Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 44 / Monday, March 9, 2009 / Notices 10121 

FMCSA’s tamper-proofing rule (49 

CFR 383.155) should not be construed 

to apply a higher standard of document 

security than the rules prescribed by 

DHS on January 29, 2008. The Agency 

concludes that the objections to laserengraved black and white images raised 

by L–1 should be addressed to DHS, as 

they relate to DHS’s decision in its 

READ ID Act rulemaking. The Agency 

will not attempt to resolve those 

concerns here. 

For the reasons discussed above, 

FMCSA grants the Virginia DMV’s 

application for an exemption from 49 

CFR 383.153(a)(4) for a period of 2 

years. 

Issued on: March 2, 2009. 

Rose A. McMurray, 

Acting Deputy Administrator. 

[FR Doc. E9–4930 Filed 3–6–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration 

[Docket No. FMCSA–2009–0010] 

Hours of Service of Drivers: Redding 

Air Services, Inc. and Guardian 

Helicopters, Inc., Application for 

Exemption 

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration (FMCSA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of application for 

exemption; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: FMCSA announces that it has 

received a joint application from 

Redding Air Service, Inc. and Guardian 

Helicopters, Inc. (Redding/Guardian) 

requesting an exemption from certain 

commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver 

hours-of-service (HOS) provisions of the 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Regulations (FMCSRs). The exemption 

request is for Redding/Guardian’s CMV 

drivers who transport jet fuel for their 

helicopters in support of wild-land 

firefighting operations. They specifically 

request an exemption for 20 drivers 

from the HOS prohibition against 

driving a CMV after the 70th hour of 

cumulative on-duty time in any 8-day 

period. The exemption, if granted, 

would enable Redding/Guardian drivers 

to conduct their operations—including 

transportation of jet fuel to and from the 

firefighting sites—without having to 

comply with the 70-hour in 8-day HOS 

rule. Redding/Guardian believes the 

exemption would ensure a level of 

safety equivalent to or greater than the 

level of safety that would be obtained 

absent the exemption. FMCSA requests 

public comment on the Redding/ 

Guardian application for exemption. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before April 8, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

identified by Federal Docket 

Management System Number [FMCSA– 

2009–0010] by any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Fax: 1–202–493–2251. 

• Mail: Docket Management Facility, 

U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building, 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

Washington, DC 20590–0001. 

• Hand Delivery or Courier: West 

Building, Ground Floor, Room W12– 

140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., 

between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. E.T., Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

Instructions: All submissions must 

include the Agency name and docket 

number. For detailed instructions on 

submitting comments and additional 

information on the exemption process, 

see the Public Participation heading 

below. Note that all comments received 

will be posted without change to 

http://www.regulations.gov, including 

any personal information provided. 

Please see the Privacy Act heading 

below. 

Docket: For access to the docket to 

read background documents or 

comments received, go to http:// 

www.regulations.gov, and follow the 

online instructions for accessing the 

dockets, or go to the street address listed 

above. 

Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search 

the electronic form of all comments 

received into any of our dockets by the 

name of the individual submitting the 

comment (or signing the comment, if 

submitted on behalf of an association, 

business, labor union, etc.). You may 

review DOT’s complete Privacy Act 

Statement in the Federal Register 

published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 

19476) or you may visit http:// 

DocketInfo.dot.gov. 

Public Participation: The Federal 

eRulemaking Portal is available 24 

hours each day, 365 days each year. You 

can get electronic submission and 

retrieval help and guidelines under the 

‘‘help’’ section of the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal Web site. If you 

want us to notify you that we received 

your comments, please include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope or 

postcard, or print the acknowledgement 

page that appears after submitting 

comments online. Comments received 

after the comment closing date will be 

included in the docket, and we will 

consider late comments to the extent 

practicable. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Richard Clemente, FMCSA Driver and 

Carrier Operations Division; Office of 

Bus and Truck Standards and 

Operations; Telephone: 202–366–4325. 

E-mail: MCPSD@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

Section 4007 of the Transportation 

Equity Act for the 21st Century (Pub. L. 

