Notice2026-07627
Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of a New Information Collection Request: Crash Risks by Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Driver Schedules
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 20, 2026
Issuing agencies
Transportation DepartmentFederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Abstract
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 collection titled Crash Risks by Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Driver Schedules will answer important questions related to driver schedules and how these factors impact overall driver performance and fatigue. The information collected will be used to examine the relative risk of crashes and inspection violations based on various factors related to the driver's work schedule and demographics.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 75 (Monday, April 20, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 75 (Monday, April 20, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21078-21079]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-07627]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2025-0391]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Approval of a New
Information Collection Request: Crash Risks by Commercial Motor Vehicle
(CMV) Driver Schedules
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Department
of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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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
collection titled Crash Risks by Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Driver
Schedules will answer important questions related to driver schedules
and how these factors impact overall driver performance and fatigue.
The information collected will be used to examine the relative risk of
crashes and inspection violations based on various factors related to
the driver's work schedule and demographics.
DATES: Comments on this notice must be received on or before May 20,
2026.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be submitted within 30 days of
publication of this notice to <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Find
this information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day
Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Theresa Hallquist, Research Division,
DOT, FMCSA, W58-213, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-
0001; 202-366-1064; <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a5f1cdc0d7c0d6c48bcdc4c9c9d4d0ccd6d1e5c1cad18bc2cad3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9bcff3fee9fee8fab5f3faf7f7eaeef2e8efdbfff4efb5fcf4ed">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Crash Risks by Commercial Motor
Vehicle (CMV) Driver Schedules.
OMB Control Number: 2126-00XX.
Type of Request: New ICR.
Respondents: Motor carriers.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 60.
Estimated Time per Response: 15 minutes (0.25 hours).
Expiration Date: N/A. This is a new ICR.
Frequency of Response: One time (IC1, IC2); quarterly (IC3).
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 45 hours.
The total annual burden is calculated as the sum of IC1, IC2, and
IC3:
IC1: 15 responses per year x 0.25 hours per response = 3.75 total
annual burden hours.
IC2: 15 responses per year x 0.25 hours per response = 3.75 total
annual burden hours.
IC3: 150 responses per year x 0.25 hours per response = 37.5 total
annual burden hours.
Background
This information collection supports the DOT Strategic Goal of
Safety. The preamble of FMCSA's 2011 final hours of service (HOS) rule
(76 FR 81134) stated that FMCSA is committed to an analysis of the
relative crash risk by driving hour, the impact of the changes in the
HOS provisions, and examination of differences in crash risk after
restarts that include 2 nights and those that do not. The HOS final
rule also said that FMCSA would work with the OMB on the methodologies
of these new statistical data collections.
FMCSA needs additional data to answer important questions related
to driver schedules and how these factors impact overall driver
performance and fatigue. This research requires data to be collected
for HOS duty logs, accident and incident data, and inspection
violations records. HOS duty logs, as well as incident and crash data,
will be obtained through an integration with the telematics system
provider, and driver demographic data will be provided directly by
participating carriers. FMCSA will provide access to the Motor Carrier
Management Information System database, which provides records of all
DOT recordable crashes and inspection violation records. All data will
be collected electronically. The information collected will be used to
examine the relative risk of crashes and inspection violations based on
various factors related to the driver's work schedule and demographics.
There are three ICs: IC1--Carrier Task: TSP Setup for HOS Data; IC2--
Carrier Task: TSP Setup for SCE Data; and IC3--Carrier Task: Driver
Demographic Data Exports.
Pulsar Informatics, under contract with FMCSA, is required to
develop a publicly available deidentified data set to be housed in the
FMCSA Data Repository. All personally identifiable information shall be
removed, and other methods of protecting privacy shall be utilized as
needed. This deidentified data set will be provided to FMCSA after all
relevant statutes of limitations (at both State and Federal levels)
[[Page 21079]]
pertaining to legal discoverability processes have expired.
FMCSA has determined that this collection of information is
necessary for study completion. Currently, there is no comprehensive,
existing data set that can be used for this project. Not collecting
this data would result in an incomplete understanding of HOS-related
factors that impact crash risk and the effect of alternative schedules
as they relate to various aspects of HOS provisions on crash risk in
CMV operations. Further, the absence of this information collection
would prevent FMCSA from meeting its goal--derived from the 2015 report
\1\ by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine--
of developing a comprehensive, structured database of crash data and
driver schedules to benefit future research.
