60-day Federal Register Notice

54096

Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 183 / Friday, September 21, 2007 / Notices

West. The selected alternative consists
of two (2) travel lanes in each direction
with a center turn lane, shoulders which
include a bike lane, curb, gutter and
sidewalk. Final actions taken under:
National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) [42 U.S.C. 4321–4351]; FederalAid Highway Act [23 U.S.C. 109];
Section 4(f) of the Department of
Transportation Act of 1966 [49 U.S.C.
303]. FHWA NEPA documents: FEIS
dated August 15, 2006 and ROD dated
February 22, 2007.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
Program Number 20.205, Highway Planning
and Construction. The regulations
implementing Executive Order 12372
regarding intergovernmental consultation on
Federal programs and activities apply to this
program.)
Authority: 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1).
Issued on: September 14, 2007.
Walter C. Waidelich, Jr.,
Division Administrator, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[FR Doc. E7–18620 Filed 9–20–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–RY–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2007–28230]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Revision of an Approved
Information Collection: Motor Carrier
Safety Assistance Program
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

AGENCY:
ACTION:

Notice; request for comments.

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
review and approval and invites public
comment. The FMCSA requests
approval to revise and renew an ICR
entitled, ‘‘Motor Carrier Safety
Assistance Program’’ (MCSAP). The
information required consists of grant
application preparation, quarterly
reports and electronic data documenting
the results of driver/vehicle inspections
performed by the States.

We must receive your comments
on or before November 20, 2007.

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DATES:

You may submit comments
identified by any of the following
methods. Please identify your comments
by the FMCSA Docket Number FMCSA–
2007–28230.

ADDRESSES:

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• Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
Follow instructions for submitting
comments to the Docket.
• Fax: 202–493–2251.
• Mail: U.S. Department of
Transportation, Docket Operations,
M–30, West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590.
• Hand Delivery: U.S. Department of
Transportation, Docket Operations,
M–30, West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590
between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., e.t., Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Docket: For access to the Docket
Management System (DMS) to read
background documents or comments
received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any
time or to the U.S. Department of
Transportation, Docket Operations,
M–30, West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590
between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., e.t., Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
The DMS is available electronically 24
hours each day, 365 days each year. If
you want notification of receipt of your
comments, please include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope, or
postcard or print the acknowledgement
page that appears after submitting
comments online.
Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search
the electronic form of all comments
received into any of our dockets by the
name of the individual submitting the
comment (or signing the comment, if
submitted on behalf of an association,
business, labor union, etc.). You may
review DOT’s complete Privacy Act
Statement in the Federal Register on
April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you
may visit http://dms.dot.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John
E. Kostelnik, Office of Safety Programs,
State Programs Division, Department of
Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, West Building
6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE.,
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone:
202–366–5721; e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background: Sections 401 through
404 of the Surface Transportation
Assistance Act of 1982 (STAA) (Pub. L.
97–424) established a program of
financial assistance to the States to
implement programs to enforce: (a)
Federal rules, regulations, standards,
and orders applicable to commercial
motor vehicle safety; and (b) compatible
State rules, regulations, standards and
orders. This grant-in-aid program is
known as the Motor Carrier Safety

