Waybill Sample (EP 385-7) - PRA Justification

Supporting Statement for
Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
Waybill Sample as Modified in Ex Parte No. 385 (Sub-No. 7)
A. Justification
1. Need for Information
The Surface Transportation Board is statutorily responsible for the economic regulation
of common carrier railroads operating in the United States. Some of the information the Board
uses to carry out its responsibilities comes from rail carload waybills. A carload waybill, which
is a document describing the characteristics of an individual rail shipment, identifies originating
and terminating freight stations, the names of all railroads participating in the movement, the
points of all railroad interchanges, the number of cars, the car types, the movement weight in
hundredweight, the commodity, and the freight revenue. Under 49 CFR Part 1244, a railroad is
required to file carload waybill sample information (Waybill Sample) for all line-haul revenue
waybills terminating on its lines if, in any of the three preceding years, it terminated 4500 or
more carloads, or it terminated at least 5% of the total revenue carloads that terminate in a
particular state. The Waybill Sample is the Board’s primary means of gathering information
about freight rail shipments terminated in the United States. The Board has authority to collect
this information under 49 U.S.C. 11144 and 11145.
The Board proposes to amend its rules with respect to the Waybill Sample information
railroads are required to submit to the Board pursuant to 49 CFR 1244. Currently, railroads that
are required to file Waybill Sample information report a random sample of as little as 1% of
carloads on a waybill. See 49 CFR 1244.4(b)-(c). The proposed amendment, set forth in the
Appendix, would expand the carload Waybill Sample information submitted to include all traffic
movements designated as a TIH (Toxic Inhalation Hazard). The revised reporting would
commence with the January 2011 Waybill Sample collection. The expanded information
gathered from this proposed rule would permit the Board to assess more accurately TIH traffic
within the United States, and specifically would give parties more data to draw upon in rail-rate
disputes involving TIH traffic. The additional information would also assist the Board in
quantifying the magnitude of TIH traffic, and would help the Board more accurately measure the
associated costs of handling such traffic.
2. Use of Data Collected
The information in the Waybill Sample is used by the Board, other Federal agencies (the
Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture, for example), and industry
stakeholders to monitor traffic flows and rate trends in the industry, and to develop evidence in
Board proceedings. The Waybill Sample is also a major source of information for states when
developing state transportation plans. In addition, non-government groups seek access to
Waybill Sample data for such uses as market surveys, forecasts of rail equipment requirements,
economic analyses and forecasts, and academic research. The expanded information gathered
from this proposed rule would permit the Board to assess more accurately TIH traffic within the

United States, and specifically would give parties more data to draw upon in rail-rate disputes
involving TIH traffic. In those cases, the parties would have more data to draw upon when
forming their comparison groups; therefore, the parties could construct comparison groups that
would be more comparable to the issue traffic. The additional information would also assist the
Board in quantifying the magnitude of TIH traffic, and would help the Board more accurately
measure the associated costs of handling such traffic.
3. Reduction Through Improved Technology
Respondents may report electronically, and the vast majority of respondents do so. In
fact, none of the most recently reported TIH waybills (representing 2008) were reported
manually.
4. Identification of Duplication
This information is not duplicated by any other agency. The Board is the only source of
waybill information.
5. Minimizing Burden for Small Businesses
The Board requires a railroad to submit a statistical sample of the waybills for the traffic
it handles only if, in any of the three preceding years, it terminated 4500 or more carloads, or it
terminated at least 5% of the total revenue carloads that terminate in a particular state. In
addition, a carrier need only report quarterly (rather than monthly) if it submits computerized
(rather than paper) Waybill Samples or it submits less than 1,000 waybills per year.
6. Frequency Reduction Consequences
The Waybill Sample may be submitted quarterly. Less frequent collection would impede
the access by government regulators and private stakeholders to timely information about the
industry.
7. Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances. (Note: Although 49 CFR 1244.6, states that
railroads submitting computerized Waybill Samples are required to retain copies of the
underlying waybills for 4 years, that retention period conflicts with the 1-year retention period
for waybills provided in section 1220.6. The agency has treated section 1220.6 as controlling in
this matter.)
8. Consultation Outside Agency
The Board provided a 30-day comment period, with an additional 30 days for replies,
regarding approval of the proposed modification in 72 FR 28549.

