Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 41 / Wednesday, March 4, 2009 / Notices 9471 

requirements of section 4129 while 

continuing to ensure that operation of 

CMVs by drivers with ITDM will 

achieve the requisite level of safety 

required of all exemptions granted 

under 49 USC. 31136(e). 

Section 4129(d) also directed FMCSA 

to ensure that drivers of CMVs with 

ITDM are not held to a higher standard 

than other drivers, with the exception of 

limited operating, monitoring and 

medical requirements that are deemed 

medically necessary. FMCSA concluded 

that all of the operating, monitoring and 

medical requirements set out in the 

September 3, 2003 Notice, except as 

modified, were in compliance with 

section 4129(d). Therefore, all of the 

requirements set out in the September 3, 

2003 Notice, except as modified by the 

Notice in the Federal Register on 

November 8, 2005 (70 FR 67777), 

remain in effect. 

Issued on: February 26, 2009. 

Larry W. Minor, 

Associate Administrator for Policy and 

Program Development. 

[FR Doc. E9–4577 Filed 3–3–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Transit Administration 

[Docket No: FTA–2008–0009] 

National Transit Database: Policy on 

Reporting of Coordinated Human 

Services Transportation Data 

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration 

(FTA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of Final Policy on 

Reporting of Coordinated Human 

Services Transportation Data to the 

National Transit Database. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) 

policy on the reporting of coordinated 

human services transportation data to 

the National Transit Database (NTD). On 

August 12, 2008, FTA proposed a new 

policy clarifying how transit providers 

reporting to the NTD may include 

sponsored trips in their reports. FTA 

received two comments on the proposed 

policy and is now formally adopting the 

new policy. 

DATES: Effective Date: March 4, 2009. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

program issues, John D. Giorgis, Office 

of Budget and Policy, (202) 366–5430 

(telephone); (202) 366–7989 (fax); or 

john.giorgis@dot.gov (e-mail). For legal 

issues, Richard Wong, Office of the 

Chief Counsel, (202) 366–0675 

(telephone); (202) 366–3809 (fax); or 

richard.wong@dot.gov (e-mail). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The National Transit Database (NTD) 

was established by Congress ‘‘to help 

meet the needs of * * * the public for 

information on which to base public 

transportation service planning * * *’’ 

(49 U.S.C. 5335). To support this goal, 

recipients or beneficiaries of Urbanized 

Area Formula Grants (49 U.S.C. 5307) or 

Other Than Urbanized Area Formula 

Grants (49 U.S.C. 5311) are required to 

report to the NTD. Some other providers 

of transit service in urbanized areas 

report voluntarily to the NTD for 

purposes of benefitting their local 

urbanized area in the urbanized area 

apportionments. Currently, over 650 

transit providers in urbanized areas and 

over 60 State, Territorial, and Tribal 

Departments of Transportation 

representing over 1,300 transit providers 

in rural areas report to the NTD through 

an Internet-based reporting system. Each 

year, performance data from the 

urbanized area submissions are used to 

apportion over $6 billion of FTA funds 

under the Urbanized Area Formula 

Grants and Fixed-Guideway 

Modernization Grants (49 U.S.C. 

5309(b)(2)) Programs. These data are 

also used in the annual National Transit 

Summaries and Trends report, the 

biennial Conditions and Performance 

Report to Congress, in meeting FTA’s 

obligations under the Government 

Performance and Results Act, and in 

public reports available on http:// 

www.ntdprogram.gov. 

For many years, it has been FTA’s 

policy to require urbanized area transit 

providers reporting demand response 

service to the NTD to exclude from their 

reports service data for certain 

sponsored trips. These trips were 

typically arranged and paid for by a 

third party for a specific group of clients 

(such as participants in programs like 

Medicaid, Head Start, sheltered 

workshops, or assisted living centers), 

and these sponsored trips were often not 

open to the general public at large. 

Excluding data for these trips from the 

NTD also excluded them from the 

calculation of the apportionment of 

formula grants for urbanized areas. In 

light of FTA’s policies and guidance on 

Coordinated Human Services 

Transportation, FTA proposed to clarify 

this policy for the 2008 NTD Report 

Year to specify that transit providers are 

to report data for all of their demand 

response service as public 

transportation, except for those services 

that are defined as charter service under 

FTA’s recently revised charter rule (49 

CFR 604, 73 FR 2326, January 14, 2008). 

