[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 156 (Tuesday, August 13, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49268-49270]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-19568]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0056; Docket 2012-0076; Sequence 53]


Federal Acquisition Regulation; Submission for OMB Review; Report 
of Shipment

AGENCY: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration 
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION: Notice of request for public comments regarding an extension 
with changes to a previously existing OMB clearance.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a 
previously approved information collection requirement concerning 
report of shipment. A notice was published in the Federal Register at 
78 FR 11885, on February 20, 2013. One comment was received.

DATES: Submit comments on or before September 12, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0056, Report of Shipment by any of the following methods:
     Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov.
    Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching the 
OMB control number. Select the link ``Submit a Comment'' that 
corresponds with ``Information Collection 9000-0056, Report of 
Shipment''. Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a 
Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``Information Collection 9000-0056, Report of Shipment'' on your 
attached document.
     Fax: 202-501-4067.
     Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20405-
0001. ATTN: Hada Flowers/IC 9000-0056, Report of Shipment.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 9000-0056, Report of Shipment, in all correspondence related 
to this collection. Submit comments regarding this burden estimate or 
any other aspect of this collection of information, including 
suggestions for reducing this burden to: FAR Desk Officer, OMB, Room 
10102, NEOB, Washington, DC 20503. All comments received will be posted 
without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
and/or business confidential information provided.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Curtis E. Glover, Sr., Procurement 
Analyst, Office of Acquisition Policy, by telephone at (202) 501-1448 
or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Purpose

    In accordance with FAR 47.208 and the clause at FAR 52.247-68, 
Report of Shipment (REPSHIP), military (and, as required, civilian 
agency) storage and distribution points, depots, and other receiving 
activities require advance notice of shipments en-route from 
contractors' plants. Generally, this notification is required only for 
classified material; sensitive, controlled, and certain other protected 
material; explosives, and some other hazardous materials; selected 
shipments requiring movement control; or minimum carload or truckload 
shipments. It facilitates arrangements for transportation control, 
labor, space, and use of materials handling equipment at destination. 
Also, timely receipt of notices by the consignee transportation office 
precludes the incurring of demurrage and vehicle detention charges. 
Unless otherwise directed by a contracting officer, a contractor shall 
send the notice to the consignee transportation office at least twenty-
four hours before the arrival of the shipment.
    Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this 
collection of information is necessary; whether it will have practical 
utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection 
of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and 
methodology; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and ways in which we can minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, 
through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.

B. Discussion and Analysis

    One respondent submitted public comments on the extension of the 
previously approved information collection. The analysis of the public 
comments is summarized as follows:
    Comment: The respondent commented that the extension of the

[[Page 49269]]

information collection would violate the fundamental purpose of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act because of the burden it puts on the entity 
submitting the information and the agency collecting the information.
    Response: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 
agencies can request an OMB approval of an existing information 
collection. The PRA requires that agencies use the Federal Register 
Notice and comment process, to extend the OMB's approval, at least 
every three years. This extension, to a previously approved information 
collection, pertains to FAR 47.208 and the clause at FAR 52.247-68. The 
purpose of this provision and associated clause is to require 
contractors to give advance notice to the Government when they are 
shipping classified material; sensitive, controlled, and certain other 
protected material; explosives, and some other hazardous materials; 
selected shipments requiring movement control; or minimum carload or 
truckload shipments. The notice of shipment is relied upon by the 
Government to prepare for the receipt of supplies or equipment that 
requires special handling. Not granting this extension would eliminate 
the Government's ability to receive the supplies or equipment in a 
timely or efficient manner.
    Comment: The respondent commented that the agency does not 
accurately estimate the public burden an extension of the information 
collection requirement would create.
    Response: The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) 
handles the majority of these types of shipments in the Federal 
Government. Based on information received from USTRANSCOM, and in 
consideration of the public comments received, the estimated burden 
hours were revised upward. The annual respondents are estimated at 
approximately 33, with the overall number of responses per year right 
around 10,000. The estimated average number of responses per respondent 
is 303. These revisions to the information collection result in upward 
adjustment to the estimated total burden hours from 167 hours to 9,999 
hours (see section (C) for detailed analysis).
    Comment: The respondent commented the collective burden of 
compliance with the information collection requirement greatly exceeds 
the agency's estimate and outweighs any potential utility of the 
extension.
    Response: The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) was designed to improve 
the quality and use of Federal information to strengthen decision 
making, accountability, and openness in government and society. Central 
to this process is the solicitation of comments from the public. This 
process incorporates an enumerated specification of targeted 
information and provides interested parties a meaningful opportunity 
for comment on the relevant compliance cost. This process has led to 
decreases in the overall collective burden of compliance for the 
information collection requirement in regards to the public. Based on 
OMB estimates, in FY 2010, the public spent 8.8 billion hours 
responding to information collections. This was a decrease of one 
billion hours, or ten percent from the previous fiscal year. In effect, 
the collective burden of compliance for the public is going down as the 
Government publishes rules that make the process less complex, more 
transparent, and reduce the cost of Federal regulations to both the 
contractor community and Government.
    Comment: The respondent commented that the Government's response to 
the Paperwork Reduction Act waiver for Far Case 2007-006 is instructive 
on the total burden for respondents.
    Response: Serious consideration is given, during the open comment 
period, to all comments received and adjustments are made to the 
paperwork burden estimate based on reasonable considerations provide by 
the public. This is evidenced, as the respondent notes, in FAR Case 
2007-006 where an adjustment was made from the total preparation hours 
from three to sixty. This change was made considering particularly the 
hours that would be required for review within the company, prior to 
release to the Government.
    The burden is prepared taking into consideration the necessary 
criteria in OMB guidance for estimating the paperwork burden put on the 
entity submitting the information. For example, consideration is given 
to an entity reviewing instructions; using technology to collect, 
process, and disclose information; adjusting existing practices to 
comply with requirements; searching data sources; completing and 
reviewing the response; and transmitting or disclosing information. The 
estimated burden hours for a collection are based on an average between 
the hours that a simple disclosure by a very small business might 
require and the much higher numbers that might be required for a very 
complex disclosure by a major corporation. Also, the estimated burden 
hours should only include projected hours for those actions which a 
company would not undertake in the normal course of business. Careful 
consideration went into assessing the estimated burden hours for this 
collection, and it is determined that an upward adjustment is warranted 
at this time.

