[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 226 (Monday, November 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56102-56103]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-25526]



[[Page 56102]]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2017-0313]


60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Driver 
Commuting Practices Survey

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

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: FMCSA is seeking approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, FMCSA is requesting 
comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of 
information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of 
public comment.
    FMCSA proposes a survey to inquire about driver commuting practices 
to fulfill Section 5515 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation 
Act, 2015 (FAST Act). Section 5515 of the FAST Act requires FMCSA to 
conduct a study on the safety effects of motor carrier operator 
commutes exceeding 150 minutes. The administrator is then required to 
submit a report to Congress containing the findings of the study.
    The survey proposed within this information collection request is 
seeking to gather information on the prevalence of excessive (greater 
than 150 minutes) driver commuting in the commercial motor vehicle 
(CMV) industry, including the number and percentage of drivers who 
commute; the distances traveled, time zones crossed, time spent 
commuting, and methods of transportation used; research on the impact 
of excessive commuting on safety and CMV driver fatigue; and the 
commuting practices of CMV drivers and policies of motor carriers.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 26, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments bearing the Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket ID FMCSA-2017-0313 using any of the 
following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Operations, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., West Building, Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West 
Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590 between 9 
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and the 
docket number. For detailed instructions on submitting comments, see 
the Public Participation heading below. Note that all comments received 
will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including 
any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading 
below.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov, and follow the 
online instructions for accessing the dockets, or go to the street 
address listed above.
    Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits 
comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT 
posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information 
the commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as described in the 
system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at 
www.dot.gov/privacy.
    Public Participation: The Federal eRulemaking Portal is available 
24 hours each day, 365 days each year. You can obtain electronic 
submission and retrieval help and guidelines under the ``help'' section 
of the Federal eRulemaking Portal Web site. If you want us to notify 
you that we received your comments, please include a self-addressed, 
stamped envelope or postcard, or print the acknowledgement page that 
appears after submitting comments online. Comments received after the 
comment closing date will be included in the docket and will be 
considered to the extent practicable.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nicole Michel, Research Division, 
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 
SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001, by email at [email protected], or 
by telephone at (202) 366-4354. If you have questions on viewing or 
submitting material to the docket, contact Docket Services, telephone 
(202) 366-9826.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Impact of Driver Commuting on Safety
    OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Respondents: A random sample of licensed CMV operators, to include 
both freight operators and those with a passenger bus endorsement.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 500 CMV drivers (250 each of 
freight drivers and passenger bus drivers).
    Estimated Time per Response: The estimated average time for a 
driver to complete the survey is 20 minutes.
    Expiration Date: N/A. This is a new information collection request 
(ICR).
    Frequency of Response: This survey requires a one-time response per 
CMV operator, with an estimated total of 500 respondents (250 each of 
freight drivers and passenger bus drivers).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: The estimated total annual burden is 
166.7 hours, or $3,945.79 (based on an average labor cost of $23.67 per 
hour for each responding driver).

I. Background

    On December 4, 2015, the FAST Act was signed into law (Pub. L. 114-
94,129 Stat. 1312, 1557 (Dec. 4, 2015)). Section 5515 of the FAST Act 
directs the FMCSA Administrator to ``conduct a study on the safety 
effects of motor carrier operator commutes exceeding 150 minutes'' 
(subsection (a)). The Act further specifies that a report containing 
the findings of this study should be submitted to Congress no later 
than 18 months after the date of enactment of the Act (subsection (b)). 
FMCSA must complete this information collection to the meet the 
specified congressional requirements set forth in the FAST Act.
    Additionally, during the 114th Congress (2015-2016), legislation 
entitled the Truck Safety Act was introduced. This legislation provided 
greater context to inform study of this area (S. 1739, 114th Cong. 
Sec.  7) by proposing the following:

SECTION. 7. STUDY ON COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE DRIVER COMMUTING.

    (a) EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE COMMUTING.--The Administrator of the 
FMCSA shall conduct a study of the effects of excessive commuting on 
safety and commercial motor vehicle driver fatigue.
    (b) STUDY.--In conducting the study, the Administrator shall 
consider--
    (1) the prevalence of excessive driver commuting in the 
commercial motor vehicle industry, including the number and 
percentage of drivers who commute;
    (2) the distances traveled, time zones crossed, time spent 
commuting, and methods of transportation used;
    (3) research on the impact of excessive commuting on safety and 
commercial motor vehicle driver fatigue;
    (4) the commuting practices of commercial motor vehicle drivers 
and policies of motor carriers;
    (5) the FMCSA regulations, policies, and guidance regarding 
excessive driver commuting; and
    (6) any other matters the Administrator considers appropriate.