FTA also proposed to require transit 

agencies in urbanized areas to 

separately report their ‘‘regular unlinked 

passenger trips’’ and their ‘‘sponsored 

demand response unlinked passenger 

trips’’ for demand response service. 

II. Comments and FTA Response to 

Comments 

On August 12, 2008, FTA published 

a notice in the Federal Register (73 FR 

47641) inviting comments on this 

proposed policy on reporting 

coordinated human services 

transportation data to the NTD. FTA 

received two comments on the proposed 

change. 

One commenter supported the 

proposed policy. A second commenter 

objected to this policy on the grounds 

that the policy would impose NTD 

reporting requirements on human 

services transportation providers that 

are coordinated through a brokerage 

operated by a reporting transit provider, 

and that the burdensome nature of the 

NTD reporting requirements on these 

small-scale human service 

transportation providers would result in 

a reduction in service from these 

providers. The commenter noted that 

almost all of the human services 

transportation providers coordinated 

through the brokerage received very 

little Federal funding, and that this 

Federal funding was usually not 

through the Section 5307 Program. The 

commenter also noted that many of the 

required NTD reporting elements are not 

currently collected at all, and the 

ridership metrics that are collected are 

not compliant with FTA Circular 

2710.1A. 

Response: FTA clarifies that this 

policy only applies to what trips a 

transit provider reports to the NTD, but 

does not extend NTD reporting 

requirements to any other transit 

provider. The NTD requires a transit 

provider to report all transit trips 

provided using its own directlyoperated equipment or through its own 

subcontractors. Coordinating a trip 

through a brokerage does not create a 

subcontractor relationship with the 

other human service transportation 

providers participating in a brokerage. 

Thus, such trips should not be reported 

to the NTD by a transit provider 

operating a brokerage. The only trips 

from the brokerage that the transit 

provider should report to the NTD are 

those referred to itself and carried out 

using its own directly-operated 

equipment or using its purchased 

transportation subcontractors. 

9472 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 41 / Wednesday, March 4, 2009 / Notices 

If a transit provider wishes to benefit 

from the service data generated by trips 

coordinated through a brokerage, it may 

do so by requesting a separate NTD 

Identification Number (NTD ID) for 

making a consolidated report on behalf 

of the participants in the brokerage. The 

transit provider would then be 

responsible for ensuring that this 

consolidated report is fully in 

compliance with all NTD reporting 

requirements found in the Reporting 

Manuals and with the Uniform System 

of Accounts. 

FTA also wishes to clarify that it is 

not necessary for the ridership metrics 

of unlinked passenger trips (UPT) and 

passenger miles traveled (PMT) reported 

to the NTD to be collected as described 

in FTA Circular 2710.A. This Circular 

delineates requirements for reporting 

UPT and PMT data through statistical 

sampling when 100% counts of UPT 

and PMT are either unavailable or 

unreliable. Transit providers should 

report 100% counts of UPT and PMT to 

the NTD whenever they are available 

and reliable, and should not report this 

data to the NTD through statistical 

sampling in these cases. Almost all 

demand response systems keep records 

of their UPT sufficient to report a 100% 

count. Most demand response systems 

also record origins and destinations of 

their passengers, which may be used to 

generate a 100% count of PMT, and so 

avoid statistical sampling. 

III. Final Policy 

This policy shall take effect for the 

2008 NTD Report Year, so that any 

transit provider wishing to take 

advantage of this policy for the 2008 

NTD Report Year may do so. Since 

many transit providers have already 

begun completing their 2008 NTD 

Reports, however, FTA will also accept 

any reports from the 2008 NTD Report 

Year made under the old policy. This 

policy will take effect for all agencies 

beginning with the 2009 NTD Report 

Year. Any transit provider unable to 

comply with this policy for 2009 may 

request a waiver for up to one year from 

FTA through the efile functionality of 

the NTD Online Reporting System. 

Transit providers should report all 

demand response services provided to 

individuals as public transportation 

services, regardless of whether the trip 

was sponsored in whole or in part by a 

third party, except for those services 

that are defined as charter service under 

FTA’s recently revised charter rule (49 

CFR Part 604, 73 FR 2326, January 14, 

2008). Service that meets the definition 

of charter service must be reported on 

a quarterly basis to the charter 

registration Web site, as required by the 

charter rule, and data for these trips 

should not be reported as revenue 

service to the NTD. 