C. Annual Reporting Burden

    There is no centralized database in the Federal Government that 
maintains information regarding the use of FAR 47.208 and the clause at 
FAR 52.247-68. Therefore, subject matter experts were consulted to 
obtain additional information that helped in estimating the revised 
public burden.
    Information from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) was not 
used to gather the data for this information collection, given that 
agencies are not required to report classified information into FPDS 
(see FAR 4.603(b)). Based on a review of the applicable clause, it was 
determined that the types of contracts associated with this information 
collection are: Contracts that result in the shipments of--
    (A) Classified material, protected sensitive, and protected 
controlled material;
    (B) Explosives and poisons, class 1, division 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3; 
class 2, division 2.3 and class 6, division 6.1;
    (C) Radioactive materials requiring the use of a III bar label; or
    (D) When a truckload/carload shipment of supplies weighing 20,000 
pounds or more, or a shipment of less weight that occupies the full 
visible capacity of a railway car or motor vehicle, is given to any 
carrier (common, contract, or private) for transportation to a domestic 
destination (other than a port for export)
    Data from Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 was retrieved from the United 
States Transportation Command`s (USTRANSCOM) Defense Transportation 
Tracking System (DTTS). The primary mission of DTTS is to provide 
safety, security, and in-transit visibility of all DOD shipments by 
updating information from its database to USTRANSCOMs Global 
Transportation Network. USTRANSCOM preformed a comprehensive review to 
determine the number of contractor shipments that were tracked in FY 
2012. Based on information from USTRANSCOM, it was reported that in FY 
2012 approximately 10,000 shipments from 33 unique vendors reported the 
notice of shipment requirement, as identified in FAR 47.208 and the 
clause at FAR 52.247-68. The subject matter experts

[[Page 49270]]

determined that 33 unique vendors was a sufficient baseline for 
estimating the number of respondents. USTRANSCOM further provided that 
the number of shipments varied from contractor to contractor, ranging 
from as few as 11 shipments per contractor at the low end, to over 1900 
shipments per contractor at the high end. USTRANSCOM also determined 
that averaging the number of shipments for FY 2012 (approximately 
10,000) by the number of unique vendors (33), was a sufficient 
baseline, for this estimate, in determining the average number of 
responses per respondent. Therefore it is estimated that, in accordance 
FAR 47.208 and the clause at FAR 52.247-68, contractors were required 
to provide advance notice of shipments en-route to military (and as 
required, civilian agency) storage and distribution points, depots, and 
other receiving activities, and those shipments contained classified 
materials, sensitive, controlled, and/or certain other protected 
material, explosives, and/or some other hazardous materials, on average 
303 times per year. Further, based on information received from 
USTRANSCOM, the estimated time require to prepare this notification 
remains at 10 minutes. These revisions represent an increase from the 
previously approved information collection.
    Respondents: 33.
    Responses per Respondent: 303.
    Annual Responses: 9,999.
    Hours per Response: .167.
    Total Burden Hours: 1,670.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the 
information collection documents from the General Services 
Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., 2nd 
Floor, Washington, DC 20405-0001, telephone (202) 501-4755. Please cite 
OMB Control No. 9000-0056, Report of Shipment, in all correspondence.

    Dated: August 8, 2013.
Karlos Morgan,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of 
Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office 
of Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-19568 Filed 8-12-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-EP-P