Supporting Statement - wage C - 2018 extension (to ROCIS)

2140-0007

September 2018

SUPPORTING STATEMENT – REPORT

OF RAILROAD EMPLOYEES, WAGE FORM C,

A. Justification:

1. (a) Why the collection is necessary. The Surface Transportation Board (Board) has broad statutory authority to provide economic regulatory oversight of railroads, addressing such matters as rates; service; the construction, acquisition and abandonment of rail lines; carrier mergers; and interchange of traffic among carriers (49 U.S.C. §§ 10101-11908). Class I (large) railroads are required to provide wage statistics pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 11145. Amtrak also files this report. This collection shows, for each reporting carrier, the average number of employees at mid-month in the six job classification groups (executive, professional, maintenance-of-way, maintenance-of-equipment, transportation (train and engineer), and transportation (other than train and engineer)) that encompass all railroad employees. See 49 C.F.R. pt. 1246. The Board is requesting an extension without modification of this information collection, which will otherwise expire on October 31, 2018.

2. How the collection will be used. The Board uses the information in this collection to forecast labor costs and measure the efficiency of the reporting railroads. The information also is used by the Board to evaluate proposed regulated transactions that may impact rail employees, including mergers and consolidations, acquisitions of control, purchases, and abandonments under 49 U.S.C. §§ 10902-03 and 11326. Other federal agencies, including the Railroad Retirement Board and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as industry groups, depend on this report for information regarding the regulated railroad industry.

3. Extent of automated information collection. The railroads submit this report electronically in Excel spreadsheet format.

4. Identification of duplication. The information requested does not duplicate any other information available to the Board or the public.

5. Effects on small business. No small entities will be affected by the collection of this information. This reporting requirement applies only to Class I railroads, which have operating revenues in excess of $250 million (1991 dollars) (adjusted for inflation using 2017 data, the revenue threshold for a Class I rail carrier is $463,860,933). The Board has adopted an indexing methodology that will ensure that regulated carriers are classified based on real business expansion, rather than the effects of inflation.

6. Impact of less frequent collections. The Board cannot fulfill its statutory responsibilities without monthly information on employment.

7. Special circumstances. No special circumstances apply to this collection.

8. Compliance with 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8. As required, the Board published a Federal Register on July 11, 2018, notice providing a 60-day comment period regarding this collection. 83 Fed. Reg. 32,180. No comments were received. As also required, a Federal Register notice providing an additional 30-day comment period is being published simultaneously with this submission.

9. Payments or gifts to respondents. The Board does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.

10. Assurance of confidentiality. All information collected through this report is available to the public, and is available on the Board’s website.

11. Justification for collection of sensitive information. This collection contains no information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimation of burden hours for respondents. The following information pertains to the estimate of burden hours associated with this collection:

(1) Number of respondents: Seven

(2) Frequency of response: Monthly

(3) Annual hour burden per respondent: Based on information provided by the railroad industry, we estimate an annual per-respondent-railroad burden of not more than 15 hours, based on a per monthly report estimate of not more than 1.25 hours, which includes the time needed to gather the information and edit, review, and complete the monthly employment report. Based on this estimate, the total annual burden hours on the industry is estimated to be not more than 105 hours to complete the monthly reports.

13. No other costs to respondents: No non-hour costs for operation, maintenance, or purchase of services associated with this collection have been identified. This report is submitted to the agency electronically.

14. Estimated costs to the Board: We estimate that it takes 36 hours (GS 13/2 at $62.24 per hour, including benefits) to review the submissions monthly and to prepare a compilation annually for our website, and an additional six hours (auditor at $90.57 per hour, including benefits) to post the results on the website, resulting in a total annual cost to the government of $2,784.06.

15. Changes in burden hours. This is an existing collection, which is being adjusted to update the burdens and costs based on industry information. Due to technology, the burden hours to file each report has decreased significantly, resulting in a decrease of the overall annual hourly burden.

16. Plans for tabulation and publication: These reports are submitted in the form of Excel spreadsheets. These monthly carrier reports are posted on the Board’s website at http://www.stb.gov/stb/industry/econ_reports.html.

17. Display of expiration date for OMB approval. No exception is sought. The control number and expiration date for this collection appear on the form.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement. Not applicable

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

Not applicable