Reports, Forms, and Recordkeeping Requirements

Gregory K. Rea
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
27 June 2016

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 123 (Monday, June 27, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41644-41647]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-15112]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[U.S. DOT Docket Number NHTSA-2016-0065]


Reports, Forms, and Recordkeeping Requirements

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. 
Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Request for public comment on an extension of a currently 
approved collection of information.

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SUMMARY: Before a Federal agency can collect certain information from 
the public, it must receive approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB). Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit 
public comment on proposed collections of information, including 
extensions and reinstatement of previously approved collections.
    This document describes a collection of information for which NHTSA 
intends to seek OMB approval.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 26, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments using any of the following methods. 
All comments must have the applicable DOT docket number (e.g., NHTSA-
2016-0065) noted conspicuously on them.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility, M-30: 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: West Building Ground Floor, Room 
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Telephone: 1-800-647-
5527.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number for this proposed collection of information. 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.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit http://DocketInfo.dot.gov.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov or the street 
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alex Ansley, Recall Management 
Division (NVS-215), Room W48-301, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey Ave., 
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 493-0481.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
before an agency submits a proposed collection of information to OMB 
for approval, it must first publish a document in the Federal Register 
providing a 60-day comment period and otherwise consult with members of 
the public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of 
information. The OMB has promulgated regulations describing what must 
be included in such a document. Under OMB's regulation, see 5 CFR 
1320.8(d), an agency must ask for public comment on the following:
    (i) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (ii) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (iii) how to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (iv) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic 
submission of responses.
    In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA asks for public 
comments on the following collection of information:
    Title: Defect and Noncompliance Reporting and Notification.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved information 
collection.
    OMB Control Number: 2127-0004.
    Affected Public: Businesses or individuals.
    Abstract: This notice requests comment on NHTSA's proposed 
extension to approved collection of information OMB No. 2127-0004. This 
collection covers the information collection requirements found within 
various statutory sections in the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 
(Act), 49 U.S.C. 30101, et seq., that address and require manufacturer 
notifications to NHTSA of safety-related defects and failures to comply 
with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) in motor vehicles 
and motor vehicle equipment, as well as the provision of particular 
information related to the ensuing owner and dealers notifications and 
free remedy campaigns that follow those notifications. The sections of 
the Act imposing these requirements include 49 U.S.C. 30118, 30119, 
30120, and 30166. Many of these requirements are implemented through, 
and addressed with more specificity in, 49

[[Page 41645]]

