Attachment E - 60-Day Federal Register

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices

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preview of proposed enhancements to
the SMS website, responded to
comments to the June 2015 Federal
Register notice, and advised of
additional enhancements.
As a result, the preview reflected six
potential changes to the SMS
methodology for calculating percentiles.
1. SMS Intervention Thresholds were
adjusted to better reflect correlation to
crash risk.
2. Changes to the HM Compliance
BASIC to segment by CT and non-CT
carriers and to post motor carrier
percentile rankings under the HM
Compliance BASIC to the public.
3. Reclassifying violations for
operating while OOS under the Unsafe
Driving BASIC rather than the BASIC of
the underlying OOS violation.
4. Increasing the maximum vehicle
miles traveled used in the Utilization
Factor to more accurately reflect the
operations of high-utilization carriers.
5. Increasing the minimum number of
crashes in the Crash Indicator BASIC
from two to three.
6. Assigning BASIC percentiles only
to carriers that have had an inspection
with a violation in the past year.
Only 25 comments were received on
the preview from 11 individuals, five
trucking or bus companies, nine
associations and one safety consultant.
Eight commenters posted comments
regarding determining the preventability
of crashes; therefore, these comments
were outside of the scope of the notice.
Four other commenters made broad
comments about the Agency that were
not applicable to this notice. In
addition, the Insurance Institute of
Highway Safety provided a copy of their
report titled ‘‘Crash Risk Factors for
Interstate Large Trucks in North
Carolina’’ as support for the Agency’s
correlation of vehicle maintenance to
crashes.
FAST Act Correlation Study
Section 5221 of the FAST Act, titled
‘‘Correlation Study,’’ required FMCSA
to commission the National Research
Council of the National Academies to
conduct a study of FMCSA’s CSA
program and SMS.
On June 27, 2017, NAS published the
report titled ‘‘Improving Motor Carrier
Safety Measurement.’’ The report is
available at https://www.nap.edu/
catalog/24818/improving-motor-carriersafety-measurement. In preparing the
report, NAS collected and analyzed all
the quantitative data available to
FMCSA in its databases, which contain
information on the safety of commercial
motor carriers and drivers subject to the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations and the HM Regulations. In

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addition, NAS held three public
meetings to engage stakeholders from
the truck and bus industry, safety
advocates, researchers, and other
government organizations. The meeting
agendas are included in an appendix to
the report. FMCSA accepted the NAS
report’s recommendations, including
the recommendation to develop a new
statistical model to support the SMS,
and is working to implement the
recommended changes. The NAS
cautioned the Agency against making
changes to the algorithm based on ad
hoc analysis and instead to rely on the
Item Response Theory model.
SMS Preview Site
As a result of the ongoing
implementation of the NAS
recommendations, FMCSA removed the
preview from the SMS website and will
not be proceeding with the proposed
changes at this time.
Issued on: July 10, 2018.
Raymond P. Martinez,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018–15109 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2018–0189]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; New Information Collection:
Truck and Bus Maintenance
Requirements and Their Impact on
Safety
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:

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 its
review and approval and invites public
comment. This new request titled
‘‘Truck and Bus Maintenance
Requirements and Their Impact on
Safety’’ will allow for a study that
focuses on vehicle maintenance and
aims to determine the impact of vehicle
maintenance requirements on overall
motor carrier safety. This information
collection supports the DOT Strategic
Goal of Safety.
DATES: We must receive your comments
on or before September 14, 2018.
SUMMARY:

