2010-10940. Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of a Currently-Approved Information Collection Request: Transportation of Household Goods; Consumer Protection

AGENCY:

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FMCSA announces its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and approval and invites public comment. The information collected will be used to help regulate motor carriers transporting household goods for individual shippers.

DATES:

We must receive your comments on or before July 9, 2010.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments bearing the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) Docket Number FMCSA-2010-0070 using any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
• 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: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington DC 20590-0001 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., est, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
• Fax: [phone].

Each submission must include the Agency name and the docket number for this Notice. Note that DOT posts all comments received without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information included in a comment. Please see the Privacy Act heading below.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or Room W12-140 on the ground level of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC, 20590-0001 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The FDMS is available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. If you want acknowledgement that we received your comments, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope or post card or print the acknowledgement page that appears after submitting them on-line.

Privacy Act: Anyone may search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or of the person signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review the DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19476). This information is also available at http://docketsinfo.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. James R. Dubose, Commercial Enforcement Division, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, West Building 6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: [phone]; e-mail [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background: The Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub. L. 106-159, 113 Stat. 1749, December 9, 1999) (MCSIA) authorized the Secretary of Transportation to regulate household goods carriers engaged in interstate operations for individual shippers. In earlier legislation, Congress abolished the Interstate Commerce Commission and transferred the Commission's jurisdiction over household goods transportation to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) (ICC Termination Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-88). Prior to FMCSA's establishment, the Secretary delegated this household goods jurisdiction to the Federal Highway Administration, FMCSA's predecessor organization within DOT.

Sections 4202 through 4216 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (Pub. L. 109-59, 119 Stat. 1144, Aug. 10, 2005) (SAFETEA-LU) amended various provisions of existing law regarding household goods transportation. It specifically addressed: definitions (section 4202); payment of rates (section 4203); registration requirements for household goods motor carriers (section 4204); carrier operations (section 4205); enforcement of regulations (section 4206); liability of carriers under receipts and bills of lading (section 4207); arbitration requirements (section 4208); civil penalties for brokers and unauthorized transportation (section 4209); penalties for holding goods hostage (section 4210); consumer handbook (section 4211); release of broker information (section 4212); working group for Federal-State relations (section 4213); consumer complaint information (section 4214); review of liability of carriers (section 4215); and application of State laws (section 4216). The FMCSA regulations that set forth Federal requirements for movers that provide interstate transportation of household goods are found in 49 CFR part 375, “Transportation of Household Goods; Consumer Protection Regulation.”

Title: Transportation of Household Goods; Consumer Protection.

OMB Control Number: 2126-0025.

Type of Request: Revision of a currently-approved information collection.

Respondents: Motor carriers and individual shippers of household goods.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 6,000 household goods movers.

Estimated Time per Response: Varies from 5 minutes to display assigned U.S. DOT number in created advertisement to 12.5 minutes to distribute consumer publication.

Expiration Date: October 31, 2010.

Frequency of Response: On occasion.

Estimated Total Annual Burden: 5,556,000 hours [Informational documents provided to prospective shippers 75,400 hours + written cost estimates for prospective shippers 4,620,000 hours + service orders, bills of lading 805,300 hours + in-transit service notifications 22,600 hours + complaint and inquiry records, including establishing records system 32,700 hours = 5,556,000].

Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed collection is necessary for the performance of FMCSA's functions; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways for FMCSA to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and (4) ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the quality of the collected information. The Agency will summarize or include your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this information collection.

Issued on: April 23, 2010.

Terry Shelton,

Associate Administrator for Research and Information Technology.