Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of a New Information Collection Request: Beyond Compliance

Kenneth Riddle
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
18 August 2020

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 160 (Tuesday, August 18, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50875-50876]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-18014]


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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

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), 
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: 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 
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: 
Nicole.michel@dot.gov. 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 
non-participating 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 x 5 minutes) + (112 webinar respondents x 10 minutes) + 
(112 survey instruction respondents x 5) + (112 survey respondents x 40 
minutes) + (225 email reminder #1 respondents x 5 minutes) + (113 email 
reminder #2 respondents x 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.

[[Page 50876]]

    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 FAST Act Beyond 
Compliance requirements.
    To accomplish this, the study will complete the following three 
objectives:
    (1) Identify high-performing carriers in terms of safety 
performance.
    (2) Determine the safety technologies, programs, and policies 
employed by these carriers.
    (3) Gauge the relative effectiveness of those safety technologies, 
programs, and policies based on the expert opinion and performance 
metrics of the high performing carriers.
    The data being collected for this study consists of responses from 
a select group of motor carriers on the most effective technologies, 
programs, and policies for achieving safe operations. The study does 
not attempt to conduct a full survey of the motor carrier population. 
Instead, it relies on expert opinion from carriers that are objectively 
determined to exhibit safe operations that exceed industry averages as 
indicated by driver out-of-service rates, vehicle out-of-service rates, 
and crash rates. To identify these carriers, the study will utilize 
existing data from the Motor Carrier Management Information System 
(MCMIS) database.
    FMCSA will collect data through an electronic survey of a panel of 
industry experts. The experts will be recruited from motor carriers who 
have safety performance records that are better than national averages. 
These carriers will be identified by examining Department of 
Transportation-reportable crash rates, driver out-of-service rates at 
roadside inspections, and vehicle out-of-service rates at roadside 
inspections. Only those carriers that perform near the top quartile 
across all three categories are potential participants.
    Participants would first be invited to participate in an online 
webinar that explains the evaluation design (i.e., analytic hierarchy 
process, or AHP). AHP is a tool for dealing with complex decision-
making that employs a series of structured, pairwise comparisons in 
which respondents must express a preference for one alternative over 
another according to various evaluation criteria. Participants may not 
know how to proceed through the pairwise comparisons. Instead of solely 
relying on written instructions to explain to participants how to 
complete the survey, the project team believes it would be useful to 
conduct an information session via a webinar so an example can be 
provided and any questions answered. The webinar would be conducted 
multiple times and participants would be given the option to select the 
one that best suits their schedules. In addition to the webinar, an 
online video would be made available to participants that explains the 
AHP.
    Once participants complete the webinar, they will be given a link 
to complete the survey online using an online survey tool such as 
Survey Monkey or Qualtrics. In the context of Beyond Compliance, the 
AHP-based survey would work by presenting experts with alternatives for 
what an ideal safety program looks like and allowing them to 
systematically compare the major elements of these programs. The survey 
results would then be analyzed to determine the safety program elements 
that were most frequently scored the highest across participants. The 
resulting information would reveal the elements of safety programs that 
these motor carriers are using and their achieved results and what 
these motor carriers believe to be the most effective for achieving 
safety and should be included in a Beyond Compliance program.
    In addition to those carriers invited by FMCSA to participate in 
the survey, FMCSA will also be reaching out to the National Association 
of Small Trucking Companies and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers 
Association to invite them to voluntarily survey members as a 
supplemental data collection to the structured design. This would 
enable greater participation by smaller carriers and owner-operators, 
and would also enable a wider perspective of responses.
    The results of the data collection will be analyzed and integrated 
into the pilot study report. Data collection will be completed within 
90 days of the end of the pilot program period and followed by a 
statistical analysis in 180 days. Both descriptive and analytical 
methods will be employed during the data analysis. The results of the 
study will be documented in a technical report that will be delivered 
to and maintained by FMCSA. This report will be available to the public 
on the FMCSA website, at www.fmcsa.dot.gov. The contents of the 
technical report will be utilized in developing the report that FMCSA 
is required to provide to Congress, pursuant to Section 5222 of the 
FAST Act.
    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 FMCSA to perform its functions; (2) the 
accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways for the 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.

    Issued under the authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.87.
Kenneth Riddle,
Acting Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Registration.
[FR Doc. 2020-18014 Filed 8-17-20; 8:45 am]
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