[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 144 (Monday, July 28, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43820-43821]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-17648]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Surface Transportation Board


Notice and Request for Comments

AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board.

ACTION: 60-day notice of request for approval: Extension of Generic 
Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service 
Delivery.

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SUMMARY: The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board), as part of 
its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, 
invites the general public to take this opportunity to comment on the 
``Extension of Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative 
Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' for approval under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3519 (PRA). This collection was 
developed as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the 
process for seeking feedback from the public on the Board's service 
delivery. This notice announces our intent to submit this collection to 
OMB for approval and solicits comments on specific aspects for the 
proposed information collection.
    Comments are requested concerning: (a) Whether the collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize 
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs 
and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to 
provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, 
or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the 
time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install, and 
utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, 
validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining 
information, and disclosing and providing information; to train 
personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to 
search data sources, to complete and review the collection of 
information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information. 
Submitted comments will be summarized and included in the Board's 
request for OMB approval.

Description of Collection

    Title: Extension of Generic Clearance for the Collection of 
Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.
    Abstract: The proposed information collection activity provides a 
means to garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an 
efficient and timely manner, in accordance with the Administration's 
commitment to improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback we 
mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions and 
opinions, but not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results 
that can be generalized to the population of study. This feedback will 
provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences, 
and expectations; provide an early warning with issues about how the 
Board provides service to the public; or focus attention on areas where 
communication, training, or changes in operations might improve 
delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for 
ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the Board 
and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to 
contribute directly to the improvement of program management.
    The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: Timeliness, 
appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of 
service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. 
Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or 
maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this 
information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and 
stakeholders on the Board's services will be unavailable.
    The Board will only submit a collection for approval under this 
generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:
     The collections are voluntary;
     The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on 
considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or 
burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents 
and the Federal Government;
     The collections are non-controversial and do not raise 
issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
     Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions 
from respondents who have experience with the program or may have 
experience with the program in the near future;
     Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected 
only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
     Information gathered will be used only internally for 
general service improvement and program management purposes and not for 
release outside of the agency;
     Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of 
substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
     Information gathered will yield qualitative information, 
and the collections will not be designed or expected to yield 
statistically reliable results or used as though the results are 
generalizable to the population of study.
    Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful 
information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the 
overall population. Such data uses would require more rigorous designs 
than the collections covered by this notice.
    As a general matter, information collections will not result in any 
new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask 
questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, 
religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered 
private.
    OMB Control Number: 2140-0019.
    STB Form Number: None.
    Type of Review: Extension without change.
    Respondents: Customers and stakeholders of the Board.
    Number of Respondents, Frequency, Estimated Time per Response, and 
Total Burden Hours: A variety of instruments and platforms will be used 
to collect information from respondents. The estimated annual burden 
hours (277) are based on the number of collections we expect to conduct 
over the requested period for this clearance, as set forth in the table 
below.

[[Page 43821]]



                                        Estimated Annual Reporting Burden
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                                                                      Annual
               Type of collection                    Number of     frequency per     Hours per      Total hours
                                                    respondents      response        response
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Focus Group.....................................              15               1            2                 30
Comment Card/Brief Survey.......................             200               2             .17              67
Surveys.........................................             150               2             .6              180
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DATES: Comments on this information collection should be submitted by 
September 26, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Direct all comments to Chris Oehrle, Surface Transportation 
Board, 395 E Street SW., Washington, DC 20423-0001, or to 
[email protected]. When submitting comments, please refer to ``Extension 
of Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on 
Agency Service Delivery.'' For further information regarding this 
generic clearance, contact [email protected]. [Federal Information Relay 
Service (FIRS) for the hearing impaired: (800) 877-8339.]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA, a federal agency conducting 
or sponsoring a collection of information must display a currently 
valid OMB control number. Comments submitted in response to this notice 
may be made available to the public through the Board's Web site at 
http://stb.dot.gov/stb/index.html. For this reason, please do not 
include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as 
sensitive personal information or proprietary information. If you send 
an electronic comment (e-file or email), your email address is 
automatically captured and may be accessed by the public through the 
Board's Web site as part of a service mailing list. Please note that 
responses to this public comment request containing any routine notice 
about the confidentiality of the communication will be treated as 
public comments that may be made available to the public 
notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.

    Dated: July 23, 2014.
Jeffrey Herzig,
Clearance Clerk.
[FR Doc. 2014-17648 Filed 7-25-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4915-01-P