[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 236 (Monday, December 8, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74560-74562]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-28945]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2008-0343]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of a 
Currently-Approved Information Collection: Inspection, Repair and 
Maintenance

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 its 
review and approval and invites public comment on this submission. The 
information collection concerns records of inspection, repair, and 
maintenance of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). The FMCSA requests 
approval to revise and renew an ICR entitled, ``Inspection, Repair and 
Maintenance.'' FMCSA collects this information to ensure that motor 
carriers have adequate

[[Page 74561]]

documentation of their systematic inspection, repair, and maintenance 
programs necessary to reduce the likelihood of CMV crashes.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before February 6, 2009.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments bearing the Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2008-0343 using any of the 
following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground 
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington DC 20590-0001 between 9 a.m. 
and 5 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
    Each submission must include the Agency name and the docket number 
for this Notice. Note that DOT posts all comments received without 
change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
information included in a comment. Please see the Privacy Act heading 
below.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or Room W12-140 
on the ground level of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., 
Washington, DC 20590-0001 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays. The FDMS is available 24 hours each 
day, 365 days each year. If you want acknowledgement that we received 
your comments, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope or 
post card or print the acknowledgement page that appears after 
submitting your comments on-line.
    Privacy Act: Anyone may search the electronic form of all comments 
received into any of our 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, etc.). 
You may review the DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 
Register on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19476). This information is also 
available at http://docketsinfo.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Deborah M. Freund, Vehicle and 
Roadside Operations Division, Department of Transportation, Federal 
Motor Carrier Safety Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Telephone: 202-366-5370.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Background: The Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) is 
authorized under the provisions of 49 U.S.C. 31502 to prescribe 
requirements for the qualifications and maximum hours-of-service of 
employees, and safety and equipment standards for motor carriers that 
operate CMVs in interstate commerce. Under 49 U.S.C. 31136, the 
Secretary also has authority to prescribe regulations to ensure that 
CMVs are maintained, equipped, loaded and operated safely; and, under 
49 U.S.C. 31143 to establish standards for annual or more frequent 
inspections of CMVs under the provisions of U.S.C. 31142. The 
Secretary's authority to establish improved standards or methods to 
ensure brakes and brake systems of CMVs are inspected by appropriate 
employees and maintained properly is provided under 49 U.S.C. 31137(b).
    Motor carriers must maintain, or require maintenance of, records 
documenting the inspection, repair and maintenance activities performed 
on their owned and leased vehicles. There are no prescribed forms. 
Electronic recordkeeping is allowed (see Sec.  390.31(d)) of title 49, 
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Documents requiring a signature must 
be capable of replication (i.e., photocopy, facsimile, etc.) in such 
form that will provide an opportunity for signature verification upon 
demand. Also, if electronic recordkeeping is used, all of the relevant 
data on the original documents must be included in the electronic 
transmission for the records to be valid.
    The motor carrier industry has never questioned the need to keep 
CMV maintenance records. In fact, most motor carriers would keep some 
records without any regulatory requirements to do so. Records of 
inspection, repair, and maintenance; roadside inspection reports; 
driver vehicle inspection reports; the documentation of periodic 
inspections; the evidence of the qualifications of individuals 
performing periodic inspections; and the evidence of brake inspectors' 
qualifications contain the minimum amount of information necessary to 
document that a motor carrier has established a system of inspection, 
repair, and maintenance for its equipment which meets the standards in 
part 396.
    FMCSA and its representatives use these records to verify motor 
carriers' compliance with the inspection, repair, and maintenance 
standards in part 396. This ICR supports the Department of 
Transportation's strategic goal of safety. The ICR also ensures that 
motor carriers have adequate records to document the inspection, 
repair, and maintenance of their CMVs, and to ensure that adequate 
measures are taken to keep their CMVs in safe and proper operating 
condition at all times. Compliance with the inspection, repair, and 
maintenance regulations helps to reduce the likelihood of accidents 
attributable, in whole or in part, to the mechanical condition of the 
CMV.
    The Agency does not intend to revise the contents of this 
information collection, the frequency of information collection, or how 
it uses the information. This renewal would update the estimated annual 
burden and associated costs to reflect changes in the number of drivers 
and motor carrier entities subject to the part 396 records requirements 
since the current information collection was approved.
    If the recordkeeping were required to be completed less frequently, 
it would greatly hinder the ability of FMCSA and State officials and 
representatives to ascertain that CMVs are satisfactorily maintained. 
The timely documentation of CMV inspection, repair, and maintenance 
enables FMCSA and State officials to evaluate the present state of a 
motor carrier's CMV maintenance program and to check the current level 
of regulatory compliance at any point in a carrier's maintenance 
schedule or program.
    The FMCSA has identified duplicative periodic inspection standards. 
Periodic inspection programs of 23 States, the District of Columbia, 
the Alabama Liquefied Petroleum Gas Board, 10 Canadian Provinces, and 
one Canadian Territory were identified as comparable to, or as 
effective as, the Federal periodic inspection requirements. The FMCSA 
does not require Federal periodic inspections and the related 
recordkeeping for motor carriers that comply with these equivalent 
periodic inspection programs. In addition, CMVs passing certain 
roadside inspections are considered to have met the requirements of a 
periodic inspection; thus, there are no periodic inspection or 
recordkeeping requirements for these CMVs in most cases. The FMCSA is 
not aware of any other duplicative standards or recordkeeping 
requirements that apply to motor carriers.
    The FMCSA does not publish this collection of information for 
statistical use.
    Title: Inspection, Repair and Maintenance.

[[Page 74562]]

    OMB Control Number: 2126-0003.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently-approved information 
collection.
    Respondents: Motor carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 732,038.
    Estimated Time per Response: Varies according to the requirements 
for specific records.
    Expiration Date: April 30, 2009.
    Frequency of Response: Varies according to requirements for 
specific records.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 66,267,505 hours [3,991,851 hours 
for inspection, repair, and maintenance + 59,094,379 hours for driver 
inspection + 590,933 hours for certification of corrective action + 
2,265,280 hours for review of driver inspection reports + 251,629 hours 
for disposition of roadside inspection reports + 34,798 hours for 
periodic inspections + 18,301 hours for records of inspector 
qualifications + 20,334 hours for records of brake inspector 
qualifications = 66,267,505].
    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. The agency will summarize or 
include your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this 
information collection.

    Issued on: December 2, 2008.
Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Research and Information Technology.
[FR Doc. E8-28945 Filed 12-5-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P