Charter service is defined, in part, as 

‘‘transportation provided * * * at the 

request of a third party for the exclusive 

use of a bus or van at a negotiated 

price,’’ with the caveat that ‘‘charter 

service * * * does not include demand 

response service to individuals.’’ Transit 

providers reporting to the NTD may 

distinguish their demand response 

services, particularly their sponsored 

demand response service, from charter 

service by a number of factors: 

(1) Charter service is exclusive, 

whereas demand response service is 

shared-ride. If the transit provider may 

mix passengers from a trip sponsor with 

other demand response passengers on 

the same trip, then the trip is sharedride service, and service data for that 

trip should be reported to the NTD as 

public transportation. 

(2) Charter service is service to a 

group, whereas demand response 

service is service to individuals. Service 

to individuals can be identified by a 

vehicle trip that includes multiple 

origins, multiple destinations, or both, 

even when the clients have exclusive 

use of the vehicle. Some demand 

response sponsored trips carried out as 

part of a Coordinated Human Services 

Transportation Plan, such as trips for 

Head Start, assisted living centers, or 

sheltered workshops, may be provided 

on an exclusive basis, but are provided 

to service multiple origins to a single 

destination, a single origin to multiple 

destinations, or even multiple origins to 

multiple destinations. Transit providers 

should report service data for these trips 

to the NTD as public transportation. 

(3) Charter service is for a specific 

event or function, whereas demand 

response service is regular and 

continuing. Some demand response 

sponsored trips carried out as part of a 

Coordinated Human Services 

Transportation Plan may be exclusive, 

and may be for a group from a single 

origin to a single destination, but may 

occur on a frequently reoccurring basis, 

such as daily, weekly, biweekly, or 

monthly. Transit providers should 

report service data for these trips to the 

NTD as public transportation. 

(4) Demand response service may also 

include certain trips that are exclusive, 

for a group, from a single origin to a 

single destination, and that reoccur on 

a less-frequent basis than once per 

month, so long as these trips are 

arranged and operated under the same 

terms and conditions as the demand 

response system for individuals. These 

terms and conditions include advance 

notice requirements, service windows 

for pick-up and drop-off, and price. 

Service carried out by the demand 

response units of transit providers that 

are exclusive, for a group, from a single 

origin to a single destination, for a 

single event, and not under the usual 

terms and conditions of the demand 

response system for individuals should 

be considered to be charter service. 

Transit providers should report these 

services to the charter registration Web 

site. The following diagram provides a 

visual representation of this guidance. 

Transit providers reporting to the 

NTD must specifically exclude from 

their reports on revenue service any 

service that meets the definition of 

‘‘charter service’’ under the charter rule, 

and thus, must be reported to the 

charter registration Web site. This 

exclusion includes charter service 

legally provided to a Qualified Human 

Services Organization (QHSO), as 

provided for by the charter rule. 

Transit providers reporting to the 

NTD must report their regular unlinked 

passenger trips and their sponsored 

unlinked passenger trips separately for 

demand response service, but not for 

any other modes of service. Regular 

unlinked passenger trips would refer to 

those demand response trips that are 

arranged and paid for by individuals, 

even when those individuals pay the 

fare with user-side subsidies, such as 

coupons or passes provided a QHSO. 

Regular unlinked passenger trips would 

include all demand response trips 

provided pursuant to the requirements 

of the Americans with Disabilities Act 

of 1990. Sponsored unlinked passenger 

trips would include all trips where the 

transit provider is directly reimbursed 

in whole or in part by some third party 

that has helped arrange for the trips. 

This distinction would make reporting 

of these services for urbanized area 

transit providers consistent with the 

reporting of these services for transit 

providers in rural areas to the Rural 

NTD. Since this proposal is being 

announced late in the 2008 Report Year, 

FTA will grant a waiver from reporting 

separately regular and sponsored 

unlinked passenger trips for the 2008 

Report Year to any NTD Reporter that 

requests such a waiver. 

Issued in Washington, DC, this 20th day of 

February 2009. 

Matthew Welbes, 

Acting Administrator. 

BILLING CODE 4910–57–P 

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 41 / Wednesday, March 4, 2009 / Notices 9473 

[FR Doc. E9–4634 Filed 3–3–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–57–C 


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