CFR part 573, Defect and Noncompliance Responsibility and Reports (Part 
573) and 49 CFR part 577, Defect and Noncompliance Notification.
    Pursuant to the Act, motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment 
manufacturers are obligated to notify, and then provide various 
information and documents, to NHTSA in the event a safety defect or 
noncompliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) is 
identified in products they manufactured. See 49 U.S.C. 30118(b) and 49 
CFR 573.6 (requiring manufacturers to notify NHTSA, and provide certain 
information, when they learn of a safety defect or noncompliance). 
Manufacturers are further required to notify owners, purchasers, 
dealers and distributors about the safety defect or noncompliance. See 
49 U.S.C. 30118(b), 30120(a), and 49 CFR 577.7, 577.13. They are 
required to provide to NHTSA copies of communications pertaining to 
recall campaigns that they issue to owners, purchasers, dealers, and 
distributors. See 49 U.S.C. 30166(f) and 49 CFR 573.6(c)(10).
    Manufacturers are also required to file with NHTSA a plan 
explaining how they intend to reimburse owners and purchasers who paid 
to have their products remedied before being notified of the safety 
defect or noncompliance, and explain that plan in the notifications 
they issue to owners and purchasers about the safety defect or 
noncompliance. See 49 U.S.C. 30120(d) and 49 CFR 573.13. They are 
further required to keep lists of the respective owners, purchasers, 
dealers, distributors, lessors, and lessees of the products determined 
to be defective or noncompliant and involved in a recall campaign, and 
are required to provide NHTSA with a minimum of six quarterly reports 
reporting on the progress of their recall campaigns. See 49 CFR 573.8 
and 573.7, respectively.
    The Act and Part 573 also contain numerous information collection 
requirements specific to tire recall and remedy campaigns. These 
requirements relate to the proper disposal of recalled tires, including 
a requirement that the manufacturer conducting the tire recall submit a 
plan and provide specific instructions to certain persons (such as 
dealers and distributors) addressing that disposal, and a requirement 
that those persons report back to the manufacturer certain deviations 
from the plan. See 49 U.S.C. 30120(d) and 49 CFR 573.6(c)(9). They also 
require the reporting to NHTSA of intentional and knowing sales or 
leases of defective or noncompliant tires.
    49 U.S.C. 30166(n), and its implementing regulation found at 49 CFR 
573.10, mandates that anyone who knowingly and willfully sells or 
leases for use on a motor vehicle a defective tire or a tire that is 
not compliant with FMVSS, and with actual knowledge that the tire 
manufacturer has notified its dealers of the defect or noncompliance as 
required under the Act, is required to report that sale or lease to 
NHTSA no more than five working days after the person to whom the tire 
was sold or leased takes possession of it.
    Estimated Burden: The approved information collection associated 
with 49 CFR part 573 and portions of 49 CFR part 577 presently holds an 
estimated annual burden of 46,138 hours associated with an estimated 
280 respondents per year. For information concerning how we calculated 
these estimates please see the Federal Register Notices 78 FR 51381 
(August 20, 2013).
    Our prior estimates of the number of manufacturers each year that 
would be required to provide information under 49 CFR part 573, the 
number of recalls for which 49 CFR part 573 information collection 
requirements would need to be met, and the number of burden hours 
associated with the requirements currently covered by this information 
collection require adjustment as explained below.
    Based on current information, we now estimate 275 distinct 
manufacturers filing an average of 854 Part 573 Safety Recall Reports 
each year. This is a change from our previous estimate of 680 Part 573 
Safety Recall Reports filed by 280 manufacturers each year.
    We continue to estimate that it takes a manufacturer an average of 
4 hours to complete each notification report to NHTSA and that 
maintenance of the required owner, purchaser, dealer, and distributors 
lists requires 8 hours a year per manufacturer. Accordingly, the 
subtotal estimate of annual burden hours related to the reporting to 
NHTSA of a safety defect or noncompliance and maintenance of owner and 
purchaser lists is 5,616 hours annually ((854 notices x 4 hours/report) 
+ (275 MFRs x 8 hours)).
    In addition, we continue to estimate an additional 2 hours will be 
needed to add to a manufacturer's Part 573 Safety Recall Report details 
relating to the intended schedule for notifying its dealers and 
distributors, and tailoring its notifications to dealers and 
distributors in accordance with the requirements of 49 CFR 577.13. This 
would total to an estimated 1,708 hours annually (854 notices x 2 
hours/report).
    49 U.S.C. 30166(f) requires vehicle manufacturers to provide to the 
Agency copies of all communications regarding defects and 
noncompliances sent to owners, purchasers, and dealerships. 
Manufactures must index these communications by the year, make, and 
model of the vehicle as well as provide a concise summary of the 
subject of the communication. We estimate this burden requires 30 
minutes for each vehicle recall. This would total to an estimated 380 
hours annually (760 vehicle recalls x .5 hours).
    In the event a manufacturer supplied the defect or noncompliant 
product to independent dealers through independent distributors, that 
manufacturer is required to include in its notifications to those 
distributors an instruction that the distributors are to then provide 
copies of the manufacturer's notification of the defect or 
noncompliance to all known distributors or retail outlets further down 
the distribution chain within five working days. See 49 CFR 
577.7(c)(2)(iv). As a practical matter, this requirement would only 
apply to equipment manufacturers since vehicle manufacturers generally 
sell and lease vehicles through a dealer network, and not through 
independent distributors. We believe our previous estimate of roughly 
80 equipment recalls per year needs to be adjusted to 95 equipment 
recalls per year to better reflect recent recall figures. Although the 
distributors are not technically under any regulatory requirement to 
follow that instruction, we expect that they will, and have estimated 
the burden associated with these notifications (identifying retail 
outlets, making copies of the manufacturer's notice, and mailing) to be 
5 hours per recall campaign. Assuming an average of 3 distributors per 
equipment item, (which is a liberal estimate given that many equipment 
manufacturers do not use independent distributors) the total number of 
burden hours associated with this third party notification burden is 
approximately 1,425 hours per year (95 recalls x 3 distributors x 5 
hours).
    As for the burden linked with a manufacturer's preparation of and 
notification concerning its reimbursement for pre-notification 
remedies, we continue to estimate that preparing a plan for 
reimbursement takes approximately 8 hours annually, and that an 
additional 2 hours per year is spent tailoring the plan to particular 
defect and noncompliance notifications to NHTSA and adding tailored 
language about the plan to a particular safety recall's owner 
notification letters. In sum, these required activities add an