105–178, 112 Stat. 107, June 9, 1998) 

amended 49 U.S.C. 31315 and 31136(e) 

to provide authority to grant exemptions 

from motor carrier safety regulations. 

Under its regulations, FMCSA must 

publish a notice of each exemption 

request in the Federal Register (49 CFR 

381.315(a)). The Agency must provide 

the public an opportunity to inspect the 

information relevant to the application, 

including any safety analyses that have 

been conducted. The Agency must also 

provide an opportunity for public 

comment on the request. 

The Agency reviews the safety 

analyses and the public comments, and 

determines whether granting the 

exemption would likely achieve a level 

of safety equivalent to, or greater than, 

the level that would be achieved by the 

current regulation (49 CFR 381.305). 

The decision of the Agency must be 

published in the Federal Register (49 

CFR 381.315(b)) with the reason for 

denying or, in the alternative, the 

specific person or class of persons 

receiving the exemption, and the 

regulatory provision or provisions from 

which the exemption is granted. The 

notice must also specify the effective 

period of the exemption (up to 2 years), 

and explain the terms and conditions of 

the exemption. The exemption may be 

renewed (49 CFR 381.300(b)). 

Request for Exemption 

The Federal hours-of-service (HOS) 

regulations in 49 CFR 395.3(b)(2) 

prohibit a property-carrying commercial 

motor vehicle (CMV) driver from 

driving a CMV after having been on 

duty for 70 cumulative hours in any 

period of 8 consecutive days, if the 

employing motor carrier operates CMVs 

every day of the week. 

Redding/Guardian’s business is 

primarily in support of wild-land 

firefighting operations within the 

continental United States in conjunction 

with the U.S. Department of Interior, 

U.S. Forest Service and various State 

and County agencies. Redding is based 

in Redding, California, and Guardian is 

based in Van Nuys, California. The two 


dwashington3 on PROD1PC60 with NOTICES
10122 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 44 / Monday, March 9, 2009 / Notices 

companies employ a total of 35 people; 

however, the requested exemption 

would only apply to full-time, part-time 

and temporary ground support truck 

drivers employed by Redding/ 

Guardian—no more than 20 drivers. 

Together the two companies operate a 

total of 10 CMVs, which are the ground 

support vehicles. 

Redding/Guardian operate a fleet of 

helicopters on both ‘‘Exclusive Use’’ 

(EU) and ‘‘Call When Needed’’ (CWN) 

contracts, which call for a helicopter, 

ground support vehicle, pilot and 

driver/ground support technician. The 

ground support vehicles carry sufficient 

jet fuel to support their respective 

helicopters, and the primary role of the 

technicians is to support and re-fuel the 

helicopters. While the driving of the 

ground support vehicle is each 

individual’s secondary role, they are 

still subject to the FMCSRs—including 

the Part 395 HOS rules. 

Redding/Guardian states that their EU 

contracts—including helicopters and 

ground support vehicles—frequently 

necessitate sitting at a base for weeks at 

a time and never going anywhere or 

even flying; however, there may be daily 

extensions due to high fire danger. 

When these extensions do occur, a 

ground support technician driver may 

be ‘‘on-duty, not driving’’ for 14 hours 

in a day for several consecutive days at 

a time, which results in reaching the 70- 

hour/8-day limit in as little as 5 days. 

According to Redding/Guardian, this 

includes a considerable amount of time 

just ‘‘sitting around and waiting’’ for a 

helicopter dispatch or for the helicopter 

to land. In addition, their CWN contract 

vehicles will remain away from their 

primary base of operation for weeks at 

a time, generally remaining in one 

location, and available for dispatch 7 

days per week. 

While Redding/Guardian’s drivers are 

just waiting for a helicopter dispatch or 

for the helicopter to land, by being 

‘‘available’’ and in ‘‘readiness to work’’ 

they are considered to be ‘‘on-duty, not 

driving’’ and therefore subject to the 70- 

hour in 8-day rule. The applicants note 

that on average, their drivers drive once 

every few days for less than 100 miles, 

and for the CWN contracts, the ground 

support technician may never drive the 

fuel vehicle more than 5 miles in a day, 

and that is only to and from the local 

hotel accommodations. 

