30-day Federal Register Notice

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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 59 / Thursday, March 27, 2014 / Notices

Transportation, 703 B Street, Marysville,
CA 95901, 530–741–4393, John_Webb@
dot.ca.gov.
Issued in Sacramento, California,
March 21, 2014.
Issued on: March 20, 2014.
Gary Sweeten,
Team Leader North, Project Delivery, Federal
Highway Administration, Sacramento,
California.
[FR Doc. 2014–06639 Filed 3–26–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Docket No. FMCSA–2013–0050]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Approval of a New
Information Collection Request: Lease
and Interchange of Vehicles
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
review and approval, and invites public
comment. This ICR will enable FMCSA
to document the burden associated with
the for-hire truck leasing regulations
codified in 49 CFR part 376, ‘‘Lease and
Interchange of Vehicles.’’ These
regulations require certain for-hire
motor carriers to have a formal lease
when leasing equipment.
DATES: Please send your comments by
April 28, 2014. OMB must receive your
comments by this date in order to act on
the ICR.
ADDRESSES: All comments should
reference Federal Docket Management
System (FDMS) Docket Number
FMCSA–2013–0050. Interested persons
are invited to submit written comments
on the proposed information collection
to the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget. Comments
should be addressed to the attention of
the Desk Officer, Department of
Transportation/Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, and sent via
electronic mail to
oira_submission@omb.eop.gov, or faxed
to (202) 395–6974, or mailed to the
Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget, Docket Library, Room 10102,

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kenneth Rodgers, Chief, Commercial
Enforcement and Investigations
Division, Office of Enforcement and
Compliance, U.S. Department of
Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590–
0001. Telephone: 202–366–0073; Email:
kenneth.rodgers@dot.gov. Office hours
are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal
Holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration

SUMMARY:

725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC
20503.

Title: Lease and Interchange of
Vehicles.
OMB Control Number: 2126–XXXX.
Type of Request: New information
collection.
Respondents: Motor carriers
authorized by the Secretary to transport
property that use leased equipment.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
32,100 for-hire motor carriers.
Estimated Time per Response: 2 hour
7 minutes [68,100 estimated annual
burden hours/32,100 respondents =
2.121495327 or 2 hour 7 minutes].
Expiration Date: N/A. This is a new
information collection.
Frequency of Response: One-time.
Estimated Total Annual Burden:
68,100 (16,500 carriers × 0.5 hours × 2
entities + 311,000 vehicles × 0.083
hours × 2 entities = 68,126 hours,
rounded to the nearest hundred).
Background: The Secretary of
Transportation (Secretary) is authorized
to require a motor carrier that uses
motor vehicles not owned by it to
transport property under an
arrangement with another party to make
the arrangement in writing. This written
lease agreement must specify its
duration, the compensation to be paid
by the motor carrier providing
transportation subject to jurisdiction
under 49 U.S.C. 14102(a), ‘‘Leased
Motor Vehicles’’ and signed by the
parties. The Secretary has delegated
authority pertaining to leased motor
vehicles to FMCSA pursuant to 49 CFR
1.87(a)(6). The Agency’s regulations
governing leased motor vehicles are at
49 CFR part 376.
The rules were adopted to ensure that
small trucking companies were
protected when they agreed to lease
their equipment and drivers to larger
for-hire carriers. They also ensure that
the government and members of the
public can determine who is responsible
for a property-carrying commercial
motor vehicle. Prior to the regulations,
some equipment was leased without
written agreements, leading to disputes

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over which party to the lease was
responsible for charges and actions and,
at times, who was legally responsible for
the vehicle. Under 49 U.S.C. 14102(a),
FMCSA ‘‘may require a motor carrier
providing for-hire transportation that
uses motor vehicles not owned by it to
transport property under an
arrangement with another party to—
(1) make the arrangement in writing
signed by the parties specifying its
duration and the compensation to be
paid by the motor carrier;
(2) carry a copy of the arrangement in
each motor vehicle to which it applies
during the period the arrangement is in
effect;
(3) inspect the motor vehicles and
obtain liability and cargo insurance on
them; and
(4) have control of and be responsible
for operating those motor vehicles in
compliance with requirements
prescribed by the Secretary on safety of
operations and equipment, and with
other applicable law as if the motor
vehicles were owned by the motor
carrier.’’
The rules specify what must be
covered in the lease, but leave open how
many responsibilities must be divided.
The parties to the lease determine
numerous details between themselves.
Part 376 applies only to certain motor
carriers in interstate commerce and only
to certain leasing situations. The rules
cover leasing between a for-hire carrier
that does not hold operating authority
and another for-hire carrier that does
hold operating authority. A for-hire
motor carrier with or without operating
authority that leases its equipment and
drivers to a private motor carrier is not
covered by the rule. A for-hire carrier
with operating authority that leases its
equipment to a non- for hire motor
carrier and operates under its own
authority is also not covered by the rule.
Private carriers that lease their
equipment to for-hire motor carriers and
for-hire carriers with their own
operating authority leasing to another
such carrier are subject to lesser
requirements. For-hire carriers in
interstate commerce are exempt from
the rules if they operate exclusively in
commercial zones. Commercial zones,
last set by the ICC in 1975, are generally
defined as a municipality and a distance
from the limits of the municipality that
ranges from 3 miles for cities with
populations less than 2,500 to 20 miles
for cities of a million or more people.
Some municipalities have additional
areas defined for them.
Section 376.11 requires the following
when the carrier leases equipment
(Lessee) from a party supplying the
equipment (Lessor), but does not hold

