
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 101 (Thursday, May 24, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Page 31066]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-12634]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA 2012-0074]


Improvements to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) 
Motor Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS)

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

ACTION: Notice; extension of comment period.

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SUMMARY: On March 27, 2012, FMCSA announced planned improvements to the 
Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS). A preview of these 
improvements and their potential effects on a motor carrier's status 
has been available to motor carriers and law enforcement since 
publication of the notice. The system changes were scheduled to be 
implemented for use in prioritizing FMCSA and State intervention 
resources and made available to the public on the SMS public Web site 
in July 2012. However, based on feedback received by the Agency, FMCSA 
extends the comment period for motor carriers and law enforcement to 
July 30, 2012.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 30, 2012.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket 
Management System Number FMCSA-2012-0074 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, (M-30), U.S. Department 
of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building, 
Ground Floor, Room 12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery: Same as mail address above, between 9 a.m. 
and 5 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The 
telephone number is 202-366-9329.

To avoid duplication, please use only one of these four methods. All 
submissions must include the Agency name and docket number for this 
notice. See the ``Public Participation'' heading below for instructions 
on submitting comments and additional information.
    Note that all comments received, including any personal information 
provided, will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov. 
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 at any time or to 
Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the DOT Headquarters Building at 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    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 
Privacy Act System of Records Notice for the DOT Federal Docket 
Management System published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2008 
(73 FR 3316).
    Public Participation: The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is 
generally 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 http://www.regulations.gov Web site. Comments 
received after the comment closing date will be included in the docket, 
and will be considered to the extent practicable.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Bryan Price, Federal Motor Carrier 
Safety Administration, 1000 Liberty Avenue, Suite 1300, Pittsburgh, PA 
15222, Telephone 412-395-4816, E-Mail: bryan.price@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 27, 2012, (77 FR 18298), FMCSA 
published a notice announcing changes to the Agency's Safety 
Measurement System and a preview period for law enforcement and motor 
carriers to assess the impact of the changes. We provided a 60-day 
period for initial comments from motor carriers and law enforcement 
that would have expired on May 29, 2012. However, based on feedback 
received by the Agency, this comment period is being extended 60 days 
to July 30, 2012. Once the preview is complete an additional 
opportunity will be provided for public review and comment.
    The improvements proposed include: (1) Changes to the SMS 
methodology that find higher risk carriers while addressing industry 
biases; (2) Better applications of SMS results for Agency interventions 
by more effectively identifying safety sensitive carriers (i.e., 
passenger carriers transporting people and carriers hauling hazardous 
materials (HM)), so that such firms can be selected for CSA 
interventions at more stringent levels; and, (3) More specific fact-
based displays of SMS results on the SMS Web site.
    This extension will provide motor carriers with additional time to 
preview how the improvements impact their individual safety data in 
SMS. Motor carriers will have additional time to take action related to 
their data in the SMS, and additional time to provide comments to the 
Agency. The data preview may be found at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/. 
During the extended preview period, FMCSA will be conducting additional 
outreach to further explain the proposed changes to SMS and to 
encourage additional motor carriers to view the preview site and to 
provide comments. As part of these outreach efforts, FMCSA plans to 
offer a series of webinars related to the proposed SMS improvements and 
the data preview site. Details regarding the date and time of these 
webinars, and how to register, will be posted to the above Web site.
    During the data preview period, the Agency requests comments on the 
impacts of the changes.

    Issued: May 17, 2012.
William Quade,
Associate Administrator for Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2012-12634 Filed 5-23-12; 8:45 am]
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