Attachment A - 83 FR 62505

Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 233 / Tuesday, December 4, 2018 / Rules and Regulations
and 390.305) is extended until January
1, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms.
Loretta Bitner, (202) 366–2400,
loretta.bitner@dot.gov, Office of
Enforcement and Compliance. FMCSA
office hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal
holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
49 CFR Part 390
[Docket No. FMCSA–2012–0103]
RIN 2126–AC22

Lease and Interchange of Vehicles;
Motor Carriers of Passengers;
Extension of Compliance Date
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Final rule; extension of
compliance date.
AGENCY:

FMCSA extends the
compliance date of the May 27, 2015,
final rule titled ‘‘Lease and Interchange
of Vehicles; Motor Carriers of
Passengers,’’ from January 1, 2019, to
January 1, 2021. The final rule received
37 petitions for reconsideration. To
address the concerns in the petitions,
FMCSA initiated a new notice of
proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that also
included a proposal to extend the
compliance date of the 2015 final rule
from January 1, 2019, to January 1, 2021.
This extension of the compliance date is
necessary to provide time to consider all
the issues raised in comments to the
NPRM and to publish a final rule, while
giving motor carriers sufficient time to
comply with the revised requirements.
DATES:
Effective date: December 4, 2018 until
January 1, 2021.
Compliance date: As of December 4,
2018, the compliance date for the
requirements in subpart F of 49 CFR
part 390 (§§ 390.300T, 390.301, 390.303,
SUMMARY:

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A. History
On May 27, 2015, FMCSA published
a final rule titled ‘‘Lease and
Interchange of Vehicles; Motor Carriers
of Passengers’’ (80 FR 30164). The
American Bus Association (ABA) and
United Motorcoach Association (UMA)
filed a joint request for an extension of
the June 26, 2015, deadline to submit
petitions for reconsideration of the final
rule (80 FR 37553). On July 1, 2015, the
Agency extended the deadline for such
petitions until August 25, 2015 (80 FR
37553).
The Agency received 37 petitions for
reconsideration, all of which were filed
in the public docket referenced above.
After the initial review of the petitions,
FMCSA held a meeting on October 28,
2015, with a cross section of the
petitioners. Attending were
representatives from small and large bus
companies, charter and regular-route
operations, and diverse geographic areas
of the nation. Additionally, two
insurance company representatives
were invited due to litigation and
financial liability concerns. The purpose
of the meeting was to have an open
discussion and to gather additional
details about petitioners’ specific
operations and concerns.
Based on these discussions, and after
further analysis, FMCSA concluded that
some aspects of the petitions for
reconsideration have merit. The Agency
therefore extended the compliance date
to January 1, 2018, to allay stakeholder
concerns that there would not be
sufficient time to adjust passenger
carrier operations before compliance
with the regulations was required (81
FR 13998, March 16, 2016). After further
review of the petitions, the Agency
announced on August 31, 2016, that it
intended to consider changes to four
aspects of the 2015 final rule, but it also
denied requests to reconsider other
issues raised by petitioners (81 FR
59951). The August 31 document
announced that a public roundtable
would be held to discuss the four issues.
The roundtable was held on October 31,
2016.
On June 16, 2017, FMCSA published
a final rule (2017 final rule) and a

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proposal in the Federal Register (82 FR
27766, and 27768). The 2017 final rule
extended the compliance date of the
2015 final rule from January 1, 2018, to
January 1, 2019. The proposal provided
information about FMCSA’s planned
revisions to the 2015 final rule and
requested public comment on those
revisions.
B. Related Activity
To address the concerns in the
petitions, FMCSA published an NPRM
on September 20, 2018 (83 FR 47764).
This NPRM (RIN 2126–AC07) proposed
to extend the compliance date of the
2015 final rule from January 1, 2019, to
January 1, 2021. It also included
proposed revisions to the 2015 final rule
and requested public comment by
November 19, 2018.
In October 2018, several passenger
carriers petitioned FMCSA to extend the
compliance date immediately in
accordance with the Agency’s prior
commitments and provide sufficient
time to finalize the NPRM, to avoid an
uncertain operating environment,
confusion, and disruption in industry
operations. ABA wrote that the outcome
of an uncertain business environment is
entirely avoidable. The Agency should
take the same action it has taken on two
prior occasions, and simply publish a
final rule to extend the compliance date
of the current rule. ABA argued that
extending the compliance date would
not affect safety, as the current rule has
never been in force; nor would an
extension interfere with the rulemaking
process to finalize revisions to the
current rule. Further, the Agency has
committed to extending the compliance
date on several occasions for the stated
purpose of allowing sufficient time to
complete revisions to the current rule.
C. Comments Received
FMCSA received 15 comments
supporting the extension of the
compliance date of the 2015 final rule
to January 1, 2021. The extension is
necessary to provide time to consider all
the issues and to publish a final rule,
while giving motor carriers sufficient
time to comply with the revised
requirements. FMCSA therefore extends
the 2019 compliance date until January
1, 2021.
D. Extending the Compliance Date
The Agency is extending the
compliance date by 2 years, to January
1, 2021. The temporary section added to
subpart F of 49 CFR part 390 when a
previous extension of the compliance
date was issued, is being updated to
include the new compliance date. The
temporary section continues to be in