[[Page 41646]]

additional 3,908 annual burden hours ((275 manufacturers x 8 hours) + 
(854 recalls x 2 hours)).
    The Safety Act and 49 CFR part 573 also contain numerous 
information collection requirements specific to tire recall and remedy 
campaigns, as well as a statutory and regulatory reporting requirement 
that anyone who knowingly and intentionally sells or leases a defective 
or noncompliant tire notify NHTSA of that activity.
    Manufacturers are required to include specific information related 
to tire disposal in the notifications they provide NHTSA concerning 
identification of a safety defect or noncompliance with FMVSS in their 
tires, as well as in the notifications they issue to their dealers or 
other tire outlets participating in the recall campaign. See 49 CFR 
573.6(c)(9). We now estimate that the Agency administers 12 tire 
recalls each year, on average, revised down from our previous estimate 
of 15 tire recall each year. We estimate that the inclusion of this 
additional information will require an additional two hours of effort 
beyond the subtotal above associated with non-tire recall campaigns. 
This additional effort consists of one hour for the NHTSA notification 
and one hour for the dealer notification for a total of 24 burden hours 
(12 tire recalls a year x 2 hours per recall).
    Manufacturer owned or controlled dealers are required to notify the 
manufacturer and provide certain information should they deviate from 
the manufacturer's disposal plan. Consistent with our previous 
analysis, we continue to ascribe zero burden hours to this requirement 
since to date no such reports have been provided and our original 
expectation that dealers would comply with manufacturers' plans has 
proven true.
    Accordingly, we estimate 24 burden hours a year will be spent 
complying with the tire recall campaign requirements found in 49 CFR 
573.6(c)(9).
    Additionally, because the agency has yet to receive a single report 
of a defective or noncompliant tire being intentionally sold or leased, 
our previous estimate of zero burden hours remains unchanged with this 
notice.
    The previous clearance for this information collection allowed for 
start-up costs for the Agency's VIN Look-up system and a new regulation 
that required manufacturers to create a VIN Look-up service on their 
respective Web sites. As these systems were launched successfully in 
August 2014, the start-up estimates for costs and burden will now be 
removed. The estimated costs to industry for one-time infrastructure 
expenses to create a VIN-based recalls lookup service consisting of 108 
hours, and costing a total of $45,000, will now be removed from this 
information collection.
    Each manufacturer was also required to establish requirements, 
analysis, and designs for their new recalls look-up tools. These 
additional burdens stemmed from: The creation of the VIN search 
interface; database setup to host the recall information; data refresh 
procedures to populate recall information; server side VIN code lookup 
and recall status retrieval; integration with existing manufacturer Web 
site; and application testing. We estimated these burdens to total 
1,332 hours and $130,005 and these costs will now be removed from this 
information collection.
    We continue to believe nine vehicle manufacturers, who did not 
operate VIN-based recalls lookup systems prior to August 2013, incur 
certain recurring burdens on an annual basis. We estimate that 100 
burden hours will be spent on system and database administrator 
support. These 100 burden hours include: Backup data management and 
monitoring; database management, updates, and log management; and data 
transfer, archiving, quality assurance, and cleanup procedures. We 
estimate another 100 burden hours will be incurred on web/application 
developer support. These burdens include: operating system and security 
patch management; application/web server management; and application 
server system and log files management. We estimate these burdens will 
total 1,800 hours each year (9 MFRs x 200 hours). We estimate the 
recurring costs of these burden hours will be $30,000 per 
manufacturer.\1\ We continue to estimate that the total cost to the 
industry from these recurring expenses will total $270,000, on an 
annual basis (9MFRs x $30,000).
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    \1\ $8,000 (for data center hosting for the physical server) + 
$12,000 (for system and database administrator support) + $10,000 
(for web/application developer support) = $30,000.
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    The Agency previously estimated one-time startup costs that 
manufacturers would assume in order to meet certain technical access 
requirements to provide recall information to NHTSA's Web site. We 
estimated that the total one-time costs to the industry from these 
technical access requirements would require 1,914 burden hours (27 MFRs 
x 72 hours) and total $189,270 (27 MFRs x $7,010) and we are now 
removing these costs from this information collection.
    The Agency previously estimated one-time startup costs 
manufacturers incurred to create a VIN list for 15 years of recall 
information. We estimated that the total one-time costs to the industry 
from this VIN list creation would require 1,620 hours (27 MFRs x 60 
hours). We are now removing these costs from this information 
collection.
    Changes to 49 CFR part 573 in 2013 required 27 manufacturers to 
update each recalled vehicle's repair status no less than every 7 days, 
for 15 years from the date the VIN is known to be included in the 
recall. This ongoing requirement to update the status of a VIN for 15 
years continues to add a recurring burden on top of the one-time burden 
to implement and operate these online search tools. We calculate that 8 
affected motorcycle manufacturers will make recalled VINs available for 
an average of 2 recalls each year and 19 affected light vehicle 
manufacturers will make recalled VINs available for an average of 8 
recalls each year. We believe it will take no more than 1 hour, and 
potentially much less with automated systems, to update the VIN status 
of vehicles that have been remedied under the manufacturer's remedy 
program. We continue to estimate this will require 8,736 burden hours 
per year (1 hour x 2 recalls x 52 weeks x 8 MFRs + 1 hour x 8 recalls x 
52 weeks x 19 MFRs) to support the requirement to update the recalls 
completion status of each VIN in a recall at least weekly for 15 years.
    As the number of Part 573 Recall Reports has increased in recent 
years, so has the number of quarterly reports which track the 
completion of safety recalls. Our previous estimate of 3,000 quarterly 
reports received annually is now revised up to an average of 3,800 
reports annually. The quarterly reporting burden now totals 15,200 
hours (3,800 quarterly reports x 4 hours/report).
    NHTSA's last update to this information collection established a 
new online recalls portal for the submission of recall documents. We 
continue to estimate a small burden of 2 hours annually in order to set 
up a manufacturer's online recalls portal account with the pertinent 
contact information and maintaining/updating their account information 
as needed. We estimate this will require a total of 550 hours annually 
(2 hours x 275 MFRs).
    Also updated in the last revision to this information collection, 
NHTSA established a requirement that manufactures change or update 
recall components in their Part 573 Safety

