Supporting Statement -- Waybill Compliance Survey

Supporting Statement for
Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
OMB Control No. 2140-0010
Expires January 31, 2016
Waybill Compliance Survey
A. Justification
1. Need for Information
The Surface Transportation Board is, by statute, responsible for the economic regulation
of common carrier railroads operating in the United States. A carload waybill, which is a
document describing the characteristics of an individual rail shipment, identifies originating and
terminating freight stations, the names of line haul railroads participating in the movement, the
point of all railroad interchanges, the number of cars, the car types, the movement weight, and
the commodity being moved. Under 49 C.F.R. 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 4,500 or more revenue carloads, or it
terminated at least 5% of the 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 Waybill Compliance Survey, for which approval is sought here, is required to be
filed by all railroads that terminate traffic in the United States but do not currently submit
Waybill Samples. The survey requirement, codified at 49 C.F.R. § 1244.2(f), enables the Board
to identify those railroads that should be submitting an annual Waybill Sample. In addition, the
Board collects information about a rail carrier’s total annual operating revenues, which helps the
Board determine whether other regulatory requirements may apply. Because many of the
Board’s reporting requirements apply only to railroads with large operating revenues, accurate
determinations regarding the size of a railroad’s operating revenues help the Board minimize the
reporting burden for smaller railroads. The Board has authority to collect this information under
49 U.S.C. § 11145.
2. Use of Data Collected
The Waybill Compliance Survey is used to determine whether a railroad meets the
criteria established at 49 C.F.R. § 1244 and ensures that the Board is collecting a Waybill
Sample from all railroads that are required to submit one.
3. Reduction Through Improved Technology
The Board, through its contractor, accepts the information in this survey by email.
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4. Identification of Duplication
This information is not duplicated by any other agency. The Board is the only source of
waybill information, and the information in each of these filings is unique.
5. Minimizing Burden for Small Businesses
The survey does not require record keeping, beyond the records that a railroad would
maintain in the normal course of business, and it takes less than 0.5 hours to complete.
6. Consequences if Collection Not Conducted or Less Frequent
Our regulations require respondents to submit the Waybill Survey information on an
annual basis. Less frequent submission of the survey might result in failure to identify a railroad
that should be required to submit a Waybill Sample for a particular year.
7. Special Circumstances
No special circumstances require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent
with the guidelines in 5 C.F.R. § 1320.5.
8. Consultation Outside Agency
The Board provided a 60-day comment period regarding this extension of approval in 80
Fed. Reg. 66,968 (Oct. 30, 2015). In addition, a Federal Register notice seeking comments from
respondents is being published simultaneously with this submission.
9. Payment or Gift
No payment or gift is made in connection with this survey form.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
The data pertaining to this form may be confidential.
11. Sensitive Information
The information collected may contain commercially sensitive information. A request
for the Waybill Survey information will be considered by the Board on a case-by-case basis.
12. Estimated Burden Hours.
The Board estimates that 523 railroads will respond to this survey, and based on a survey
of responders, the Board estimates that it will take each respondent approximately one half hour

to complete and process the survey form, resulting in a total annual hourly burden of 261.5
hours.
13. Estimate of Total Annual Costs to Respondents
No non-hour costs have been identified for this collection. This form may be filed electronically.
14. Annualized Cost To the Federal Government
The Board estimates the annual cost of this collection to be $446.68 including $350 for
the administration of the collection by the contractor that also administers the waybill-sample
collection and the cost of two staff hours (GS-12-1 at $48.34 hourly wage, including benefits) to
review the annual operating-revenue data.
15. Explanation of Program Changes or Adjustments
There are no program changes or adjustments.
16. Publication of Data and/or Results
No data from this survey form will be published.
17. Display of Expiration date for OMB approval
The new 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
No exceptions are sought.
B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods
Not applicable. This collection of information does not involve statistical methods.

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