. These obligations occur irregularly because they are 
associated with the variable needs of motor carriers for new drivers. 
In addition, this collection imposes obligations that pertain to motor 
carriers and their employee-drivers. Most of these obligations must be 
met annually.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 3,254,580 hours. FMCSA arrives at 
this estimate through calculation of the time involved with each of the 
following requirements of the driver qualification regulations:
    (A) General Requirements for the Hiring of a Driver by a Motor 
Carrier are as follows:
    (1) Application for employment of the applicant-driver; and
    (2) Driving record of the applicant-driver.
    (B) Safety Performance History of the Applicant-Driver involves the 
following:
    (1) Investigation by the hiring motor carrier;
    (2) Former employer submitting to the hiring motor carrier a copy 
of its safety performance history on the applicant-driver;
    (3) Request of the applicant-driver for a copy of the history; and
    (4) Rebuttal of the history by the applicant-driver.
    (C) Other Driver Qualification Requirements are as follows:
    (1) Employee-driver's certificate of violations;
    (2) Motor carrier's review of employee-driver's driving record(s); 
and
    (3) Drivers for more than one motor carrier.
    The medical certificate is also required to be included in the 
Driver's Qualification File. However, the Agency has a separate OMB 
approval for the medical certificate component of the Driver 
Qualification Files.
    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 FMCSA's performance; (2) the accuracy 
of the estimated burden; (3) ways for the 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 and/or include your 
comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this information 
collection.

    Issued on: May 17, 2007.
D. Marlene Thomas,
Associate Administrator for Administration.
 [FR Doc. E7-9947 Filed 5-22-07; 8:45 am]
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