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You may submit comments
identified by Federal Docket
Management System (FDMS) Docket
Number FMCSA–2018–0189 using any
of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
• Fax: 1–202–493–2251.
• Mail: Docket Operations; 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: U.S.
Department of Transportation, 1200
New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building,
Ground Floor, Room W12–140,
Washington, DC 20590–0001 between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m. e.t., Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: All submissions must
include the Agency name and docket
number. For detailed instructions on
submitting comments, see the Public
Participation heading below. Note that
all comments received will be posted
without change to http://
www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided. Please
see the Privacy Act heading below.
Docket: For access to the docket to
read background documents or
comments received, go to http://
www.regulations.gov, and follow the
online instructions for accessing the
dockets, or go to the street address listed
above.
Privacy Act: In accordance with 5
U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments
from the public to better inform its
rulemaking process. DOT posts these
comments, without edit, including any
personal information the commenter
provides, to www.regulations.gov, as
described in the system of records
notice (DOT/ALL–14 FDMS), which can
be reviewed at www.dot.gov/privacy.
Public Participation: The Federal
eRulemaking Portal is available 24
hours each day, 365 days each year. You
can obtain electronic submission and
retrieval help and guidelines under the
‘‘help’’ section of the Federal
eRulemaking Portal website. If you want
us to notify you that we received your
comments, please include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope or
postcard, or print the acknowledgement
page that appears after submitting
comments online. Comments received
after the comment closing date will be
included in the docket and will be
considered to the extent practicable.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Quon Y. Kwan, Program Manager,
Technology Division, Department of
Transportation, OA, West Building 6th
ADDRESSES:

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices
Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone:
202–385–2389; email quon.kwan@
dot.gov.

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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background: FMCSA’s core mission is
to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities
involving large trucks and buses. To aid
in accomplishing this, the Agency uses
the Compliance, Safety, Accountability
(CSA) enforcement program to prioritize
and target interventions of those motor
carriers who are most likely to be
involved in a future crash. As part of the
CSA program, the Agency deploys the
Safety Measurement System (SMS).
SMS uses inspection, crash, and
investigation data captured in the Motor
Carrier Management Information System
(MCMIS) to calculate a percentile for
each motor carrier. A motor carrier’s
SMS percentile is based on its past
compliance with a complete range of
safety-based regulations (such as driver
safety, hours of service, driver fitness,
and vehicle maintenance, among
others). The survey described in this
notice focuses on the vehicle
maintenance component of those safety
regulations. The study goal is to
determine what improvements, ranging
from better compliance interventions to
better vehicle maintenance
requirements, would enhance motor
carrier safety.
In 2014, the John A. Volpe National
Transportation Systems Center (Volpe)
conducted a study to assess the
effectiveness of SMS in identifying the
highest risk motor carriers to be targeted
for interventions. One finding from the
study was that motor carriers targeted
for intervention due to ‘‘vehicle
maintenance’’ issues (i.e., violations)
had a 65 percent higher crash rate
compared to the national average. These
violations are based on Federal and state
inspections of components critical to
the safe operation of the vehicle. It is
important to recognize that proper and
regular preventative maintenance (i.e.,
systematic maintenance programs)
among carriers—rather than Federal and
state inspections, which are by nature
limited to the most visible or obvious
safety-related components—should be
the primary activity applied to ensure
safe equipment operation.
While these initial findings are
important, they raise additional
questions. One such question is
prompted by the stipulation in 49 CFR
396.3(a), which states that every carrier
must have a program to ‘‘systematically
inspect, repair, and maintain, or cause
to be systematically inspected, repaired,
and maintained, all motor vehicles and
intermodal equipment subject to its

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control.’’ Though this regulation
provides some direction, there is no
supporting definition of the word
‘‘systematic,’’ and because this term is
subjective, it is likely to vary from one
carrier to another. The lack of specificity
regarding standard intervals for
preventative maintenance makes it
difficult for federal and state personnel
to evaluate the effectiveness of and
compliance with a carrier’s maintenance
program. Furthermore, the lack of
specificity may make it difficult for
carriers to ascertain and therefore
comply with the regulation’s intent.
The current research effort,
augmented by the proposed survey, is
necessary to improve FMCSA’s
understanding of the safety impact of
preventative vehicle maintenance and to
clarify the requirements of section
396.3(a). The study objectives are as
follows:
1. Develop an operational definition
of ‘‘systematic maintenance.’’
2. Evaluate whether current
regulations and the intervention process
could be modified to improve
compliance with vehicle maintenance
requirements. Examples of such
requirements are as follows: (i)
Preventative maintenance intervals, (ii)
preventative maintenance inspections
with adequately trained/equipped
mechanics, and (iii) adequacy of motor
carriers’ maintenance facilities.
[However, the results of the survey will
be used only to explore what areas of
rulemaking and/or other areas, such as
policy guidance and training, might be
useful in the future; the results of the
survey will not be used for rulemaking,
per se.]
3. Gather information to assist in
establishing minimum standards for
inspection intervals, mechanic
qualifications and training, and
certification of maintenance facilities.
FMCSA is authorized to conduct this
research under 49 U.S.C. 31108, Motor
Carrier Research and Technology
Programs. Under section 31108(a)(3)(C),
FMCSA may fund research,
development, and technology projects
that improve the safety and efficiency of
commercial motor vehicle operations
through technological innovation and
improvement. This information
collection supports the U.S. Department
of Transportation (USDOT) strategic
goal of Safety.
Under contract to FMCSA, the
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
(VTTI) at the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University (VT) will
use online surveys to obtain the data
required to address the study objectives.
The information collection will be
administered in two phases:

