Generic Clearance Request

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 2127-0682)

T ITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Creative Message Testing for Office of Defects Investigation Recall Promotion.

PURPOSE:

Greater public awareness and engagement are vital to create additional inputs to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that will help identify early warning signs for safety defects. Increased public awareness and engagement also will improve timely notification of recalls and consumer recall compliance. In support of this, NHTSA is launching a consumer information campaign with the goal to promote greater awareness of the agency’s role in vehicle safety investigations and recalls, and motivate consumers to engage with NHTSA’s services that will ultimately save more lives on America’s roadways.

NHTSA is seeking approval of an information collection to assess potential creative messaging with the goal of getting U.S. vehicle owners to report safety issues with their vehicles and sign-up to receive email notifications about recalls. This will be done through the promotion of SaferCar.gov as a simple-to-use resource that uses critical reporting to help save the lives of fellow motorists on America’s roadways.

Knowledge gained from this research will inform messaging to help increase awareness of SaferCar.gov’s consumer resources including the vehicle safety complaint form and opt-in form for safety recall notifications, motivate consumers to report potential defects, increase awareness of NHTSA’s role in vehicle safety regulation and increase safety recall compliance to improve the agency’s ability to effectively protect the motoring public from safety defects in their vehicles.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The respondents for this study will include two audiences.

The first audience will be comprised of a national, driving public campaign audience of U.S. adults ages 18+. Recruiting across this audience will be designed to ensure a diverse range of participants across key demographic criteria including gender, age, income, education and ethnicity.

A second audience will consist of a primary target audience of U.S. females ages 35-54 with at least some college education who have children under the age of 18.

We plan to conduct qualitative research in the form of an online bulletin board. An online bulletin board is similar to a traditional focus group in that it allows for a group of people to come together to have a moderated discussion about a topic. There are several advantages of conducting an online bulletin board versus an in person focus group. One key advantage of online bulletin boards is that they allow participants to be drawn from a nationwide audience. A second key advantage focuses on lower respondent time commitment and burden. Online bulletin boards require a time commitment of 15-20 minutes per day over the course of three days for a total of 45-60 minutes. By comparison, traditional focus groups require 90-120 minutes, plus travel time to and from a focus group facility for a total of up to three hours’ time per participant. While online bulletin board participants are required to log in to the bulletin board multiple times a day to react to other participant’s comments, the overall time commitment is substantially less for online bulletin boards when compared to traditional focus groups.

The online bulletin board will include a total of 50 participants equally divided between the two key audiences: 25 participants from the national general population audience and 25 participants from the targeted 35-54 female with children audience. Screening criteria will require that all respondents have a valid driver’s license, own a vehicle and operate a vehicle at least once per week.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: Online Bulletin Board

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:___Susan McMeen_________________________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [X] Yes [ ] No

The third party vendor collects information from the research participants in order to provide them with the incentive. No PII is reported to NHTSA. No responses will be connected to individual respondents; only aggregate data will be reported.

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [X] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [X] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [X] Yes [ ] No

It is standard practice to provide a basic incentive in order to avoid bias of receiving responses only from individuals generally predisposed to be helpful. Participants in this research will not be offered incentives provided directly by NHTSA. The third-party vendor will fulfill incentives at the standard rate of $75 for each participant.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individuals or Households (National, general audience)	25	60 minutes	25 hours
Individuals or Households (Females aged 25-54 with children under 18)	25	60 minutes	25 hours
Totals	50		50 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $57,580.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ ] Yes [X] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

Convenience samples of research participants are screened and recruited to reflect the target audiences. NHTSA plans to work with Heart+Mind Strategies and Focus Forward, third-party vendors, to recruit individuals that meet the criteria for each audience. Recruitment will take place using Focus Forward’s own double opt-in panel. A link to an online screening instrument will be sent in an email invitation, followed by additional instructions for joining the online bulletin board should a respondent qualify to participate. Recruitment will be monitored to include a mixture of gender (among the national audience), age, race/ethnicity, region, income and education.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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