The problem arises as Redding/ 

Guardian’s drivers can basically run out 

of available hours in 5 days at 14 hours 

on duty per day—based on the 70-hour/ 

8-day rule. They are therefore unable to 

legally operate a CMV on a public road 

until they have gained enough available 

hours to drive. 

Redding/Guardian state that their 

ground-support technician-drivers are 

encouraged to stop driving at the onset 

of fatigue. They further claim that if 

their exemption request is granted, the 

CMV drivers will still not be allowed to 

exceed the 14-hour duty limit regulation 

(49 CFR 395.3(a)(2)). They reason that, 

based on the fact that their drivers are 

just ‘‘sitting around and waiting,’’ they 

are not becoming fatigued, which is the 

primary reason for the duty limits. 

Redding/Guardian contends that these 

drivers are not stressed or tired. 

Redding/Guardian believes the 

exemption would achieve a level of 

safety equivalent to, or greater than, the 

level of safety obtained under the 

current 70-hour/8-day rule because they 

are firmly committed to their goal of 

zero accidents or incidents and have 

implemented a Comprehensive Safety 

Program designed to prevent accidents 

or injuries. Both companies also have an 

approved ‘‘Safety Management System’’ 

that includes annual reviews of safetyrelated issues. 

A copy of the Redding/Guardian 

exemption application is available for 

review in the docket for this notice. 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 

31315(b)(4) and 31136(e), FMCSA 

requests public comment on the 

Redding/Guardian application for an 

exemption from the ‘‘70-hour/8-day 

rule’’ in 49 CFR Part 395. The Agency 

will consider all comments received by 

close of business on April 8, 2009. 

Comments will be available for 

examination in the docket at the 

location listed under the ADDRESSES

section of this notice. The Agency will 

consider to the extent practicable 

comments received in the public docket 

after the closing date of the comment 

period. 

Issued On: March 3, 2009. 

Larry W. Minor, 

Associate Administrator for Policy and 

Program Development. 

[FR Doc. E9–4928 Filed 3–6–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

National Highway Traffic Safety 

Administration 

[Docket Number NHTSA–2009–0032] 

Reports, Forms, and Recordkeeping 

Requirements 

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic 

Safety Administration (NHTSA), 

Department of Transportation. 

ACTION: Request for public comment on 

proposed collection of information. 

SUMMARY: Before a Federal agency can 

collect certain information from the 

public, it must receive approval from 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB). Under procedures established 

by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995, before seeking OMB approval, 

Federal agencies must solicit public 

comment on proposed collections of 

information, including extensions and 

reinstatement of previously approved 

collections. 

This document describes one 

collection of information for which 

NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval 

concerning vehicle safety features for 

consumer information purposes (OMB 

Control number 2127–0629). 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before May 8, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

to the docket number identified in the 

heading of this document by any of the 

following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• Mail: Docket Management Facility, 

M–30, U.S. Department of 

Transportation, West Building, Ground 

Floor, Rm. W12–140, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590. 

• Hand Delivery or Courier: West 

Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., between 

9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

• Fax: (202) 493–2251. 

Regardless of how you submit your 

comments, you should mention the 

docket number of this document. 

You may call the Docket Management 

Facility at 202–366–9826. 

Instructions: For detailed instructions 

on submitting comments and additional 

information on the rulemaking process, 

see the Public Participation heading of 

the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section 

of this document. Note that all 

comments received will be posted 

without change to http:// 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. Please 

see the Privacy Act heading below. 

Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search 

the electronic form of all comments 

received into any of our dockets by the 

name of the individual submitting the 

comment (or signing the comment, if 

submitted on behalf of an association, 

business, labor union, etc.) You may 

review DOT’s complete Privacy Act 

Statement in the Federal Register 

published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 

19477–78). 


dwashington3 on PROD1PC60 with NOTICES