Document ID: FMCSA-2017-0226-0017
Agency: fmcsa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Requests for Comments: Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act Correlation Study
Posted Date: 2018-08-21T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 162 (Tuesday, August 21, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42354-42355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-17987]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2017-0226]

Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act Correlation Study

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: On June 27, 2017, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 
published its report titled, ``Improving Motor Carrier Safety 
Measurement.'' This report was commissioned by FMCSA consistent with 
the requirements of Section 5221 of the Fixing America's Surface 
Transportation (FAST) Act. The FAST Act also requires that the Agency 
develop a corrective action plan to address any identified deficiencies 
and submit it to Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation's 
(DOT) Office of Inspector General (OIG); this was completed on June 25, 
2018. The purpose of this notice is to announce a public meeting to 
discuss NAS recommendations 2, 3 and 4 and to solicit input to be 
considered by the Agency.

DATES: The public meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 29, 
2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time. A copy of the agenda 
for the meeting will be available in advance of the meeting at https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/fastact/csa. If all interested participants have had 
an opportunity to comment, the meeting may conclude early.
    Public Comments: Comments must be received by October 22, 2018.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the FMCSA National Training 
Center, 1310 N Courthouse Road, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22201-2508. 
Those interested in attending this public meeting must register at: 
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/fastact/csa. Participants have the option of 
registering to attend in person, or via webinar.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about the public 
meeting or for information on facilities or services for individuals 
with disabilities or to request special assistance at the meeting, 
contact Ms. Barbara Baker, Compliance Division, at (202) 366-3397 or by 
email at [email protected], by August 27, 2018.
    If you have questions regarding viewing or submitting material to 
the docket, contact Docket Services, telephone (202) 366-9826.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Section 5221 of the FAST Act, titled ``Correlation Study,'' 
required FMCSA to commission the National Research Council of the 
National Academies to conduct a study of FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, 
Accountability (CSA) program and Safety Measurement System (SMS). SMS 
is FMCSA's algorithm for identifying patterns of non-compliance and 
prioritizing motor carriers for interventions. FMCSA is prohibited from 
publishing SMS percentiles and alerts on the SMS website for motor 
carriers transporting property until the NAS Correlation

[[Page 42355]]

Study is complete and all reporting and certification requirements 
under the FAST Act are satisfied.
    On June 27, 2017, NAS published the report titled, ``Improving 
Motor Carrier Safety Measurement.'' The report is available at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24818/improving-motor-carrier-safety-measurement. A 
copy of the report has been placed in the docket referenced at the 
beginning of this notice.
    Pursuant to the FAST Act, FMCSA submitted the results of this study 
to both Congress and the DOT OIG on August 7, 2017. The FAST Act also 
requires FMCSA to submit an action plan to the Senate Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and the House of Representatives 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
    To solicit input during the development of the corrective action 
plan, FMCSA hosted a public meeting on September 8, 2017. Information 
from the public meeting was incorporated into the action plan. The 
corrective action plan was transmitted on June 25, 2018. The OIG is 
required to review the action plan and submit a report to Congress on 
the responsiveness of the FMCSA's plan to the NAS report's 
recommendations.
    FMCSA's corrective action plan includes solicitation of input from 
the public for recommendations 2, 3 and 4. As a result, FMCSA is 
soliciting responses to the following questions at the public meeting 
and through the docket referenced above.

NAS Recommendation 2

    FMCSA should continue to collaborate with States and other agencies 
to improve the quality of the Motor Carrier Management Information 
System (MCMIS) data in SMS. Two specific data elements require 
immediate attention: Carrier exposure and crash data. The current 
exposure data (e.g., Power Unit (PU) and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) 
data) are missing with high frequency, and data that are collected are 
likely of unsatisfactory quality.

Questions

    1. What should FMCSA do to improve the collection of PU, VMT, and 
driver count data? For example, should FMCSA use edit checks to verify 
the accuracy of the data?
    2. VMT, PU, and number of inspections are the current measures of 
exposure used in SMS. Are there other ways FMCSA should consider 
measuring carrier exposure with data that is already available to 
FMCSA?
    3. What are the current challenges that motor carriers face in 
reporting VMT data?
    4. What information is available from the States to improve 
exposure data?
    5. What additional data should FMCSA consider collecting from 
carriers? Why?
    6. What external sources of exposure and crash data should FMCSA 
explore?
    7. In addition to the data currently collected by FMCSA, what other 
exposure data would motor carriers be willing to share?
    i. More frequent updates to mileage and PU data
    ii. Number/type of trips
    iii. Mileage breakdown by State
    iv. Other options?
    8. What incentives would encourage motor carriers to share 
additional information?

NAS Recommendation 3

    FMCSA should investigate ways of collecting data that will likely 
benefit the recommended methodology for safety assessment. This 
includes data on carrier characteristics--such as information on driver 
turnover rate, type of cargo, method and level of compensation, and 
better information on exposure.

Questions

    1. What additional data should FMCSA consider collecting to support 
the recommended methodology for safety assessment (i.e., IRT model)?
    a. Would this data be useful for safety assessments?
    b. What are the challenges to collecting or using the data 
recommended by NAS?

i. Driver turnover rate
ii. Type of cargo
iii. Method of compensation
iv. Level of compensation
v. Better information on exposure

    2. What pay-related and/or driver-turnover-related data would 
carriers be willing to share?

NAS Recommendation 4

    FMCSA should structure a user-friendly version of the MCMIS data 
file used as input to SMS without any personally identifiable 
information to facilitate its use by external parties, such as 
researchers, and carriers.

Questions

    FMCSA is planning to develop a web page to make simplified MCMIS 
data snapshots available to researchers, motor carriers, safety 
consultants, and the public
    1. What features should this web page include?
    2. If the information collected in recommendation 3 above is used 
within the IRT model, should it be made available publicly to allow a 
full replication of the results?
    3. What features should a user-friendly MCMIS data file include?
    4. Would industry stakeholders find a user-friendly MCMIS data file 
useful? Why?
    5. How often should this user-friendly MCMIS data file be updated 
(e.g., monthly, quarterly, annually etc.)?

    Issued under the authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.87 on: August 
13, 2018
Raymond P. Martinez,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-17987 Filed 8-20-18; 8:45 am]
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