[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 54 (Wednesday, March 19, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14867-14868]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-5477]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2008-0035]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of an Approved 
Information Collection: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations, 
Supporting Documents

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. On November 26, 2007, FMCSA published a Federal Register 
notice allowing for a 60-day comment period on the ICR. Thirty-eight 
comments were received, but none spoke to the paperwork burden or other 
aspects of the ICR.

DATES: Please send your comments by April 18, 2008. OMB must receive 
your comments by this date in order to act quickly on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 725 Seventeenth 
Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention: DOT/FMCSA Desk Officer.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Thomas Yager, Chief, FMCSA Driver 
and Carrier Operations Division. Telephone: 202-366-4325. E-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Hours of Service (HOS) of Drivers Regulations, Supporting 
Documents (formerly Hours of Service of Drivers Regulations).
    OMB Control Number: 2126-0001.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently-approved information 
collection.
    Respondents: Motor Carriers, Drivers of commercial motor vehicles 
(CMVs).
    Estimated Number of Respondents:
    Drivers: approximately 4.6 million;
    Active Motor Carriers: approximately 700,000.
    Estimated Time per Response: The driver will take an average of 6.5 
minutes to fill out a record of duty status (RODS), and 5 minutes to 
forward the completed RODS to the employing motor carrier. The motor 
carrier takes an average of 2 minutes to review a RODS, 1 minute per 
day to maintain a RODS, and 1 minute per day to maintain the supporting 
documents of one RODS.
    Expiration Date: 11/30/2008.
    Frequency of Response:
    Drivers: 240 days per year, on average.
    Motor Carriers: 240 days per year, on average.
    Total Number of Annual Responses Expected
    A. Driver
    (1) Filling Out the RODS: 1,104,000,000 (4.6 million drivers x 240 
days);
    (2) Forwarding the RODS to the Motor Carrier: 115 million (4.6 
million drivers x 25 times per year ) and
    (3) Forwarding the Supporting Documents to the Motor Carrier: 0 
(the activity is usual and customary).
    B. Motor Carrier
    (1). Reviewing the RODS: 552 million (2.3 million RODS reviewed 
daily x 240 days);
    (2). Maintaining the RODS: 1,104,000,000 (4.6 million drivers x 240 
days); and
    (3). Maintaining the Supporting Documents: 1,104,000,000 (4.6 
million drivers x 240 days).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 184,380,000 hours [driver burden of 
129,180,000 and motor carrier burden of 55,200,000 hours] .
    Background:
    The FMCSA regulates the amount of time a driver may drive and be on 
duty. A CMV driver must keep a record of duty status (RODS), commonly 
referred to as a logbook, that indicates his or her duty status 
(driving, on duty not driving, off duty, sleeper berth) for all periods 
of the duty day. The RODS must be maintained on the CMV for 7 days, and 
subsequently submitted to the motor carrier along with any ``supporting 
documents,'' such as fuel receipts and toll tickets, that could assist 
in verifying the accuracy of entries on the RODS. The motor carrier 
must retain the RODS and supporting documents for a minimum of 6 months 
from date of receipt.
    Statutory authority for regulating the hours of service (HOS) of 
drivers operating CMVs in interstate commerce is derived from 49 U.S.C. 
31136 and 31502. The penalty provisions are located at 49 U.S.C. 521, 
522 and 526, as amended. On November 28, 1982, the Federal Highway 
Administration, the agency previously responsible for administration of 
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR 350

[[Page 14868]]

et seq.), promulgated a final rule that required a motor carrier to 
verify the accuracy of the HOS of each driver and to ensure that 
drivers record their duty status in a specified format (47 FR 53383).
    The HOS rules provide two methods of creating a RODS: A paper RODS 
that provides a grid for the driver to record his or her time and 
location throughout the duty day, and an Automatic On-Board Recording 
Device as defined by section 395.15. The HOS regulations exempt 
employers of certain ``short haul'' CMV drivers from the RODS 
requirement if they maintain the employee's U.S. Department of Labor 
``time card'' at the place of business for a period of six months 
(Section 395.1(e)).
    The RODS is an important tool because it provides the information 
the carrier and enforcement personnel require to determine the 
compliance of a driver with the HOS rules. The adherence of drivers and 
motor carriers to the HOS requirements helps FMCSA protect the public 
by reducing the number of tired CMV drivers on the highways.
    Most States receive grants from FMCSA under the Motor Carrier 
Safety Assistance Program. As a condition of receiving these grants, 
States agree to adopt and enforce the FMCSRs, including the HOS rules, 
as State law. As a result, State enforcement inspectors use the RODS 
and supporting documents to determine whether CMV drivers, in 
interstate or intrastate commerce, are complying with the HOS rules.
    In addition, FMCSA uses the RODS during on-site compliance reviews 
(CRs) of motor carriers. The CR determines the overall safety rating of 
a motor carrier, and a negative review can be damaging to a motor 
carrier's CMV operations because the results of CRs are public 
information. Many shippers of property use the results of these CRs, as 
well as other records of a motor carrier's crash and violation history, 
in selecting a motor carrier to transport their freight. Finally, the 
RODS have traditionally been the principal document accepted by the 
judicial system as evidence of a violation of the HOS regulations. This 
information collection supports the DOT's Strategic Goal of Safety 
because the information helps the Agency ensure the safe operation of 
CMVs in interstate commerce on our Nation's highways.
    In this ICR, FMCSA proposes an increase in the estimated number of 
CMV drivers affected by the HOS regulations. This reflects an increase 
in the total number of CMV operators on the highways today, as compared 
to 2005 when OMB last approved the Agency's calculation of the IC 
burden. The total number of interstate and intrastate CMV drivers is 
currently estimated to be 7.0 million. Of these, 4.6 million are 
required to complete RODS and furnish supporting documents. The 
remainder consists of the ``short haul'' drivers exempt from the RODS 
requirement.
    In this submission, the FMCSA also provides greater specificity in 
its calculation of the HOS paperwork burden. To do so, the Agency has 
reorganized its breakdown of the various paperwork tasks performed by 
drivers and motor carriers. The revised organization allows the reader 
to distinguish the paperwork burden of the RODS from the paperwork 
burden of the supporting documents, and the burden of the driver from 
the burden of the employer (motor carrier).
    On November 26, 2007, the FMCSA published a Federal Register notice 
on this same topic and provided 60 days for public comment (72 FR 
66019). The Agency received 38 comments to the docket, including four 
that appear to have been sent to this docket inadvertently. None of the 
comments addressed the paperwork burden of the HOS rules. There was no 
discussion in the comments of the necessity of the paperwork burden, or 
the accuracy of the information collected. The comments offered no 
suggestions for minimizing the burden of the IC, or for improving the 
quality, usefulness, or clarity of the information collected.
    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 performance of FMCSA's functions; (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.

    Issued on: March 12, 2008.
Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Research and Information Technology.
 [FR Doc. E8-5477 Filed 3-18-08; 8:45 am]
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