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Assistance Program (MCSAP). Section
402(c) of the STAA requires that the
Secretary of Transportation (Secretary),
on the basis of reports submitted by the
States and the Secretary’s own
inspections, make a continuing
evaluation of the manner in which each
State is carrying out its approved safety
enforcement plan.
The Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (TEA–21) further revised
the MCSAP to broaden its purpose
beyond enforcement activities and
programs by requiring participating
States to assume greater responsibility
for improving motor carrier safety.
TEA–21 required States to develop
performance-based plans reflecting
national priorities and performance
goals, revised the MCSAP funding
distribution formula, and created a new
incentive funding program. As a result,
States are given greater flexibility in
designing programs to address national
and State goals of reducing the number
and severity of commercial motor
vehicle (CMV) accidents.
The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and
Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA–LU)
amended 49 U.S.C. 31102(b)(1) to
modify and augment the conditions a
State must meet to qualify for basic
program funds under the MCSAP. The
statute requires a State to document in
the State Commercial Vehicle Safety
Plan (CVSP) its commitment to meet the
following additional conditions:
• Deploy technology to enhance the
efficiency and effectiveness of CMV
safety programs;
• Include, in both the training manual
for the licensing examination to drive a
non-CMV and the training manual for
the licensing examination to drive a
CMV, information on best practices for
driving safely in the vicinity of
noncommercial and commercial motor
vehicles;
• Conduct comprehensive and highly
visible traffic enforcement and CMV
safety inspection programs in high-risk
locations and corridors; and
• Except in the case of an imminent
or obvious safety hazard, ensure that an
inspection of a vehicle transporting
passengers for a motor carrier of
passengers is conducted at a station,
terminal, border crossing, maintenance
facility, destination, or other location
where a motor carrier may make a
planned stop.
Additionally, SAFETEA–LU provided
that States may use a portion of MCSAP
basic grant funds to conduct
documented enforcement of State traffic
laws—both laws and regulations
designed to promote the safe operation
of CMVs and laws and regulations

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Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 183 / Friday, September 21, 2007 / Notices
relating to non-CMVs, when necessary
to promote the safe operation of CMVs.
Section 4106 amended 49 U.S.C.
31102(c) to provide that a State may use
a portion of MCSAP grant funds to
conduct documented enforcement of
State traffic laws—both laws and
regulations designed to promote the safe
operation of CMVs and laws and
regulations relating to non-CMVs, when
necessary to promote the safe operation
of CMVs.
In order for the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration (FMCSA) to
evaluate program effectiveness, it is
necessary for the State to provide and
maintain information concerning past,
present and future program activity. The
Final Rule that revised Part 350
(MCSAP) to comply with the
congressionally-mandated provisions of
TEA–21 was published in the Federal
Register (65 FR 15092) on March 21,
2000. Part 350 is currently being revised
to implement the changes to the MCSAP
made by SAFETEA–LU. The State’s
grant application, known as the
Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan (CVSP)
must contain the information required
by 49 CFR 350.201, 350.211 and
350.213. This information is necessary
to enable the FMCSA to determine
whether a State meets the statutory and
administrative criteria to be eligible for
a grant. It is necessary that a State’s
work activities and accomplishments be
reported so that the FMCSA can monitor
and evaluate a State’s progress under its
approved plan and make the
determinations and decisions required
of 49 CFR 350.205 and 350.207. The
FMCSA is required to determine
whether each State’s efforts meet the
intended objectives of its plan. In the
event of nonconformity with any
approved plan and failure on the part of
a State to remedy deficiencies, the
FMCSA is required to take action to
cease Federal participation in that
State’s plan.
This information collection supports
the DOT Strategic Goal of Safety (i.e.,
reducing commercial truck-related
fatalities by providing financial and
technical support to State CMV
enforcement efforts).
The FMCSA uses the information in
the CVSP to determine whether a State
has the necessary resources and
authority to undertake the program
intended by Congress. After a grant has
been awarded to a State, a continuing
and final evaluation of the State’s
activities is performed to determine
whether continued funding is
appropriate and if revisions in the
State’s CVSP should be made. A
quarterly report in narrative form is
submitted by the States to provide the