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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 59 / Thursday, March 27, 2014 / Notices
its own operating authority: (1) The
lessor and lessee enter into a formal
agreement that includes certain
provisions (49 CFR 376.12); and (2) the
lessee provides the lessor receipts
specifying the equipment being leased
at the beginning and end of the lease.
These two provisions account for the
burden in this information collection.
Comments From the Public

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General Summary
FMCSA received three comments to
the 60-day Federal Register notice
published on March 27, 2013 (78 FR
18666), regarding the Agency’s
Information Collection Activities; New
Information Collection: Lease and
Interchange of Vehicles. Comments
were received from the Owner Operator
Independent Drivers Association, Inc.
(OOIDA), Transportation Intermediaries
Association (TIA), and Sharp Auto
Transport. Comments and responsive
considerations are as follows:
OOIDA provided detailed comments,
though they concluded that the burden
estimates are justified and the burden of
compliance with truck rules are
‘‘minimal.’’ OOIDA asked several
questions. First, OOIDA asked why
FMCSA initiated a request for
comments on this ICR, as well as who,
or what prompted the ICR, and what is
the ICR’s purpose.
FMCSA Response
In 2009, the National Transportation
Safety Board (NTSB) recommended to
FMCSA that the Agency require
passenger motor carriers be subject to
the same limitations on the leasing of
equipment as interstate for-hire motor
carriers of cargo (NTSB
Recommendation H–09–33).1 Since
2012, the OMB has published an
FMCSA Unified Agenda entry entitled
‘‘Lease and Interchange of Vehicles;
Motor Carriers of Passengers,’’ RIN
2126–AB44, addressing regulations
governing the lease and interchange of
passenger-carrying commercial motor
vehicles similar to the leasing of
equipment by interstate for-hire motor
carriers of cargo.2 FMCSA published a
notice of public rulemaking (NPRM)
entitled, ‘‘Lease and Interchange of
Vehicles: Motor Carriers of Passengers,’’
(bus carrier NPRM) under RIN 2126–
AB44 on September 20, 2013 (78 FR
57822). The proposal for bus carriers to
address the NTSB recommendation has
1 National Transportation Safety Board. 2009.
Motorcoach Rollover on U.S. Highway 59 near
Victoria, Texas, January 2, 2008. Highway Accident
Summary Report. NTSB/HAR–09/03/SUM.
Washington, DC.
2 http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/
eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201210&RIN=2126-AB44.

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similar information collection
requirements as the truck leasing rules.
Therefore, FMCSA will coordinate the
bus and truck ICRs accordingly.
In addition, the bus carrier NPRM is
necessary to ensure that unsafe
passenger carriers cannot evade FMCSA
oversight and enforcement by operating
under the authority of another carrier
that exercises no actual control over
those operations. This action will enable
the FMCSA, the NTSB and our Federal
and State partners to identify motor
carriers transporting passengers in
interstate commerce and correctly
assign responsibility to these entities for
regulatory violations during inspections,
compliance investigations, and crash
studies. It also provides the general
public with the means to identify the
responsible motor carrier at the time of
motorcoach transportation. ‘‘Why is
FMCSA attempting to study an area of
regulation that Congress largely left in
the hands of private parties and that
FMCSA has steadfastly refused to
become involved in despite several
entreaties by OOIDA in the past?’’
FMCSA Response
The detailed lease and interchange
regulations for cargo-carrying vehicles
have been in effect since 1950 and are
not within the scope of the bus carrier
NPRM. The ICR in this truck leasing ICR
action will be coordinated with that of
the bus leasing NPRM to eventually
calculate a total burden for all
regulations covering all leases and
interchanges of CMVs regulated by
FMCSA.
OOIDA correctly pointed out a
mistake in the 60-day notice. ‘‘This ICR
will enable FMCSA to document the
burden associated with the marking
regulations codified in 49 CFR part 376.
FMCSA incorrectly identified a CMV
marking notice instead of the lease and
interchange regulations that are codified
in 49 CFR part 376. This error has been
corrected in this notice and the
associated Supporting Statement for this
ICR.
Sharp Transport and TIA both believe
the elimination of written lease and
interchange requirements would be a
mistake. TIA believes that leasing
requirements alleviate concerns within
the transportation industry of fraudulent
entities in the supply chain, by placing
safeguards in the industry. TIA believes
if this requirement is eliminated it will
make it easier for carriers who are
illegally brokering to continue the
detrimental practice. Sharp Transport
believes removal of the provisions will
make enforcement impossible.

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FMCSA Response
FMCSA has not proposed elimination
of written leasing agreements. FMCSA is
merely attempting to comply with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
requirements and Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR
1320 to calculate an accurate estimate of
the time and cost burdens to for-hire
freight motor carriers to collect
information during lease negotiations
and document the lease, receipts, and
other paperwork required by 49 CFR
part 376. The 60-day notice published
on March 27, 2013 was FMCSA’s first
required step in getting OMB to approve
the part 376 estimates of time and cost
burdens. This 30-day notice is the
second required step in the OMB
approval process for the part 376
estimates.
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.
Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87
on: March 12, 2014.
G. Kelly Leone,
Associate Administrator, Office of Research
and Information Technology and Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014–06839 Filed 3–26–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA–2012–0032]

Commercial Driver’s License
Standards: Application for Exemption;
Daimler Trucks North America
(Daimler)
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of application for
exemption; request for comments.
AGENCY:

FMCSA announces that
Daimler Trucks North America
(Daimler) has requested an exemption
for one commercial motor vehicle
(CMV) driver from the Federal
requirement to hold a commercial
driver’s license (CDL) issued by one of
the States. Daimler requests that the

SUMMARY:

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