[[Page 56103]]


    In the past two decades, as the number of workers has increased and 
the distance to affordable housing has also increased in most 
metropolitan areas, commuting times have increased in the United 
States. According to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard,\1\ travel 
delays due to traffic congestion caused drivers to waste more than 3 
billion gallons of fuel and kept travelers stuck in their cars for 
nearly 7 billion extra hours (42 hours per rush-hour commuter).
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    \1\ Schrank, David; Eisele, Bill; Lomax, Tim; and Bak, Jim. 
(2015.) 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard. Texas A&M Transportation 
Institute and Inrix, Inc., available at: http://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-scorecard-2015.pdf.
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    Long commuting times can adversely affect commercial motor vehicle 
(CMV) drivers in multiple ways, for example:
     Compromising off-duty time. Long commuting times can 
reduce a driver's available off-duty time for sleep and personal 
activities. This can lead to excessive fatigue while on duty, creating 
safety concerns for both the CMV driver and other drivers on the roads.
     Impacting driver health. A recent study was conducted that 
monitored 4,297 adults from 12 metropolitan Texas counties. In this 
region, 90 percent of people commute to work. The study found that the 
drivers who have long commuting times were more likely to have poor 
cardiovascular health and be less physically fit.\2\ This study showed 
that people who commute long distances to work weigh more, are less 
physically active, and have higher blood pressure.
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    \2\ Hoehner, Christine; Barlow, Carolyn; Allen, Peg; and 
Schootman, Mario. (2012.) Commuting Distance, Cardiorespiratory 
Fitness, and Metabolic Risk. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 
42(6): 571-578.
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    The objective of the survey proposed in this ICR is to learn more 
about the following CMV driver characteristics:
     Work history;
     Commuting time, transportation mode, and recording of that 
time;
     Driving schedules;
     Rests and breaks;
     Miles driven annually; and
     Demographics.

II. Data Collection Plan

    The information collection is a one-time, Web-based collection, 
including surveys of current and past drivers of freight and passenger 
vehicles. The survey will be entirely online. There will be no paper 
survey. The general survey approach and design is as follows:
    1. FMCSA will provide a random sample of 12,000 drivers based on 
recent Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) data, 
augmented with the drivers' last known mailing address, obtained by 
cross-referencing Commercial Driver's License Information System 
(CDLIS) data with the licensing States' CDL driver histories. The 
samples will be divided into one list for drivers who operate (or 
previously operated) freight vehicles and a second list for those who 
drive (or previously drove) passenger-carrying vehicles.
    2. Using a mail-Web methodology, the driver commute survey will be 
sent out by the research team, on behalf of FMCSA, to the 12,000 
selected drivers identified in step 1. These drivers will be solicited 
to complete an online survey, using a recruitment letter (with a $2 
pre-incentive), a reminder postcard, and a second follow-up letter. The 
letter will inform the drivers that they will receive a check for $10 
upon completion of the survey, which is expected to average 20 minutes 
to complete. Our initial expectation is that 4.17 percent of the 12,000 
(500) will complete the survey on the Web. The burden analysis is based 
on this figure of 500 responses.

III. Paperwork Reduction Act

    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520) 
prohibits agencies from conducting information collection (IC) 
activities until they analyze the need for the collection of 
information and how the collected data will be managed. Agencies must 
also analyze whether technology could be used to reduce the burden 
imposed on those providing the data. The Agency must estimate the time 
burden required to respond to the IC requirements, such as the time 
required to complete a particular form. The Agency submits its IC 
analysis and burden estimate to OMB as a formal ICR; the Agency cannot 
conduct the information collection until OMB approves the ICR.

V. Request for Public Comments

    FMCSA asks for comment on the IC requirements of this study. 
Comments can be submitted to the docket as outlined under ADDRESSES at 
the beginning of this notice. 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 FMCSA to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity 
of the collected information.
    4. Ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the 
quality of the collected information.

    Issued under the authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.87 on: November 
17, 2017.
G. Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2017-25526 Filed 11-24-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P