PRA-2126-0060 Supporting Statement 04.16.24

Department of Transportation

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

“Motor Carrier Records Change Form” ICR

OMB Control No. 2126-0060

SUMMARY

• This ICR is a renewal. This ICR renewal has a program adjustment of an increase of 37,551 responses and 9,387 burden hours. The increase is due to the increase in the number of respondents who completed Form MCSA-5889 from 2020-2022.

• This ICR has one information collection (IC) described as follows: IC-1, Form MCSA-5889, Motor Carrier Records Change Form. This form is used by motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders to request name changes, address changes, and reinstatements of operating authority.

INTRODUCTION

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) submits to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) its request to renew a currently approved information collection request (ICR) titled, “Motor Carrier Records Change Form” (Form MCSA-5889) and covered by OMB Control Number 2126-0060. This form collects information required by FMCSA to process name changes, address changes, and reinstatements of operating authority for motor carriers, freight forwarders, and brokers. This ICR is due to expire on July 31, 2024.

Part A. Justification

1. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY

FMCSA registers for-hire motor carriers under 49 U.S.C. § 13902 (see Attachment A), surface freight forwarders under 49 U.S.C. 13903 (see Attachment B), and property brokers under 49 U.S.C. § 13904 (Attachment C). Each registration is effective from the date specified under 49 U.S.C. § 13905(c) (See Attachment D).

This information collection supports FMCSA’s Strategic Goal of Safety by providing motor carriers, freight forwarders, and brokers a means to more efficiently provide the necessary information required to process name and address changes and reinstatements of operating authority requests.

2. HOW, BY WHOM, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE IS THE INFORMATION USED

Under 49 CFR 365.413T, for-hire motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders are required to notify the Office of Registration (MC-RS) when they change the name or address of the company, using Form MCSA-5889. These entities can also use the same form to request reinstatement of a revoked operating authority. Respondents can submit the form online through the Licensing and Insurance (L&I) website, by fax, or by mail.

Form MCSA-5889 enables FMCSA to maintain up-to-date records so that the Agency can recognize the entity in question in case of enforcement actions or other procedures required to ensure that the carrier is willing and able to provide for-hire transportation services, and so that entities whose operating authority has been revoked can resume operation if they are not otherwise blocked from doing so. This multi-purpose form simplifies the process of gathering the information needed to process the entities’ requests in a timely manner, with the least amount of effort for all parties involved.

This ICR has one information collection (IC) described as follows: IC-1, Form MCSA-5889, Motor Carrier Records Change Form. This form is used by motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders to request name changes, address changes, and reinstatements of operating authority.

3. EXTENT OF AUTOMATED INFORMATION COLLECTION

This multi-purpose form, available on FMCSA’s website, is filed by registrants on a voluntary, as-needed basis. Entities may file the address change, name change, or reinstatement requests by fax, mail, or online through the L&I web site.

Between 2020 and 2022, approximately 1 percent of forms were submitted by mail; 7 percent were submitted by fax; and 92 percent were submitted online. The information collected is then entered in the Licensing & Insurance (L&I) database by FMCSA staff.

4. EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION

There are no similar paperwork burdens made by any other Federal agency or within the DOT that would result in duplication of this information.

5. EFFORTS TO MINIMIZE THE BURDEN ON SMALL BUSINESSES

Paperwork burdens have been minimized for small businesses. This form is completed by filling in blank spaces with limited information to identify the registrant and its operations, and in the case of the name changes and reinstatements, provide credit card information for payment of the required fees. The information collected is the minimum necessary to accomplish the purpose of the filing and simplifies the process and reduces the labor required of the small business.

6. IMPACT OF LESS FREQUENT COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Form MCSA-5889 is submitted to FMCSA on an “as-needed” basis. As outlined in Part A, Question 1 above, it cannot be done less frequently per registration requirements.

7. SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

There are no special circumstances with this information collection.

8. COMPLIANCE WITH 5 CFR 1320.8:

On December 14, 2023, FMCSA published a notice in the day Federal Register (88 FR 86721) with a 60-day public comment period to announce its intention to submit this ICR to OMB for renewal (see Attachment E). FMCSA received no comments in response to the published notice.

9. PAYMENTS OR GIFTS TO RESPONDENTS

Respondents are not provided with any payment or gift for this information collection.

10. ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY

These records are not confidential.