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minimum necessary information to
assist in appropriate monitoring of a
State’s performance, compared to its
CVSP, and to permit the FMCSA to
determine whether the effort of a State
is cost efficient and whether Federal
assistance should be continued. In
addition, inspection data and reports are
submitted electronically by the
inspecting officer from the field to the
FMCSA at the time of completion of the
inspection.
SAFETEA–LU provides that States
may now conduct traffic enforcement
activities against non-CMVs to promote
the safe operation of CMVs. The States
have been routinely conducting traffic
enforcement activities on CMVs and
have been reimbursed, provided an
appropriate inspection was conducted
at the time. Previously, non-CMV traffic
enforcement was not an eligible MCSAP
activity for reimbursement so the States
have not captured activity levels for this
type of enforcement. It is anticipated
that the number of non-CMV
enforcement activities conducted by the
States will be minimal since SAFETEA–
LU limits the amount of MCSAP grant
funding that can be used for non-CMV
traffic enforcement activities to no more
than five percent of the basic amount
the State receives annually.
The quarterly report is created by the
State and submitted to the FMCSA
using inspection data and other
information. The collection of uniform
data permits analysis and comparison of
State programs and facilitates program
administration and reporting; e.g.,
comparison of the data from a single
State to the national average, equipment
violation and out-of-service trends, etc.
The FMCSA routinely uses quarterly
report information to measure
individual and collective State program
accomplishment and to assist with
future program development.
Description of MCSAP forms:
a. Form MCSAP–1, Motor Carrier
Safety Assistance Program: The
MCSAP–1 form is submitted with the
CVSP grant application. It specifies the
name of the applicant agency, the
amount applied for, and contains the
signatures of the responsible State
authorities.
b. Form MCSAP–2, Grant Agreement:
The MCSAP–2 form is the grant
agreement that specifies the total
amount of the State Program, the State
and Federal participating shares, the
period of the grant, and the signatures
of the responsible State official and the
FMCSA Division Administrator. The
reverse side of the MCSAP–2 contains
the ‘‘General Provisions For the
Agreement.’’

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54097

c. Form MCSAP–2A, Grant
Amendment for Fiscal Year: The
MCSAP–2A form is used to modify the
terms of the grant. It is used to increase
or decrease the amount of the grant, or
to extend the period of the grant. It
contains the signatures of the
responsible State official and the
FMCSA Division Administrator.
In addition, the following documents
are provided as part of the CVSP
package:
a. State Training Plan (optional
format): This document is a request for
commercial vehicle training courses. It
is used by the FMCSA’s National
Training Center to more effectively
schedule training courses to meet the
needs of State enforcement agencies.
b. State Certification: The CVSP must
contain a State Certification signed by
the Governor, the State Attorney
General, or other specially designated
State official. The Certification contains
requirements of conditions that must be
met by the State to receive MCSAP grant
funds.
Virtually all (99%) of the information
required by the MCSAP grant program
is submitted electronically. This
includes over three million inspection
reports, which are uploaded
electronically from laptop computers at
inspection sites in the field to the
FMCSA annually. The near-universal
use of laptops for submitting these
inspection reports has resulted in a
dramatic cut of the time burden. The
annual CVSPs require signed
certifications by State personnel and are
not, therefore, electronically
transmitted.
The FMCSA is the only Federal
agency given authority to enforce safety
regulations applicable to commercial
trucks and buses in interstate
commerce. The type of information to
be gathered from the States through this
information collection is unique to the
MCSAP. No duplication was identified
through the rulemaking process to
implement relevant sections of
SAFETEA–LU.
The legislative requirement is that
grants be extended to the States
predicated on annual submission of
CVSPs. The FMCSA has determined
that although monthly or bimonthly
reports are not needed, a semiannual
report would not be sufficiently
frequent to allow for timely evaluation
and changes in State program direction.
Therefore, quarterly reports were
determined to be the most appropriate,
considering burden and Federal need. If
the reports were submitted less
frequently, the FMCSA would be unable
to exercise appropriate oversight and

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54098

Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 183 / Friday, September 21, 2007 / Notices

