[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 89 (Monday, May 9, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 26681-26682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-11150]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

49 CFR Parts 385, 386, 390, and 395

[Docket No. FMCSA-2004-19608]
RIN 2126-AB26


Hours of Service of Drivers

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

ACTION: Notice; availability of supplemental documents; reopening of 
comment period.

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SUMMARY: FMCSA has placed four additional documents in the public 
docket of its recent notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning 
hours of service (HOS) for commercial motor vehicle drivers. The Agency 
is reopening the comment period on the NPRM to allow for review and 
discussion of these documents and FMCSA's possible consideration of 
their findings in the development of the final rule. Comments will only 
be considered on the four documents listed below.

DATES: Comments are due by June 8, 2011.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System Number FMCSA-2011-0039 using any of the following 
methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department 
of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue, SE., 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. The 
telephone number is 202-366-9329.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and 
docket number (FMCSA-2011-0039) for this rulemaking. To avoid 
duplication, please use only one of these four methods. Note that all 
comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. 
Please refer to the Privacy Act heading for further information.
    Comments received after the comment closing date will be included 
in the docket and we will consider late comments only to the extent 
practicable. FMCSA may issue a final rule at any time after the close 
of the comment period.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to 
West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 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 for all 
comments

[[Page 26682]]

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 the 
U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) complete Privacy Act 
Statement in the Federal Register published on January 17, 2008 (73 FR 
3316), or you may visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-785.pdf.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Thomas Yager, Chief, Driver and 
Carrier Operations Division, Federal Motor Carrier Safety 
Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366-4325.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Availability of Supplemental Documents

    For a full background on this rulemaking, please see the preamble 
to the NPRM (75 FR 82170, December 29, 2010). The docket (FMCSA-2004-
19608) contains all of the background information for this rulemaking, 
including comments. FMCSA has placed these four research reports in the 
docket:
     Blanco, M., Hanowski, R., Olson, R., Morgan, J., 
Soccolich, S., Wu, S.C., and Guo, F., ``The Impact of Driving, Non-
Driving Work, and Rest Breaks on Driving Performance in Commercial 
Motor Vehicle Operations,'' FMCSA, April 2011.
     Jovanis, J.P., Wu, K.F., and Chen, C., ``Hours of Service 
and Driver Fatigue--Driver Characteristics Research,'' FMCSA, April 
2011.
     Sando, T., Angel, M., Mtoi, E., and Moses, R., ``Analysis 
of the Relationship Between Operator Cumulative Driving Hours and 
Involvement in Preventable Collisions,'' Transportation Research Board 
of the National Academies' 2011 90th Annual Meeting, Paper No.: 11-
4165, November 2010.
     Sando, T., Mtoi, E., and Moses, R., ``Potential Causes Of 
Driver Fatigue: A Study On Transit Bus Operators In Florida,'' 
Transportation Research Board of the National Academies' 2011 90th 
Annual Meeting, Paper No.: 11-3398, November 2010.
    The two Sando, et al., reports discuss research similar to that 
which the Florida Department of Transportation Transit Office submitted 
to the docket on March 4, 2011 (docket item 23834: Sando, T., Moses, 
R., Angel, M., and Mtoi, E., ``Safety Implications of Transit Operator 
Schedule Policies,'' University of North Florida and Florida Department 
of Transportation, October 2010). The two additional reports by Sando 
and his colleagues were published by the Transportation Research Board 
of the National Academies for its 2011 90th Annual Meeting. They were 
provided to 2011 Annual Meeting participants on digital video disk and 
are available for downloading at http://www.trb.org.
    FMCSA may consider these four reports in its rulemaking and invites 
comment on their relevance to the NPRM.
    FMCSA is reopening the comment period only for comments on these 
documents and their relationship to the proposed HOS regulations. 
Comments unrelated to the studies and/or to their relationship to the 
NPRM will not be evaluated.

Rulemaking Schedule

    FMCSA advises the public of an adjustment to the rulemaking 
schedule agreed to in litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for 
the District of Columbia Circuit (Case No. 09-1094). Pursuant to an 
October 26, 2009, agreement between Public Citizen, et al. 
(Petitioners), and FMCSA, the Agency was to publish a final rule within 
21 months of
    the date of the settlement agreement. FMCSA will receive and 
analyze all comments to this notice before it completes its work on a 
final rule, however. This extra comment period will require additional 
time that was not envisioned in 2009, and thus the Agency will be 
unable to publish a final rule by July 26, 2011. FMCSA has advised 
Petitioners of this delay to the rulemaking schedule.

    Issued on: May 3, 2011.
Anne S. Ferro,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2011-11150 Filed 5-6-11; 8:45 am]
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