11. JUSTIFICATION FOR COLLECTION OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION

The collection of credit card information is used to pay the fees required to process the name change or reinstatement of an entities operating authority. Under 49 CFR 365.413T, for-hire motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders are required to notify the Office of Registration when they change the name of the company or when entities request reinstatement of a revoked operating authority. The credit card information is stored in an encrypted form in FMCSA’s system only during the processing of the operating authority application fee. Except for the last four digits of the card number, the credit card number is deleted after the operating authority transaction payment process has been completed. The last four digits of the credit card are stored to provide FMCSA a means to trace un-authorized or suspicious transactions.

12. ESTIMATE OF BURDEN HOURS FOR INFORMATION REQUESTED

FMCSA estimates that motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders will collectively file Form MCSA-5889 approximately 64,673 times annually for each of the three years covered by this ICR. This figure is based on the average annual number of requests FMCSA received by mail, fax, and web from 2020 to 2022.¹ Tables 1 through 3 display the number of Name Changes, Address Changes, and Reinstatements received in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Table 1 Name Changes

CY	# Name Change by Mail	# Name Change by Fax	# Name Change Online
2020	72	2,336	7,559
2021	28	903	15,286
2022	53	1,722	13,746
Total	153	4,961	36,591

Table 2 Address Changes

CY	# Address Change by Mail		# Address Change by Fax	# Address Change Online
2020	60		1,940	17,694
2021	22		702	35,842
2022	32		1,028	41,460
Total	114		3,670	94,996

Table 3 Reinstatements

CY	# Reinstatements by Mail	# Reinstatements by Fax	# Reinstatements Online
2020	94	3,025	11,579
2021	30	963	17,634
2022	30	957	19,222
Total	153	4,946	48,435

Note that Form MCSA-5889 is submitted as needed; a respondent may submit more than one Form MCSA-5889 per year. In addition, a respondent may request a name change, an address change, and reinstatement using a single copy of Form MCSA-5889. For the purposes of this ICR, FMCSA assumes an entity will submit one type of request (name change, address change, or reinstatement) per form. Therefore, the 64,673 figure may be a slight overestimate of the number of respondents and responses received. Table 4 provides the average annual estimated number of filings by method of submission.

Table 4. Estimated annualized number of respondents by type of request and method of submission.

Submission Method	Name Changes	Address Changes	Reinstatements	Total
	(a)	(b)	(c)	(d = a + b + c)
Mail	153	114	153	420
Fax	4,961	3,670	4,946	13,577
Web	36,591	94,996	48,435	180,022
Total	41,705	98,780	53,534	194,019
Average	13,902	32,927	17,845	64,673

Labor Cost

Form MCSA-5889 asks for limited information which is readily available to the filer. FMCSA assumes that a motor carrier, freight forwarder, or broker employee equivalent to a General and Operations Managers (BLS Occupation Code 11-1021) in the Truck Transportation industry (North American Industry Classification System [NAICS] code 484000) will complete the form in approximately 15 minutes.

The median hourly wage of a General and Operations Manager (BLS Occupation Code 11-1021) in the Truck Transportation industry (North American Industry Classification System [NAICS] code 484000) is $38.77.² Although loaded wage data are not available for this Occupation Code/NAICS Code Classification, FMCSA first estimates a load factor of 1.51 by dividing the total cost of compensation for private industry workers of the trade, transportation, and utilities industry ($45.08) by the average cost of hourly wages and salaries ($29.84), as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for June 2023.³ Multiplying the median hourly wage by the load factor results in a loaded hourly wage of $58.57 ($38.77 × 1.51).

As shown in Table 5, the total annual labor cost for this ICR is approximately $946,960.

Table 5. Estimated annualized burden hours and burden hour cost.

Form	Respondents	Responses	Hours Per Response4	Total Burden Hours	Total Burden Hour Cost
	(a)	(b = a × 1)	(c)	(d = b × c)	(e = d × $58.57)
MCSA-5889	64,673	64,673	0.25	16,168	$946,960

Estimated Annual Number of Responses: 64,673 [13,902 name changes + 32,927 address changes + 17,845 reinstatements = 64,673 responses].

Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 64,673 [64,673 respondents × 1 response per respondent = 64,673 responses].

Estimated Total Annual Burden: 16,168 hours [64,673 responses × 0.25 hours per response = 16,168 hours].