administration of the program as
envisioned by the Congress.
Title: Motor Carrier Safety Assistance
Program.
OMB Control Number: 2126–0010.
Type of Request: Revision of a
currently-approved information
collection.
Respondents: State MCSAP lead
agencies and local agencies.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 52
[50 States + Puerto Rico + District of
Columbia = 52].
Estimated Time per Response: 80
hours per grant application preparation;
8 hours per quarterly report preparation;
and 1 minute per inspection and data
upload.
Expiration Date: November 30, 2007.
Frequency of Response: 1 grant
application annually; 4 quarterly reports
annually; and approximately 3 million
total inspection and data uploads
annually.
Estimated Total Annual Burden:
12,280 hours.
The methods used to calculate the
hours necessary to prepare grant
applications, upload data, and prepare
quarterly reports are based on
interviews with the State and Federal
personnel charged with those
responsibilities. The information
required to prepare the applications for
grants and the subsequent reports is
based on general information ordinarily
maintained by the States in the general
course of business, and only simple
computations are required to determine
burden hours. The grant applications
and reports are submitted by the 50
States, four Territories, Puerto Rico, and
the District of Columbia. Each entity
submits one grant request and four
quarterly reports per year. In addition,
about three million total inspection
reports are uploaded each year.
This figure reflects only 20 percent of
the total estimated annual hours to
perform the activities because MCSAP
reimburses 80 percent of the eligible
costs incurred in the administration of
an approved plan as set forth in 49 CFR
350.303, 350.309 and 350.311. Labor
hours are estimated and an average
hourly rate for professional personnel is
applied. The four territories of
American Samoa, Guam, U.S. Virgin
Islands and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands are funded at
100 percent; therefore they are not
included in the computation of the
annual burden.
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 FMCSA’s performance;
(2) the accuracy of the estimated

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burden; (3) ways for the FMCSA to
enhance the quality, usefulness, and
clarity of the collected information; and
(4) ways that the burden could be
minimized without reducing the quality
of the collected information. The agency
will summarize or include your
comments in the request for OMB’s
clearance of this information collection.
Issued on: September 14, 2007.
Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Research and
Information Technology.
[FR Doc. E7–18637 Filed 9–20–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2007–29254]

Minimum Age for Operating a
Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) in
Interstate Commerce: Jcrane, Inc.
(Jcrane), Application for Exemption
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of application for
exemption; request for comments.
AGENCY:

SUMMARY: The FMCSA announces that it
has received from Jcrane, Inc. (Jcrane)
an application for an exemption from
provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Regulations that require an
individual who operates a commercial
motor vehicle (CMV) of 10,001 or more
pounds Gross Vehicle Weight Rating
(GVWR) in interstate commerce to be a
minimum of 21 years of age. The
exemption would allow Jcrane’s
employees who are not yet 21 years of
age to legally operate a CMV in
interstate commerce. Jcrane states that
the granting of the exemption would
allow the company to better train crane
operators and therefore increase overall
safety. The FMCSA requests public
comment on Jcrane’s application for
exemption.

Comments must be received on
or October 22, 2007.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
identified by DOT DMS Docket Number
FMCSA–2007–29254 using any of the
following methods:
If filing comments by September 27,
2007, please use:
• Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting
comments on the Department of
Transportation Docket Management
System electronic docket site. No
electronic submissions will be accepted
DATES:

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between September 28, 2007, and
October 1, 2007.
If filing comments on or after October
1, 2007, use:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
online instructions for submitting
comments.
Alternatively, you can file comments
using the following methods:
• Mail: Docket Management Facility:
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: West
Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140,
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., between
9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
• Fax: 202–493–2251.
Docket: For access to the docket to
read background documents or
comments received, go to http://
dms.dot.gov until September 27, 2007,
or the street address listed above. The
DOT docket may be offline at times
between September 28 through
September 30 to migrate to the Federal
Docket Management System (FDMS).
On October 1, 2007, the internet access
to the docket will be at http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for accessing the dockets.
Privacy Act: Note that all comments
received will be posted without change
to http://www.dms.dot.gov or http://
www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided. Anyone
may search the electronic form of all
comments received into any of DOT’s
dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or of the
person signing the comment, if
submitted on behalf of an association,
business, labor union, or other entity).
You may review DOT’s complete
Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000
(65 FR 19477, Apr. 11, 2000).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr. Thomas Yager, Chief, FMCSA
Driver and Carrier Operations Division,
Office of Bus and Truck Standards and
Operations: Telephone: 202–366–4009.
E-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 4007 of the Transportation
Equity Act for the 21st Century (Pub. L.
105–178, 112 Stat. 107, June 9, 1998)
amended 49 U.S.C. 31315 and 31136(e)
to provide authority to grant exemptions
from motor carrier safety regulations.
Under its regulations, FMCSA must
publish a notice of each exemption
request in the Federal Register (49 CFR

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