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 233 / Tuesday, December 4, 2018 / Rules and Regulations
as supplemented by E.O. 13563 (76 FR
3821, January 21, 2011), Improving
Regulation and Regulatory Review.
Accordingly, the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) has not reviewed it
under that Order. It is also not
significant within the meaning of DOT
regulatory policies and procedures
(DOT Order 2100.5 dated May 22, 1980;
44 FR 11034 (February 26, 1979)). This
final rule provides regulatory relief from
January 1, 2019, through December 31,
2020, from all compliance costs
associated with the 2015 final rule. The
Agency’s estimates of the cost of the
2015 final rule are thoroughly explained

effect only from December 4, 2018
through January 1, 2021.
II. Regulatory Analyses
A. Executive Order (E.O.) 12866
(Regulatory Planning and Review), E.O.
13563 (Improving Regulation and
Regulatory Review), and DOT
Regulatory Policies and Procedures
FMCSA performed an analysis of the
impacts of this final rule and
determined it is not a significant
regulatory action under section 3(f) of
E.O. 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4,
1993), Regulatory Planning and Review,

in that rule’s Regulatory Evaluation
(available in docket FMCSA–2012–
0103) and were updated to reflect more
recently available data for the NPRM.
The analysis of today’s final rule utilizes
the same data and methodology as the
NPRM.
To estimate the costs that will result
from the final rule, the Agency
calculated the total compliance costs
from 2019 through 2028, albeit with no
costs incurred in years 2019 and 2020.
These costs are compared to a baseline
in which the compliance costs of the
2015 final rule are incurred beginning in
2019, as shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1—TOTAL COST OF THE FINAL RULE
[In thousands of 2016$]
3% discount rate
Year

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028

No-action baseline
costs

7% discount rate
Final rule costs
relative to
no-action
baseline costs

Final rule
costs

No-action baseline
costs

Final rule
costs

Final rule costs
relative to
no-action
baseline costs

.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................
.................................

$33,773
6,083
5,956
5,831
5,709
5,590
5,473
5,359
5,247
5,137

$0
0
32,376
5,831
5,709
5,590
5,473
5,359
5,247
5,137

($33,773)
(6,083)
26,421
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

$32,510
5,636
5,312
5,007
4,719
4,448
4,192
3,951
3,724
3,510

$0
0
28,879
5,007
4,719
4,448
4,192
3,951
3,724
3,510

($32,510)
(5,636)
23,567
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

10-Year Total ............

84,158

70,723

(13,435)

73,009

58,429

(14,580)

Annualized ................

9,866

8,291

(1,575)

10,395

8,319

(2,076)

The Agency estimates that the final
rule will result in a cost savings of $13.4
million discounted at 3 percent and
$14.6 million discounted at 7 percent
over the 10-year analysis period.
Expressed on an annualized basis, this
equates to a cost savings of $1.6 million
at a 3 percent discount rate and $2.1
million at a 7 percent discount rate. All
values are in 2016 dollars.
B. E.O. 13771 (Reducing Regulation and
Controlling Regulatory Costs)
This rule is an E.O. 13771
deregulatory action.1 The present value
of the cost savings of this rule, measured
on an infinite horizon at a 7 percent
discount rate, is approximately $11.9
million. Expressed on an annualized
basis, the cost savings are $0.8 million.
These values are expressed in 2016
dollars.
1 Executive Office of the President. Executive
Order 13771 of January 30, 2017. ‘‘Reducing
Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs.’’ 82
FR 9339–9341. February 3, 2017.