13. ESTIMATE OF TOTAL ANNUAL COSTS TO RESPONDENTS

In addition to the labor costs to complete the form, there are associated filing fees and mailing costs. For filing, there is a $14 fee for a name change request, an $80 fee for a reinstatement, and $0 fee for an address change request.

The total fees associated with this ICR is $4,866,590, an average of $1,622,197 per year. Table 6 summarizes this calculation.

Table 6. Estimated total fees by method of submission.

Submission	Name Changes × Fee	Address Changes× Fee	Reinstatements × Fee	Total Fees
	(a)	(b)	(c)	(a + b +c =d)
Mail	$2,148	$0	$12,238	$14,385
Fax	$69,448	$0	$395,682	$465,131
Web	$512,274	$0	$3,874,800	$4,387,074
Total	$583,870	$0	$4,282,720	$4,866,590
Average	$194,623	$0	$1,427,573	$1,622,197

In addition to filing costs, there is the cost to mail forms. FMCSA estimates respondents will file approximately 420 forms annually by mail. This estimate is based on the average annual number of forms received by mail from 2020 to 2022. Assuming a flat cost of $1.00 for an envelope and postage, the total annual cost to respondents who choose to mail their Motor Carrier Records Change Form is approximately $420 ($1.00 × 420 forms). As noted above, FMCSA assumes the number of forms received by mail will continue to decrease and, therefore, assumes this cost is likely an overestimate.

There are no non-labor costs to the respondents, such as start-up costs or operation/maintenance costs, to be reported. FMCSA does not separately account for start-up costs, operation/maintenance and record keeping costs within this ICR because these costs do not exceed routine motor carrier business practices.

In conclusion, the average annual non-labor costs are $1,622,337 ($4,866,590 filing fees + $420 mail cost / 3 = $1,622,337).

14. ESTIMATE OF COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The Motor Carrier Records Change Form will be processed by a Grade 7 Transportation Assistant or a data entry contractor.⁵ The labor cost of this activity is estimated to be $36.92 per hour, comprising wages of $28.84 per hour and 28% in benefits ($28.84 × 1.28). FMCSA estimates that processing each form takes approximately 15 minutes, or 0.25 hours. The estimated total annual cost to Federal Government is $596,854 ($36.92 per hour × 64,673 forms × 0.25 hours per form).

15. EXPLANATION OF PROGRAM CHANGES OR ADJUSTMENTS

The currently approved version of this ICR estimated the average annual burden to be 6,781 annual burden hours, with 27,122 total annual respondents. For this renewal, the estimated average annual burden is increased to 16,168, with a total average annual 64,673 respondents. The annual burden hourly increase of 9,387 is due to the increase in average annual respondents. Table 7 displays these changes.

Table 7. Change in Burden from Approved Collection

Information Collection Version	Annual Number of Respondents	Annual Number of Responses	Annual Burden Hours	Non-Wage Related Costs
Currently Approved under OMB Control Number 2126-0016	27,122	27,122	6,781	$997,323
Revised Estimates	64,673	64,673	16,168	$1,622,337
Total Change in Burden from the Currently Approved Collection of Information	37,551	37,551	9,387	$625.014

16. PUBLICATION OF RESULTS OF DATA COLLECTION

N/A. This information will not be published.

17. APPROVAL FOR NOT DISPLAYING THE EXPIRATION DATE OF OMB APPROVAL

FMCSA does not request such approval.

18. EXCEPTIONS TO CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

None.

ATTACHMENTS:

A. 49 U.S.C. § 13902 Registration of Motor Carriers

B. 49 U.S.C. 13903, Registration of Freight Forwarders

C. 49 U.S.C. § 13904, Registration of Brokers

D. 49 U.S.C. § 13905(c), Effective Periods of Registration

E. 60-day Federal Register notice (88 FR 86721), published on December 14, 2023

1 L&I snapshot as of May 29, 2020, and contractor data.

2 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2022 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: NAICS 484000 - Truck Transportation. Available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes111021.htm. Accessed September 15, 2023.

3 BLS. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation – June 2023. Table 4. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for private industry workers by occupational and industry group. Available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t04.htm. Accessed September 15, 2023.

4 Fifteen (15) minutes divided by 60 minutes is equal to .25 hours.

5 U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 2023 General Schedule (GS) Locality Pay Tables for Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA. Available at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2023/DCB_h.pdf. Accessed September 15, 2023.

10