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32951

Phase I: Online Recruitment Survey.
This voluntary, seven-question survey
will screen carriers and verify their
eligibility for Phase II participation. To
be eligible for Phase II participation,
carriers must fall into one of two groups:
(a) The Recommended Practices (RP)
Group, which includes carriers with the
lowest Vehicle Maintenance and Crash
Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety
Improvement Categories (BASIC)
percentiles (i.e., less than or equal to the
33rd percentile); or (b) the Intervention
Effects (IE) Group, which includes
carriers that have experienced Federal
or State interventions in the last 24
months due to vehicle maintenance
violations. The BASICs are Unsafe
Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-ofService (HOS) compliance, Vehicle
Maintenance, Controlled Substances/
Alcohol, Hazardous Materials (HM)
Compliance, and Driver Fitness. More
information on the SMS methodology
can be found at https://
csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/Documents/
SMSMethodology.pdf.
Phase II: Carrier Maintenance
Management Survey. This voluntary,
106-question survey will include
questions about demographics;
maintenance practices, intervals,
personnel, and facilities; and State and
Federal inspections, among other things.
The Phase II survey will employ branch
logic; as such, carriers will be prompted
to complete different sections based on
their survey group (and for one section,
carrier size). Consequently, no
participating carrier will be asked to
complete all 106 questions.
In the Phase II survey, carriers (of all
sizes) in the RP Group will be asked to
provide additional information about
maintenance personnel and facilities
(e.g., mechanic training levels, tools
required for adequate inspection, and
certification of facilities) and vehicle
maintenance issues that may impact
safety. Information from the RP Group
will seek to address Objective 1, relating
to development of an operational
definition of ‘‘systematic maintenance,’’
Objective 2, and Objective 3, relating to
establishment of minimum standards for
inspection intervals, mechanic
qualifications and training, and
certification of maintenance facilities.
Carriers in the IE Group will be asked
to complete the section on intervention
effects, which includes questions about
the status of active interventions or
investigations; results of closed
interventions or investigations;
interactions with State versus Federal
agencies; intervention activities
experienced; the accuracy of violations
leading to interventions; actions taken
in response to interventions; changes in

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices

carrier vehicle maintenance practices as
a result of an intervention; significant
benefits of interventions; and ways the
intervention process could be improved.
Information provided by the IE Group
will address the portion of Objective 2
regarding sufficiency of regulations and
where interventions need to be
improved to facilitate complying with
these regulations.
Survey responses will be summarized
and reported using plots, tables, content
analysis, and calculated summary
statistics. Plots and tables will provide
a visual comparison of multiple choice
and checkbox survey responses for
successful carriers (i.e., carriers in the
RP Group) and those receiving
interventions in the last 24 months (i.e.,
carriers in the IE Group). These methods
will also allow researchers to
summarize responses by carrier
operation type (i.e., truck or bus) and
size. Bar charts will be used to plot
responses to many survey questions.
Some survey responses may be
summarized with tables with rows for
each of the carrier operation types (truck
or bus) and each carrier-size subgroup.
To explore and summarize responses to
open-ended survey questions,
researchers will use content analysis
methods. An illustration of an openended question in the survey is ‘‘List
examples of critical safety-related
maintenance activities for trailer vehicle
milestones.’’ The goal of content
analysis of open-ended questions will
be to identify common answers.
The results of this information
collection will be documented in a
technical report to be delivered to and
published by FMCSA. In addition, the
results will be used to create a
‘‘recommended best practices’’ report
that will outline minimum standards for
inspection intervals, mechanic
qualifications and training, and
certification of maintenance facilities.
Finally, VTTI is required under the
contract with FMCSA to compile and
analyze the collected information and
develop a public-use data set.
This ICR is for a one-time data
collection. If this data collection does
not take place, the truck and bus
industry would continue to operate with
the uncertainty of what a ‘‘systematic
maintenance’’ program, as currently
worded in section 396.3(a), consists of.
This term’s ambiguous definition makes
it difficult for federal and state
inspectors to evaluate the effectiveness
of a carrier’s maintenance program or its
compliance with this provision.
Furthermore, this uncertainty may make
it difficult for carriers to ascertain and
therefore comply with the regulation’s
intent.

