Supporting Statement
Certification of Enforcement of Vehicle Size and Weight Laws
INTRODUCTION
This
document is to request the Office of Management and Budget’s
(OMB) three-year renewal of the currently approved information
collection titled, “Certification of Enforcement of Vehicle
Size and Weight Laws” (OMB Control No. 2125-0034).
The Commercial Vehicle Size and Weight Program is housed with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Operations Core Business Unit, Office of Freight Management and Operations. This program and information collection responsibility therefore belongs to the FHWA.
1.
Circumstances
that make collection of information necessary.
Section
141(a), Title 23, U.S.C. requires all States to certify yearly to the
Secretary of Transportation that they are enforcing their size and
weight limits on the Federal-aid highways in their States. Section
141(b)(1) directed the Secretary to adopt regulations necessary to
verify the accuracy of the States’ certification.
These regulations (23 CFR 657) require each State to adopt a plan for enforcing its size and weight limits and to update it annually. The plan and update are both subject to approval by the FHWA. The accuracy of the certification is judged primarily on how well the State met the goals established in its plan for that year. Under these regulations, each State may adopt enforcement goals consistent with its own regulatory practices and philosophy.
This information collection supports the DOT Strategic Goal of Safety by strengthening the FHWA’s enforcement to promote maximum compliance with its regulations.
2. How, by whom, and for what purpose is the information used.
The
FHWA not only uses the data to prepare statistical trends, but also
to determine whether a State is adequately enforcing its size and
weight laws. If a State failed to submit the data or the data showed
that it was not adequately enforcing its size and weight laws, the
State would lose 10 percent of its Federal-aid highway fund
apportionment for that year. This loss of funds would severely
affect the State’s ability to construct, repair, and maintain
the infrastructure..
Extent of automated
information collection.
The
information which each State is required to submit to the FHWA
includes a signed, certifying statement attesting to the actual
resources applied during the prior fiscal year to enforcement
operations aimed at assuring compliance with commercial vehicle size
and weight provisions. The submission also identifies State vehicle
size and weight laws and regulations that recently have been proposed
or enacted, and includes a data report on numbers of enforcement
actions taken and sanctions imposed. Beginning in the 4th
Quarter of FY 2005, FHWA activated its on-line website, allowing
electronic submissions, thereby eliminating the compilation and
submission of a paper document. All States will submit their
certification statements electronically.
The vehicle size and weight data may be collected electronically by the States at fixed platform scales, or manually at portable and semi-portable scales. Weigh-in-motion (WIM) screening equipment is also employed to screen at speed in the roadway. WIM identifies vehicles potentially operating above allowable weight limits and is typically employed in conjunction with permanent scale operations located immediately down the road from the WIM site. These weighing technologies and equipment generate data that are provided to State databases. Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 657, requires that a State use at least two of these weighing systems, one of which may be weigh-in-motion screening. The databases and trend tables are complied every year as a part of the oversight authority obligation and reported to the FHWA. This information is now available electronically via the Internet.
4.
Efforts to
identify duplication.
No duplication exists. The data collected and reported by each State
regarding their enforcement actions are obtained solely through this
reporting requirement.
5.
Efforts to
minimize the burden on small businesses.
This
information collection does not impose a burden on small businesses.
This data collection involves only State agencies.
6.
Effect of
less frequent collection of information.
Section
141 of Title 23 U.S.C. requires an annual certification from each
State in order to qualify for the next year’s apportionment of
Federal-aid funds for highway construction and maintenance. Less
frequent collection is, therefore, not appropriate.
7.
Special
circumstances.
There
are no special circumstances associated with this information
collection.
8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8.
The FHWA published on March 16 2009, a 60-day Federal Register notice (71FR2294), which solicited public comments on the FHWA’s intention to request renewal of this information collection. No comments were received from the public to the docket.
9.
Payments or
gifts to respondents.
Respondents
are not provided with any payment or gift for this information.
10.
Assurance of
confidentiality.
Since
the respondents are all governmental agencies and the data are used
to judge compliance with Federal law, all data submitted by the
States are open to public inspection. There is, therefore, no
assurance of confidentiality.
11.
Justification
for collection of sensitive information.
No
sensitive information is collected. Particular vehicles are not
identified in the data collection, which consists only of summary
statistics, copies of State laws and regulations, and the effect of
State actions on the number of overweight vehicles.
12.
Estimate of
burden hours for information requested.
It
is estimated that each State (plus Puerto Rico and the District of
Columbia) spends an average of 60 staff-hours per year compiling and
submitting the data to be submitted electronically to FHWA. For 52
jurisdictions, this is a total of 3,120 annual burden hours. State
burdens and cost estimates are based only on the time spent in
compiling the documents submitted annually to FHWA.
Estimate of Total Annual Costs to Respondents.
There are no other costs to the respondents.
14.
Estimate of
Cost to the Federal government.
The
government’s annual cost in terms of the hours required for
program oversight and analysis of the State data submissions is
calculated as follows:
Professional staff time (headquarters and field) is estimated to be 4.0 staff-years
annually for all levels at an average salary of GS-12, step 7 :. $87,717
Total Professional Staff Annual Cost: 4.0 x $ 87,717 = $350,868
Clerical staff- time (headquarters and field) is estimated to be .75 staff-years
annually for all levels at an average salary of GS-5, step 4, $36,596
Total Clerical Staff Annual Cost: .75 x $36,596 = $ 27,447.
Annual Estimated Federal government salary costs: $378,315
Overhead on salary of (app 1/3) 124,843
Total Annual Estimated Federal government salary costs: $503,158
Grand Total Estimated Federal government costs: $503,158
15.
Explanation
of program changes or adjustments.
There
are no changes or adjustments.
16.
Publication
of results of data collection.
These
data are principally used for judging State compliance with 23 U.S.C.
141(b). The only publication of the material is the annual posting
to the Internet site at www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/size_weight
under “State Reports”.
17.
Approval for
not displaying the expiration date for OMB approval.
Approval
for not displaying the expiration date is not being requested.
18.
Exceptions
to certification statement.
No
exceptions to the certification statement are being requested.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Supporting Statement |
| Author | Art McCune |
| Last Modified By | patricia.lawton |
| File Modified | 2009-09-30 |
| File Created | 2009-09-30 |