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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 160 / Tuesday, August 18, 2020 / Notices

[FR Doc. 2020–17973 Filed 8–17–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290–F0–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA- 2019–0271]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Renewal of an Approved
Information Collection: Accident
Recordkeeping Requirements
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA),
Transportation (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. FMCSA requests
approval to renew the ICR titled
‘‘Accident Recordkeeping
Requirements.’’ This ICR relates to
Agency requirements that motor carriers
maintain a record of accidents involving
their commercial motor vehicles
(CMVs). Motor carriers are not required
to report this data to FMCSA, but must
produce it upon inquiry by authorized
Federal, State or local officials.
DATES: Please send your comments by
September 17, 2020. OMB must receive
your comments by this date in order to
act quickly on the ICR.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/
PRAMain. Find this particular
information collection by selecting
‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open
for Public Comments’’ or by using the
search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms.
Pearlie Robinson, Driver and Carrier
Operations Division, DOT, FMCSA,
West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC
20590. Telephone: 202–366–4325.
Email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Accident Recordkeeping
Requirements.
OMB Control Number: 2126–0009.
Type of Request: Renewal of a
currently approved collection.
Respondents: Motor carriers.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
89,270.

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SUMMARY:

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Estimated Number of Responses:
184,749.
Estimated Time per Response: 18
minutes.
Expiration Date: September 30, 2020.
Frequency of Response: On occasion.
Estimated Total Annual Burden:
55,425 burden hours (184,749 accidents
× 18 minutes per response/60 minutes
in an hour = 55,425 hours).
Definitions: ‘‘Accident’’ is an
occurrence involving a CMV operating
on a highway in interstate or intrastate
commerce that results in (1) a fatality;
(2) bodily injury to a person who, as a
result of the injury, receives medical
treatment away from the scene of the
accident; or (3) one or more motor
vehicles incurring disabling damage as
a result of the accident, requiring the
motor vehicle(s) to be transported away
from the scene by a tow truck or other
motor vehicle. The term accident does
not include (i) an occurrence involving
only boarding or alighting from a
stationary motor vehicle, or (ii) an
occurrence involving only the loading
or unloading of cargo (49 CFR 390.5).
Background
Title 49 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, Section 390.15(b), requires
motor carriers to make certain specified
records and information pertaining to
CMV accidents available to an
authorized representative or special
agent of FMCSA upon request or as part
of an inquiry. Motor carriers are
required to maintain an ‘‘accident
register’’ consisting of information
concerning all ‘‘accidents’’ involving
their CMVs (49 CFR 390.15(b) (see
‘‘Definition: Accident’’ below). The
following information must be recorded
for each accident: Date, location, driver
name, number of injuries, number of
fatalities, and whether certain
dangerous hazardous materials were
released. In addition, the motor carrier
must maintain copies of all accident
reports required by insurers or
governmental entities. Motor carriers
must maintain this information for three
years after the date of the accident.
Section 390.15 does not require motor
carriers to submit any information or
records to FMCSA or any other party.
This ICR supports the DOT strategic
goal of safety. By requiring motor
carriers to gather and record information
concerning CMV accidents, FMCSA is
strengthening its ability to assess the
safety performance of motor carriers.
This information is a valuable resource
in Agency initiatives to prevent, and
reduce the severity of, CMV crashes.
The Agency has modified several of
its estimates for this ICR. The estimated
number of annual respondents has

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decreased substantially, while the
numbers of responses, burden hours,
and annual costs to respondents have
increased. Explanations for these
changes are summarized below.
The previously-approved number of
annual respondents is 866,122. This
estimate was based on records of all
interstate and intrastate motor carriers
with ‘‘recent activity’’ in the Motor
Carrier Management Information System
(MCMIS) for calendar year 2015.
However, not all of these motor carriers
experience a DOT-reportable crash
every calendar year. To more accurately
estimate the annual number of
respondents, we looked at the carriers
associated with crashes reported in
MCMIS for calendar years 2016 through
2018 and calculated the annual average.
This gave us a significantly reduced
estimate of 89,270 respondents per year.
The previously-approved burden is
36,157 burden hours. The Agency
increases its estimate to 55,425 burden
hours. The text of section 390.15(b) is
unchanged; the increase in burden
hours does not reflect changes in the
requirements for accident
recordkeeping. The adjustment in
annual burden hours is due to a revised
estimate of the number of reportable
accidents from 120,522 to 184,749 per
year, using interstate and intrastate
DOT-reportable motor carrier crash
records in MCMIS for calendar years
2016 through 2018. In the previous
iteration of this ICR, only crash records
for calendar year 2015 were considered,
and only crashes for carriers with a DOT
number and ‘‘recent activity’’ in MCMIS
were included. In the current iteration
of this ICR, we include recorded crashes
in which there is not a recorded DOT
number, but the CRASH_CARRIER_
INTERSTATE field in MCMIS is coded
as ‘‘Interstate’’ or ‘‘Intrastate’’ (thus
suggesting that they are commercial
carriers). This change in approach has
resulted in an increased estimate of
annual crashes subject to the Accident
Register reporting requirements, and
thus an increase in the number of
responses, as each crash is associated
with one response.
The revised version of this ICR
includes estimated labor costs
associated with maintaining the
Accident Register. The previous
iteration of this ICR did not include
such an estimate; it only reported the
estimated annual burden hours. The
estimated annual labor cost for industry
resulting from the Accident Register
reporting requirements is $1,860,617.
Finally, the estimated annual cost
associated with accident recordkeeping
(outside of labor costs) is increased from
$8,437 to $106,785. In the previous

