[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69451-69453]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27255]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0328]


Agency Information Collection Activities; New Information 
Collection: Beyond Compliance

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

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. The primary purpose of 
the ICR is to obtain information from motor carriers, which will allow 
FMCSA to study and to assess the effectiveness of various technologies, 
programs, and policies on motor carrier safety performance in support 
of the implementation of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation 
Act (FAST Act) Beyond Compliance requirements.

DATES: FMCSA must receive your comments on or before February 18, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2018-0328 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 Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Docket Operations, U.S. 
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, 
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001 between 9 a.m. 
and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and 
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

[[Page 69452]]

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 
https://www.transportation.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 website. 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: Ms. Nicole Michel, Research Division, 
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety 
Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, 
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-4354; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Background: FMCSA requests OMB's review and approval of a new ICR 
to implement the Beyond Compliance Program, required by section 5222 of 
the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) (Pub. L. 
114-94, 129 Stat. 1312, 1540, Dec. 4, 2015) (49 U.S.C. 31100 note).
    The FAST Act requires FMCSA to allow recognition, including credit 
or an improved Safety Measurement System (SMS) percentile, for motor 
carriers that: (1) Install advanced safety equipment; (2) use enhanced 
driver fitness measures; (3) adopt fleet safety management tools, 
technologies, and programs; or (4) satisfy other standards determined 
appropriate by the Administrator.
    The FAST Act also requires the FMCSA Administrator to carry out the 
Beyond Compliance provisions through: (1) Incorporating a methodology 
into the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program; or (2) 
establishing a safety Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category 
(BASIC).
    FMCSA intends to meet the requirements of the FAST Act by: (1) 
Developing a process for identifying elements of technology and safety 
programs as a basis for recognition; (2) seeking input from 
stakeholders; (3) using a third party for a monitoring program; and (4) 
providing a report to Congress.
    The primary purpose of the ICR is to obtain information from motor 
carriers, which will allow FMCSA to study and to assess the 
effectiveness of various technologies, programs, and policies on motor 
carrier safety performance in support of the implementation of the FAST 
Act Beyond Compliance requirements. To accomplish this, the study will 
complete the following three objectives:
    (1) Identify high-performing carriers in terms of safety 
performance.
    (2) Determine the safety technologies, programs, and policies 
employed by these carriers.
    (3) Gauge the relative effectiveness of those safety technologies, 
programs, and policies based on the expert opinion and performance 
metrics of the high performing carriers.
    The data being collected for this study consists of responses from 
a select group of motor carriers on the most effective technologies, 
programs, and policies for achieving safe operations. The study does 
not attempt to conduct a full survey of the motor carrier population. 
Instead, it relies on expert opinion from carriers that are objectively 
determined to exhibit safe operations that exceed industry averages as 
indicated by driver out-of-service rates, vehicle out-of-service rates, 
and crash rates. To identify these carriers, the study will utilize 
existing data from the Motor Carrier Management Information System 
(MCMIS) database.
    FMCSA will collect data through an electronic survey of motor 
carriers who have safety performance records that are better than 
national averages. These carriers will be identified by examining 
Department of Transportation-reportable crash rates, driver out-of-
service rates at roadside inspections, and vehicle out-of-service rates 
at roadside inspections. Only those carriers that perform near the top 
quartile (as determined by the selection criteria laid out below) 
across all three carrier size categories (large, medium, and small) are 
potential participants.
    Participants would be invited to participate in an online webinar 
that explains the survey design (i.e., analytic hierarchy process, or 
AHP). AHP is a tool for addressing complex decision-making that employs 
a series of structured, pairwise comparisons in which respondents must 
express a preference for one alternative over another according to 
various evaluation criteria. Participants may not know how to proceed 
through the pairwise comparisons. Instead of solely relying on written 
instructions to explain to participants how to complete the survey, the 
project team believes it would be useful to conduct an information 
session via a webinar so an example can be provided and any questions 
answered. The webinar would be conducted multiple times and 
participants would be given the option to select the one that best 
suits their schedules. In addition to the webinar, an online video 
would be made available to participants that explains the AHP.
    Once participants complete the webinar, they will be given a link 
to complete the survey online using an online survey tool such as 
Survey Monkey or Qualtrics. In the context of the Beyond Compliance 
ICR, the AHP-based survey would work by presenting motor carriers with 
alternatives for what an ideal safety program looks like and allowing 
them to systematically compare the major elements of these programs. 
The survey results would then be analyzed to determine the safety 
program elements that were most frequently scored the highest across 
participants. The resulting information would reveal the elements of 
safety programs that these motor carriers are using and their achieved 
results. It would also reveal what these motor carriers believe to be 
the most effective for achieving safety and should be included in a 
Beyond Compliance program.
    Data collection will be completed within 90 days of the end of the 
pilot program period and followed by a statistical analysis in 180 
days. Both descriptive and analytical methods will be employed during 
the data analysis. The results of the study will be documented in a 
technical report that will be delivered to and maintained by FMCSA. 
This report will be available to the public on the FMCSA website, at 
www.fmcsa.dot.gov. The contents of the technical report will be 
utilized in developing the report to Congress that FMCSA is required to 
provide pursuant to section 5222 of the FAST Act.
    FMCSA is requesting a one-time collection of data for the Beyond 
Compliance study. Currently, there is no existing data set that can be 
used for this project. Not collecting this data would result in the 
failure of FMCSA to fulfill the congressional mandate to develop a 
Beyond Compliance program, as specified in section 5222 of the FAST

[[Page 69453]]

Act. The draft supporting statement for this information collection is 
available in the docket.
    Title: Beyond Compliance.
    OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Respondents: Motor carrier operational managers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 225 (estimated that 225 will 
receive the survey with 112 fully completing the survey).
    Estimated Time per Response: Email Invitation: 5 minutes. Webinar: 
10 minutes. Survey: 45 minutes. Email Reminder (first): 5 minutes. 
Email Reminder (second): 5 minutes. Total time per response (estimated 
113 that choose not to complete the survey): 10 minutes. Total time per 
response (estimated 112 that fully complete the survey): 70 minutes.
    Expiration Date: This is a new ICR.
    Frequency of Response: Once.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 160 hours [225 email recipients x 15 
minutes + 112 webinar respondents x 10 minutes + 112 survey respondents 
x 45 minutes].
    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 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; and (5) whether the potential respondents should 
be expanded to include carriers who have made significant safety 
improvements and/or carriers who wish to participate in the study, and 
if so, how should ``significant safety improvements'' be defined. The 
Agency will summarize or include your comments in the request for OMB's 
clearance of this information collection.

    Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87 on: December 11, 2019.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of Research and Information 
Technology.
[FR Doc. 2019-27255 Filed 12-17-19; 8:45 am]
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