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Title: Truck and Bus Maintenance
Requirements and Their Impact on
Safety.
OMB Control Number: 2126–XXXX.
Type of Request: New information
collection.
Respondents: Freight motor carriers
and passenger carriers.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
578 respondents [578 respondents will
complete the Online Recruitment
Survey. Of those 578 respondents, 289
will also complete the Carrier
Maintenance Manager Survey].
Estimated Time per Response: Varies
[Online Recruitment Survey: 5 minutes.
Carrier Maintenance Manager Survey:
45 minutes].
Expiration Date: 3 years after
approval.
Frequency of Response: Once.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 265
hours [Online Recruitment Survey: 578
respondents × (5 minutes ÷ 60 minutes)
= 48 hours; Carrier Maintenance
Manager Survey: 289 respondents × (45
minutes ÷ 60 minutes) = 217 hours].
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 performance of
FMCSA’s functions; (2) the accuracy of
the estimated burden; (3) ways for
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 under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87
on: July 10, 2018.
Kelly Regal,
Associate Administrator for Office of
Research and Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2018–15151 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS
Notice of Intent To Prepare a
Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement of the Department of
Veterans Affairs Housing Loan
Program
Department of Veterans Affairs.
Notice of intent.

AGENCY:
ACTION:

Under the authority of the
National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) and its implementing
regulations, VA intends to prepare a
Programmatic Environmental Impact

SUMMARY:

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Statement (PEIS) to evaluate the
potential direct, indirect, and
cumulative environmental
consequences of continued operation
and administration of VA’s Housing
Loan Program (HLP). VA’s reference to
the HLP includes federal assistance,
administered by the Veterans Benefits
Administration (VBA), in the form of
loans made, insured, or guaranteed by
VA. It also includes housing benefits
that can be used in conjunction with the
HLP (e.g., the Specially Adapted
Housing program). Under the HLP, VBA
is also responsible for the management,
marketing, and disposition of real estate
owned (REO) properties that VA
acquires following the foreclosure of
certain VA-guaranteed loans and loans
held in VA’s portfolio. This notice
opens the public scoping phase and
invites interested parties to identify
potential issues, concerns, and
reasonable alternatives that should be
considered in the PEIS. Following the
scoping meeting referenced below, a
Draft PEIS will be prepared and
circulated for public comment.
DATES: All written comments should be
submitted by August 15, 2018.
VA invites federal, state, tribal, and
local entities; non-profit organizations;
businesses; interested parties; and the
general public to comment on the
proposed scope and content of the PEIS.
VA will consider all scoping comments
in developing the PEIS. VA will conduct
a public scoping meeting on Thursday,
August 2, 2018, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel
and Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli
Road, Rockville, Maryland 20852. The
scoping meeting will afford the public
an opportunity to learn more about the
project and provide input on the
environmental analysis process. During
the meeting, VA will provide an
overview of the project, as well as
details regarding the PEIS scope,
purpose, and need. VA will also outline
the overall NEPA process. Additionally,
VA will post a scoping presentation on
a publicly available website during the
30-day scoping period. Such
presentation will be available at http://
www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/
environmental_impact.asp.
Proposed Actions and Alternatives:
VA’s Proposed Action is to continue
administering the HLP and
incorporating programmatic changes as
necessitated by amendments to program
authorities, Veteran need, market
conditions, and factors not foreseen at
the time of this publication.
VA’s No Action Alternative refers to
a scenario wherein VA operates the HLP
in a manner consistent with policies

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