PRA-2126NEW.GenericCustSurvey.SS.PartA.121514.Use

Department of Transportation

Office of the Chief Information Officer

SUPPORTING STATEMENT PART FOR

Generic Clearance OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards,” September 11, 1993 (Attachment A) directs Federal agencies to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector. In order to work continuously to ensure that our programs are effective and meet our customers’ needs, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) seeks to obtain OMB approval of a generic clearance to collect feedback on our service delivery.

Surveys to be considered under this generic will only include those surveys that improve a customer service or collect feedback about a service provided. The results of the customer surveys will help the FMCSA managers plan and implement program improvements and other customer satisfaction initiatives. Focus groups that will be considered under the generic clearance will assess customer satisfaction with a direct service, be of limited size or scope, and/or will be designed to inform a customer satisfaction survey FMCSA was considering. Surveys that have the potential to influence policy will not be considered under this generic clearance.

The types of surveys to be included in this clearance include various types of customer surveys, listening sessions and focus groups. Program offices will submit a generic information collection that shall include all relevant information, including a statement of need, intended use of information, description of respondents, information collection procedures, expected response rates, justification for incentives and estimated burden.

2. How, By Whom, and for What Purpose Is the Information Used

This collection of information is necessary to enable FMCSA to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with our commitment to improving service delivery. The information collected from our customers and stakeholders will help ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience with the agency’s programs. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable communications between FMCSA and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of program management.

3. Extent of Automated Information Collection

If appropriate, FMCSA will collect information electronically and/or use online collaboration tools to reduce burden.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

No similar data are gathered or maintained by FMCSA or are available from other sources known to the agency.

5. Efforts to Minimize the Burden on Small Businesses

Small business or other small entities may be involved in these efforts but FMCSA will minimize the burden on them of information collections approved under this clearance by sampling, asking for readily available information, and using short, easy-to-complete information collection instruments.

6. Impact of Less Frequent Collection of Information

Without these types of feedback, FMCSA will not have timely information to adjust its services to meet customer needs.

7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be voluntary and will not be used for statistical purposes.

8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8:

The FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 51639) with a 60-day public comment period to announce this proposed information collection on August 29, 2014 (see Attachment B). The agency received no comments in response to that notice.

The FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 74158) with a 30-day public comment period that announced this information would be sent to OMB for approval on December 15, 2014 (see Attachment C).

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents

FMCSA will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to respondents of its various forms of collecting feedback.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

The information requested is not of a confidential nature. Consequently, no assurance of confidentiality need be given.

11. Justification for Collection of Sensitive Information

No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Burden Hours for Information Requested

A variety of instruments and platforms will be used to collect information from respondents. The burden hours requested for three years is 5,274 (1,758 annually) are based on the estimated number of collections we expect to conduct over the requested period for this clearance.

Estimated Annual Reporting Burden
Type of Collection	Estimated No. of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondents	Total of Responses	Frequency per Response	Estimated minutes per Response	Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours
Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (10)	5,000	1	5000	Annually	10	833
Listening Sessions/ Stakeholder Feedback Forums (2)	100	1	100	Annually	120	200
Focus Group (3)	300	1	300	Annually	120	600
Strategic Planning Customer Satisfaction Survey (1)	500	1	500	Annually	15	125
Annual Total	5,900		5,900			1,758
3-Year Total	5,900		5,900			5,274

Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 5,900 [5,000 customer satisfaction survey respondents + 100 listening sessions/stakeholder feedback forums respondents + 300 focus group respondents + 500 strategic planning customer satisfaction survey respondents = 5,900].

Estimated Annual Number of Responses: 5,000 customer satisfaction survey responses + 100 listening sessions/stakeholder feedback forums responses + 300 focus group responses + 500 strategic planning customer satisfaction survey responses = 5,900].

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 5,274 for three years (1,758 annually x 3 years) [833 hours for customer satisfaction surveys + 200 hours for listening sessions/stakeholder feedback forums + 600 hours for focus groups + 125 hours for strategic planning customer satisfaction surveys = 1,758].

13. Estimate of Total Annual Costs to Respondents

No costs are anticipated.

14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

The anticipated cost to the Federal Government is approximately $28,569.00 annually. These costs are comprised of: support staff, overhead, printing, and any other expense that is necessary to collect the information approved under this generic clearance.

Staff	Wage + Overhead	Time (h)	Total Cost
GS-13	$48.83	75	$4,061
GS-12	$41.07	250	$11,382
Overhead			$13,126
Overall Total	--	--	$28,569

15. Explanation of Program Changes or Adjustments

This is a new request for a Generic ICR.

16. Publication of Results of Data Collection

Feedback collected under this generic clearance will provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the overall population. Findings will be used for general service improvement, but are not for publication or other public release.

17. Approval for Not Displaying the Expiration Date of OMB Approval

We are requesting no exemption.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement

There are no exceptions to the certification.