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C. Regulatory Flexibility Act
Section 603 of the Regulatory
Flexibility Act (RFA), as amended by
the Small Business Regulatory
Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub.
L. 104–121, 110 Stat. 857, March 29,
1996) and the Small Business Jobs Act
of 2010 (Pub. L. 111–240, September 27,
2010), requires FMCSA to perform a
detailed analysis of the potential impact
of the final rule on small entities.
Accordingly, DOT policy requires that
agencies shall strive to lessen any
adverse effects on these businesses and
other entities. The Final Regulatory
Flexibility Analysis conducted as part of
the May 27, 2015, rule continues to be
applicable to this final rule.
D. Assistance for Small Entities
In accordance with section 213(a) of
the Small Business Regulatory
Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996,
FMCSA wants to assist small entities in
understanding this rule so that they can
better evaluate its effects on themselves.
If the rule would affect your small

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business, organization, or governmental
jurisdiction and you have questions
concerning its provisions or options for
compliance, please consult the FMCSA
point of contact, Loretta Bitner, listed in
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
section of this rule.
Small businesses may send comments
on the actions of Federal employees
who enforce or otherwise determine
compliance with Federal regulations to
the SBA’s Small Business and
Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement
Ombudsman and the Regional Small
Business Regulatory Fairness Boards.
The Ombudsman evaluates these
actions annually and rates each agency’s
responsiveness to small business. If you
wish to comment on actions by
employees of FMCSA, call 1–888–REG–
FAIR (1–888–734–3247). DOT has a
policy ensuring the rights of small
entities to regulatory enforcement
fairness and an explicit policy against
retaliation for exercising these rights.

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 233 / Tuesday, December 4, 2018 / Rules and Regulations
E. Federalism (E.O. 13132)
A rule has federalism implications if
it has a substantial direct effect on State
or local governments and would either
preempt State law or impose a
substantial direct cost of compliance on
the States. FMCSA analyzed this rule
under E.O. 13132 and has determined
that it has no federalism implications.
F. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of
1995
This final rule does not impose an
unfunded Federal mandate, as defined
by the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1532 et seq.), that
would result in the expenditure by
State, local, and tribal governments, in
the aggregate, or by the private sector, of
$161 million (which is the value of $100
million in 2017 after adjusting for
inflation) or more in any 1 year.
G. E.O. 12988 (Civil Justice Reform)
This final rule meets applicable
standards in sections 3(a) and 3(b)(2) of
E.O. 12988, Civil Justice Reform, to
minimize litigation, eliminate
ambiguity, and reduce burden.
H. E.O. 13045 (Protection of Children)
FMCSA analyzed this action under
E.O. 13045, Protection of Children from
Environmental Health Risks and Safety
Risks. The Agency has determined that
this rule does not create an
environmental risk to health or safety
that would disproportionately affect
children.
I. E.O. 12630 (Taking of Private
Property)
FMCSA reviewed this final rule in
accordance with E.O. 12630,
Governmental Actions and Interference
with Constitutionally Protected Property
Rights, and has determined it would not
effect a taking of private property or
otherwise have taking implications.
J. Privacy Impact Assessment
Section 522 of title I of division H of
the Consolidated Appropriations Act,
2005, enacted December 8, 2004 (Pub. L.
108–447, 118 Stat. 2809, 3268, 5 U.S.C.
552a note), requires the Agency to
conduct a privacy impact assessment
(PIA) of a regulation that will affect the
privacy of individuals. This final rule
does not require the collection of any
personally identifiable information.
The Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a)
applies only to Federal agencies and any
non-Federal agency which receives
records contained in a system of records
from a Federal agency for use in a
matching program. FMCSA has
determined this final rule does not