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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 160 / Tuesday, August 18, 2020 / Notices
iteration of this ICR, it was assumed that
all motor carriers were storing hard
copy records offsite, which is less costly
than storing hard copy records onsite
due to reduced space requirements. In
the current iteration of this ICR, FMCSA
is assuming that (1) approximately 15
percent of motor carriers are storing
their Accident Registers electronically,
at no extra cost, and (2) approximately
85 percent of motor carriers are storing
hard copy versions of their Accident
Registers. FMCSA is further assuming
that motor carriers that maintain paper
records are storing their Accident
Registers at their principal place of
business, so that they have easy access
to such records during an FMCSA
investigation. This change in storage
location increases the cost of storage,
from $0.07 to $0.68 per accident
recorded. While FMCSA is now
assuming that some motor carriers are
storing documents electronically at no
extra cost, the overall number of
responses has increased over prior
years, overtaking the reduction in
number of carriers storing hard copy
records.
On April 28, 2020, FMCSA published
a Federal Register notice allowing for a
60-day comment period on this ICR.
Two comments were received in
response to this notice. The first
respondent, Denise Quinehan, reported
that she was involved in a level 4
motorcycle accident in 2016 and the
driver that hit her had no insurance or
registration. Four years after the
accident she found that the reporting
officer altered the crash report and that
report was being used in other claims
that resulted in identity fraud. She
wrote that some limits of reports should
not be released until the involved party
has access to it. Second, the National
Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc.
concluded that ‘‘FMCSA will benefit
from greater use of accident
information, such as police accident
reports, that support greater accuracy
and fairer portrayal of a carrier’s safety
practices. FMCSA could more
effectively use its enforcement resources
if it can better identify motor carriers
who bore responsibility for commercial
motor vehicle accidents.’’ Neither of the
respondents addressed whether the
proposed collection is necessary for the
performance of FMCSA’s functions; the
accuracy of the estimated burden; nor
the ways the burden could be
minimized without reducing the quality
of the collected information.
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

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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.
Kenneth Riddle,
Acting Associate Administrator, Office of
Research and Registration.
[FR Doc. 2020–18013 Filed 8–17–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2018–0328]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Approval of a New
Information Collection Request:
Beyond Compliance
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA),
Transportation (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
review and approval. The primary
purpose of the ICR is to assess the
effectiveness of various technologies,
programs, and policies on motor carrier
safety performance in support of the
implementation of the Fixing America’s
Surface Transportation Act, 2015 (FAST
Act) Beyond Compliance requirements.
DATES: Please send your comments by
September 17, 2020. OMB must receive
your comments by this date in order to
act quickly on the ICR.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/
PRAMain. Find this particular
information collection by selecting
‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open
for Public Comments’’ or by using the
search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Nicole Michel, Mathematical
Statistician, Office of Analysis,
Research, and Technology’s Research
SUMMARY:

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Division, Department of Transportation,
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, 6th Floor, West
Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC 20590–0001.
Telephone: 202–366–4354; Email
Address: [email protected]. Office
hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal
Holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Beyond Compliance.
OMB Control Number: 2126–00XX.
Type of Request: New information
collection.
Respondents: Motor carrier
operational managers.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
112 participating carriers and 113 nonparticipating carriers.
Estimated Time per Response: 70
minutes (5 minutes to read email invite,
10 minutes for webinar, 5 minutes to
read instructions, 40 minutes to respond
to actual survey, 5 minutes for reminder
email 1, 5 minutes for reminder email
2).
Expiration Date: N/A. This is a new
information collection.
Frequency of Response: Once.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 150
hours [(225 email invitation
respondents × 5 minutes) + (112
webinar respondents × 10 minutes) +
(112 survey instruction respondents × 5)
+ (112 survey respondents × 40 minutes)
+ (225 email reminder #1 respondents ×
5 minutes) + (113 email reminder #2
respondents × 5 minutes)].
Background
FMCSA requests OMB’s review and
approval of a new ICR to implement the
Beyond Compliance Program, required
by Section 5222 of the Fixing America’s
Surface Transportation Act, 2015 (FAST
Act) (Pub. L. 114–94, 129 Stat. 1312,
Dec. 4, 2015).
The FAST Act requires FMCSA to
allow recognition, including credit or an
improved Safety Measurement System
(SMS) percentile, for motor carriers that:
(1) Install advanced safety equipment;
(2) use enhanced driver fitness
measures; (3) adopt fleet safety
management tools, technologies, and
programs; or (4) satisfy other standards
determined appropriate by the
Administrator.
The FAST Act also requires the
FMCSA Administrator to carry out the
Beyond Compliance provisions through:
(1) Developing a process for identifying
elements of technology and safety
programs as a basis for recognition; (2)
seeking input from stakeholders; (3)
using a third party for a monitoring
program; and (4) providing a report to
Congress.

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