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\1\ The report, ``Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue, Long-
Term Health, and Highway Safety,'' is available at <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21921/commercial-motor-vehicle-driver-fatigue-long-term-health-and-highway-safety">https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21921/commercial-motor-vehicle-driver-fatigue-long-term-health-and-highway-safety</a>.
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FMCSA published a Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment
period soliciting comments on the information collection and received
19 comments. They were from individuals, anonymous commenters, and
industry groups. These comments revolved around six concerns. Responses
to these concerns are below.
Fatigue Risks
Twelve commenters expressed concerns related to recognizing fatigue
as a major safety risk while noting that current regulations compel
drivers to operate CMVs while fatigued. These comments also indicated
that fear of discipline discourages honest self-reporting of fatigue.
FMCSA response: Drivers' concerns about the significance of fatigue
risks in CMV operations are of incredible importance. This proposed
data collection aims to better understand fatigue-related factors that
may correlate with accidents and incidents to inform future decision-
making in the industry.
Inflexibility of HOS Regulations
Eight commenters focused on how the rigid structure of HOS rules,
particularly the 14-hour on-duty and 34-hour restart, fails to reflect
the actual nature of CMV operations.
FMCSA response: One objective of this study is to collect data
related to how HOS provisions are being used. This data will assist in
understanding HOS-related factors that impact crash risk and the effect
of alternative schedules as they relate to various aspects of HOS
provisions on crash risk in CMV operations. Further, this data will aid
FMCSA in developing a comprehensive, structured database of crash data
and driver schedules to benefit future research.
Safe and Legal Parking
Four commenters discussed concerns related to the lack of adequate,
legal parking options near customers, urban centers, and rest areas.
These commenters also mentioned concerns about having to choose between
violating HOS rules, parking illegally, or driving while fatigued due
to parking shortages.
FMCSA response: While this study does not focus on the availability
of legal CMV parking, the relevance of driving while fatigued in these
circumstances is important. By collecting data on factors related to
HOS, crashes, and inspection violations, future research may use this
deidentified dataset to improve the understanding of parking shortages
as it relates to fatigued driving, illegal parking, and HOS violations.
Driver Autonomy
Seven commenters mentioned a growing loss of control over their
schedules, citing pressure from carriers, shippers, and enforcement
agencies to prioritize productivity over safety.
FMCSA response: While the broader issues of scheduling pressures
and driver autonomy are relevant to discussions of occupational well-
being, they are beyond the scope of the present study. This research is
specifically designed to examine the association between HOS and CMV
crash and inspection violation involvement. System-level or
organizational factors, while potentially related, are not directly
evaluated within the current analytical framework. Data collected in
this study may assist in future research efforts.
Study Design
One commenter discussed concerns related to the study design,
specifically about the lack of control for time-of-day and the lack of
connection between HOS logs and driver fatigue.
FMCSA response: The study is an observational study, and the study
design controls for time-of-day effects by including duty and driving
time-of-day as covariates in the modeling framework. This separates
time-of-day effects from the effects of schedule factors (e.g., long
duty) and prevents confounding between these factors.
While the commenter noted HOS logs do not directly measure fatigue
and do not capture all the factors influencing driver fatigue, HOS logs
do provide information on sleep opportunity, time awake, and time-on-
task, all of which are directly related to fatigue risk.
Study Recruitment
One commenter discussed concerns about the recruitment strategy and
whether participating carriers would be representative of the broader
trucking industry, citing the reliance on telematics and the number of
carriers.
FMCSA response: The study aims to recruit a diverse range of
carriers based on industry segments and carrier size. Participation is
voluntary, but carriers will be contacted through a recruitment
campaign that includes random outreach from the FMCSA census, targeted
outreach through advertisement and trade shows, and coordinated efforts
with FMCSA. The 60 carriers will be based on the expected number of
miles driven needed to observe crashes based on power analysis to
determine sample size. Enrollment will not be limited to 60
participants and will include additional carriers as feasible. The
research team will work with all carriers wanting to participate to
support the transfer of electronic logging device data for inclusion in
the study to the extent practicable.
Also, because this study relies on the cooperation and assistance
of companies to gather data, larger companies that are well-resourced
may be overrepresented in the study data. These biases will be
accounted for by the modeling approach but have the anticipated effect
of underestimating the true risk of fatigue in the industry. The
recruitment and data collection methods will be documented in
publications to guide interpretation relative to potential bias.
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.
Issued under the authority of 49 CFR 1.87.
David M. Sutula,
Acting Associate Administrator, Office of Research and Registration.
[FR Doc. 2026-07627 Filed 4-17-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P
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