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result in a new or revised Privacy Act
System of Records for FMCSA.
K. E.O. 12372 (Intergovernmental
Review)
The regulations implementing E.O.
12372 regarding intergovernmental
consultation on Federal programs and
activities do not apply to this program.
L. Paperwork Reduction Act
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.),
Federal agencies must obtain approval
from the OMB for each collection of
information they conduct, sponsor, or
require through regulations. On August
5, 2015, OMB approved the May 27,
2015, final rule’s two information
collections titled ‘‘Commercial Motor
Vehicle Marking Requirements,’’ OMB
No. 2126–0054, and ‘‘Lease and
Interchange of Motor Vehicles,’’ OMB
No. 2126–0056. OMB renewed these
collections of information in October
2018, and they will both expire on
October 31, 2021.
M. Environment (NEPA)
FMCSA analyzed this final rule in
accordance with the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). The
Agency has determined under its
environmental procedures Order 5610.1,
published March 1, 2004, in the Federal
Register (69 FR 9680), that this action is
categorically excluded from further
environmental documentation under
Appendix 2, Paragraphs 6.y(2) and
6.y(7) of the Order (69 FR 9702). These
categorical exclusions relate to:
• 6.y(2) Regulations implementing
motor carrier identification and
registration reports; and
• 6.y(7) Regulations implementing
prohibitions on motor carriers, agents,
officers, representatives, and employees
from making fraudulent or intentionally
false statements on any application,
certificate, report, or record required by
FMCSA.
Thus, this final action does not
require an environmental assessment or
an environmental impact statement.
N. E.O. 13211 (Energy Supply,
Distribution, or Use)
FMCSA has analyzed this rule under
Executive Order 13211, Actions
Concerning Regulations That
Significantly Affect Energy Supply,
Distribution, or Use. The Agency has
determined that it is not a ‘‘significant
energy action’’ under that Executive
Order because it is not economically
significant and is not likely to have a
significant adverse effect on the supply,
distribution, or use of energy.

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O. E.O. 13175 (Indian Tribal
Governments)
This rule does not have tribal
implications under E.O. 13175,
Consultation and Coordination with
Indian Tribal Governments, because it
does not have a substantial direct effect
on one or more Indian tribes, on the
relationship between the Federal
Government and Indian tribes, or on the
distribution of power and
responsibilities between the Federal
Government and Indian tribes.
P. National Technology Transfer and
Advancement Act (Technical
Standards)
The National Technology Transfer
and Advancement Act (NTTAA) (15
U.S.C. 272 note) directs agencies to use
voluntary consensus standards in their
regulatory activities unless the agency
provides Congress, through OMB, with
an explanation of why using these
standards would be inconsistent with
applicable law or otherwise impractical.
Voluntary consensus standards (e.g.,
specifications of materials, performance,
design, or operation; test methods;
sampling procedures; and related
management systems practices) are
standards that are developed or adopted
by voluntary consensus standards
bodies. This rule does not use technical
standards. Therefore, FMCSA did not
consider the use of voluntary consensus
standards.
List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 390
Highway safety, Intermodal
transportation, Motor carriers, Motor
vehicle safety, Reporting and
recordkeeping requirements.
The Final Rule
For the reasons stated in the
preamble, FMCSA amends 49 CFR part
390 in title 49, Code of Federal
Regulations, chapter III, subchapter B,
as follows:
PART 390—FEDERAL MOTOR
CARRIER SAFETY REGULATIONS;
GENERAL
1. The authority citation for part 390
continues to read as follows:

■

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 504, 508, 31132,
31133, 31134, 31136, 31137, 31144, 31149,
31151, 31502; sec. 114, Pub. L. 103–311, 108
Stat. 1673, 1677; secs. 212 and 217, Pub. L.
106–159, 113 Stat. 1748, 1766, 1767; sec. 229,
Pub. L. 106–159 (as added and transferred by
sec. 4115 and amended by secs. 4130–4132,
Pub. L. 109–59, 119 Stat. 1144, 1726, 1743;
sec. 4136, Pub. L. 109–59, 119 Stat. 1144,
1745; secs. 32101(d) and 32934, Pub. L. 112–
141, 126 Stat. 405, 778, 830; sec. 2, Pub. L.
113–125, 128 Stat. 1388; secs. 5403, 5518,
and 5524, Pub. L. 114–94, 129 Stat. 1312,

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1548, 1558, 1560; sec. 2, Pub. L. 115–105,
131 Stat. 2263; and 49 CFR 1.81, 1.81a, 1.87.

2. Effective December 4, 2018 until
January 1, 2021, revise § 390.300T to
read as follows:

■

§ 390.300T

Compliance date.

Motor carriers of passengers operating
CMVs under a lease or interchange
agreement are subject to §§ 390.301,
390.303, and 390.305 of this subpart on
January 1, 2021.
Issued under the authority delegated
in 49 CFR 1.87 on: November 23, 2018.
Raymond P. Martinez,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018–26249 Filed 12–3–18; 8:45 am]
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