[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 249 (Monday, December 31, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74405-74407]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-25318]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2007-0093]


Electronic Signatures on Documents: East West Resort 
Transportation, LLC, and TMS, LLC, dba Colorado Mountain Express (CME), 
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: The FMCSA announces that it has received from East West Resort 
Transportation, LLC, and TMS, LLC, dba Colorado Mountain Express (CME), 
an application for an exemption from the original signature requirement 
for a driver on the application for employment required by the Federal 
Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. The exemption would allow CME to use 
an electronic signature as a functional equivalent of an original 
signature on the driver employment applications. CME states that the 
use of electronic signatures would substantially improve the level of 
service that it can provide the public, as it would expedite processing 
of employment applications as well as improve cost efficiency in its 
business. FMCSA requests public comment on CME's application for 
exemption.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 30, 2008.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System Number FMCSA-2004-19608 by any of the following 
methods:
     Web Site: www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments on the Federal electronic docket site.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 
DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery: Ground Floor, Room W12-140, DOT Building, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. 
e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and 
docket number or Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) for this 
rulemaking. For detailed instructions on submitting comments and 
additional information on the rulemaking process, see the

[[Page 74406]]

Public Participation heading below. Note that all comments received 
will be posted without change to www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading 
below.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to www.regulations.gov at any time or to the 
ground floor, room W12-140, DOT Building, 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 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 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit http://docketsinfo.dot.gov.
    Public participation: The www.regulations.gov Web site is generally 
available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. You can get electronic 
submission and retrieval help and guidelines under the ``help'' section 
of the www.regulations.gov Web site and also at the DOT's http://docketsinfo.dot.gov Web site. 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 online.
    Comments received after the comment closing date will be included 
in the docket, and we will consider late comments to the extent 
practicable. FMCSA may, however, make a final decision on the 
application for exemption at any time after the close of the comment 
period.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT DMS Docket Number 
FMCSA-2007-0093 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, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Room W12-140, Washington, 
DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery: Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the 
West Building, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue, SE., 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 W12-140 
on the ground floor of the West Building, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., 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, 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, FMCSA Driver 
and Carrier Operations Division, Office of Bus and Truck Standards and 
Operations. Telephone: 202-366-4325. 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

    East West Resort Transportation, LLC, and TMS, LLC, dba Colorado 
Mountain Express (CME) is a DOT-registered motor carrier of passengers 
providing service over regular routes and in special and charter 
operations. CME operates 235 vehicles and has over 20 years of 
experience in interstate commerce. CME's regular route operations are 
provided principally between the Denver International Airport in 
Denver, Colorado and points in Eagle County, Colorado including the 
Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, the Eagle County, Colorado Regional 
Airport and points in Pitkin County, Colorado, including the Aspen and 
Snowmass ski resorts, pursuant to certificates issued by the former 
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Its authority to provide charter 
and special operations extends to all points in Colorado.
    CME states that it has increasingly made use of computers in 
conducting its business. It makes maximum use of the Internet in its 
reservations, maintenance, accounting and virtually all other phases of 
its business. CME advises that its ``goal of making maximum prudent use 
of computers in its business extends to its goal of ultimate 
digitization of all data which it both generates and receives in the 
ordinary course of business, with the result of CME being a `paperless 
office'.'' CME's ultimate goal, according to its exemption application, 
is to conduct, to the extent possible, all of its internal operations 
in a digitized format.
    CME states that, as a motor common carrier of passengers, it is 
required to comply--and does comply--with the Federal Motor Carrier 
Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). One specific

[[Page 74407]]

section of the FMCSRs--Sec.  391.21(b) reads: ``The application for 
employment shall be made on a form furnished by the motor carrier. Each 
application form must be completed by the applicant, must be signed by 
him, and must contain the following information * * *.''
    As one part of its goal to utilize computers in its everyday 
business activities, in 2006 CME contracted with a vendor to monitor 
the Federal driver-recordkeeping requirements with a service that helps 
carriers centralize and manage driver records, and standardizes 
company-wide transportation safety and compliance programs and 
resulting data. By providing proactive real-time alerts of important 
driver information, this system lets CME know at a glance what its 
compliance level is at any given time, and what work needs to be done 
to maintain and enhance its compliance efforts.
    According to CME, one of the time-consuming drawbacks to the 
overall process of hiring a driver is the requirement in 49 CFR 
391.21(b) of having the application signed by the individual driver 
applicant. CME's computer system is sophisticated and secure, and 
applicants who submit an application online do so by entering a user 
name and password that can only be known to the applicant. CME wishes 
to make this online application process less complicated by allowing 
driver-applicants to use an electronic signature, rather than having 
the application completed online, approved, printed, signed by the 
driver applicant, and then rescanned into the system.
    Due to the savings involved in not maintaining large areas devoted 
to the storage of paper records, CME has strived to have substantially 
all of its passenger-service records, including its traffic data, 
digitized in a manner that minimizes human intervention. CME states 
that the potential utilization of electronic signatures would 
substantially improve the level of service that it can provide the 
public as it reduces the margin of error in its operations, which 
culminates in considerable cost savings to CME.
    CME requests that it be granted an exemption for a period of two 
years from the requirement to maintain driver employment applications 
bearing original signatures. A copy of CME'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 CME's application for an exemption. The 
Agency will consider all comments received by close of business on 
January 30, 2008. 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: December 19, 2007.
Larry W. Minor,
Associate Administrator for Policy and Program Development.
[FR Doc. E7-25318 Filed 12-28-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P