9. Payment or Gift
No payment or gift is made in connection with this survey form.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
The Board recognizes that some of the submitted information is commercially sensitive,
and thus the Board’s regulations place limitations on releasing Waybill Sample data. See
49 CFR 1244.9.
11. Sensitive Information
This form does not collect any sensitive personal information.
12. Estimated Burden Hours and Cost
The total burden hours (annually including all respondents) is estimated at 320 hours
(based on 50 respondents, 7 of whom (by their own choice) report monthly and 42 of whom
report quarterly), with an average estimated time per response of 75 minutes. Note that the
burden reported in ROCIS for this IC is only 250 hours because the ROCIS program does not
allow input of data where a small percentage of respondents are reporting monthly by choice.
Therefore, the ROCIS data assumes that all respondents report quarterly. No “non-hour cost”
burdens associated with this collection have been identified.
13. Record Keeping Burden
Waybills are created by rail carriers in the normal course of business. Thus, this
collection does not require additional record keeping.
14. Annualized Cost To the Federal Government
The Board contracts out the collection of the Waybill Sample. The annualized cost of the
contract is $340,092.
15. Changes in Burden Hours.
None.
16. Publication of Data and/or Results
Waybill Sample data, aggregated at the industry level to protect commercially sensitive
information, is available on the Board’s website (under Industry Data in the Waybill Public User
Guide).

17. Display of Expiration date for OMB approval
The control number for this collection is 2140-0015. The expiration date for this
collection will be published in the Federal register when the collection is approved by OMB.
18. Exceptions to the Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
Not applicable.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods
Not Applicable.

APPENDIX
For the reasons set forth above, as well as in Waybill Data Reporting for Toxic Inhalation
Hazards, STB Ex Parte No. 385 (Sub-No. 7), STB served Jan. 28, 2010 and 75 FR 5261 (Feb. 2,
2010), the Surface Transportation Board proposes to amend part 1244 of title 49, chapter X, of
the Code of Federal Regulations as follows:
PART 1244—WAYBILL ANALYSIS OF TRANSPORTATION OF PROPERTY—
RAILROADS
1. The authority citation for Part 1244 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 721, 10707, 11144, 11145.
2. Add § 1244.4(b)(5) to read as follows:
*
*
*
*
*
(5) Subject railroads shall submit all waybill information for movements of Toxic
Inhalation Hazards (TIH). For purposes of this section, TIH shall be defined in accordance with
49 CFR § 171.8, § 173.115, and § 173.132 to include materials that, when inhaled, are known or
presumed on the basis of testing to be so toxic to humans as to pose a hazard to health in the
event of a release during transportation. These materials include, but are not limited to,
hazardous materials listed at 49 CFR § 172.101 as either Division 2.3 materials, or Division 6.1
materials that can be characterized as an inhalant under § 173.132.
*
*
*
*
*
3. Add § 1244.4(c)(3) to read as follows:
*
*
*
*
*
(3) Subject railroads shall submit all waybill information for movements of Toxic
Inhalation Hazards (TIH). For purposes of this section, TIH shall be defined in accordance with
49 CFR § 171.8, § 173.115, and § 173.132 to include materials that, when inhaled, are known or
presumed on the basis of testing to be so toxic to humans as to pose a hazard to health in the
event of a release during transportation. These materials include, but are not limited to,
hazardous materials listed at 49 CFR § 172.101 as either Division 2.3 materials, or Division 6.1
materials that can be characterized as an inhalant under § 173.132.