[[Page 41647]]

Recall Report. We continue to estimate that 20 percent of Part 573 
reports will involve a change or addition. At 30 minutes per amended 
report, this totals 86 burden hours per year (854 recalls x .20 = 171 
recalls; 171/2 = 86 hours).
    As to the requirement that manufacturers notify NHTSA in the event 
of a bankruptcy, we expect this notification to take an estimated 2 
hours to draft and submit to NHTSA. We continue to estimate that only 
10 manufacturers might submit such a notice to NHTSA each year, so we 
calculate the total burden at 20 hours (10 MFRs x 2 hours).
    We continue to estimate that it takes manufacturers an average of 8 
hours to draft their notification letters, submit them to NHTSA for 
review, and then finalize them for mailing to their affected owners and 
purchasers. We estimate that the 49 CFR part 577 requirements result in 
6,832 burden hours annually (8 hours per recall x 854 recalls per 
year).
    The estimate associated with the regulation which requires owner 
notifications within 60 days of filing a Part 573 Safety Recall Report 
remains must similarly be revised with an increase in recalls. We 
previously calculated that about 25 percent of past recalls did not 
include an owner notification mailing within 60 days of the filing of 
the Part 573 Safety Recall Report. However, recent trends show that 
only about 10 percent of recalls require an interim owner notification 
mailing. Under the regulation, manufacturers must send two letters in 
these cases: An interim notification of the defect or noncompliance 
within 60 days and a supplemental letter notifying owners and 
purchasers of the available remedy. Accordingly, we estimate that 680 
burden hours are associated with this 60-day interim notification 
requirement (854 recalls x .10 = 85 recalls; 85 recalls times 8 hours 
per recall = 680 hours).
    As for costs associated with notifying owners and purchasers of 
recalls, we continue to estimate this costs $1.50 per first class mail 
notification, on average. This cost estimate includes the costs of 
printing, mailing, as well as the costs vehicle manufacturers may pay 
to third-party vendors to acquire the names and addresses of the 
current registered owners from state and territory departments of motor 
vehicles. In reviewing recent recall figures, we determined that an 
estimated 58.4 million letters are mailed yearly totaling $87,600,000 
($1.50 per letter x 58,400,000 letters). The requirement in 49 CFR part 
577 for a manufacturer to notify their affected customers within 60 
days would add an additional $8,760,000 (58,400,000 letters x .10 
requiring interim owner notifications = 5,840,000 letters; 5,840,000 x 
$1.50 = $8,760,000). In total we estimate that the current 49 CFR part 
577 requirements cost manufacturers a total of $96,360,000 annually 
($87,600,000 owner notification letters + $8,760,000 interim 
notification letters = $96,360,000).
    Due to the past burdens associated with the requirement that 
certain vehicle manufacturers setup VIN Look-up systems for their 
recalled vehicles, many burden hours have been removed from this 
information collection as these burdens and costs have already 
occurred. However, given the recent increase in the number of safety 
recalls the Agency administers yearly and the volume of products 
included in those recalls, this information collection burden hour 
total is increased from previous estimates. The 49 CFR part 573 and 49 
CFR part 577 requirements found in today's rule will require 46,965 
hours each year for OMB Control Number 2127-0004, an increase of 827 
burden hours. Additionally, manufacturers impacted by 49 CFR part 573 
and 49 CFR part 577 requirements will incur a recurring annual cost 
estimated at $96,630,000 total.
    Estimated Number of Respondents-- NHTSA receives reports of defect 
or noncompliance from roughly 275 manufacturers per year. Accordingly, 
we estimate that there will be approximately 275 manufacturers per year 
filing defect or noncompliance reports and completing the other 
information collection responsibilities associated with those filings.
    In summary, we estimate that there will be a total of 275 
respondents per year associated with OMB No. 2127-0004.

Gregory K. Rea,
Associate Administrator for Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2016-15112 Filed 6-24-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-59-P