Motor Carrier Financial Information Reporting Requirements-Request for
Public Comments
Federal Register Notice
August 15, 2003
Volume 68, Number 158
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), DOT.
ACTION: Request for Public Comments.
SUMMARY: DOT has received a petition
from the Truckload Carriers Association
(TCA), requesting that DOT grant a
general exemption to all motor carriers
of property that are required to file
financial reports with DOTs Bureau of
Transportation Statistics (BTS). The
petition also requests that DOT docket
the petition and request public
comments. DOT is seeking public
comments on the merits of the TCA
petition.
DATES: Comments must be received by October 14, 2003.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
(identified by DMS Docket Number
OST-2003-15794) through the
following methods:
- Web Site:
http://dms.dot.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting
comments on the DOT electronic docket
site.
- Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
- Mail: Docket Management Facility;
U.S. Department of Transportation, 400
Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building,
Room PL-401, Washington, DC 20590-001.
- Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on
the plaza level of the Nassif Building,
- Seventh Street, SW., Washington,
DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal
Holidays.
- Federal Rulemaking Portal: Go to
http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
online instructions for submitting
comments.
Instructions: All submissions must
include the agency name and docket
number. Note that all comments
received will be posted without change
to
http://dms.dot.gov, including any
personal information provided. You
should know that 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 DOTs complete
Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000
(Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-
78) or you may visit
http://dms.dot.gov
Docket: For access to the docket to
read background documents or
comments, go to
http://dms.dot.gov at
any time or to Room PL-401 on the
plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400
Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC,
between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Thomas M. McNamara, Office of
Transportation Policy Development,
Department of Transportation, 400
Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC,
20590-0001, (202) 366-4462;
thomas.mcnamara@ost.dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: TCA is a
national trade association with
approximately 500 motor carrier
members providing intercity truck
transportation for a variety of
commercial, industrial, and consumer
products, primarily in full trailer-load
quantities. (See TCA Petition, Page 2.) In
its petition, which we have included in
the docket, TCA requests that DOT use
its general exemption authority (see 49
U.S.C. 13541) to exempt all motor
carriers of property from the mandatory
financial reporting requirements
contained in 49 U.S.C. 14123. (See also
49 CFR part 1420.) According to TCA,
DOT should grant this regulatory relief
because BTS "has made it abundantly
clear that it will not exercise its own
delegated authority to grant exemptions
under subsection 14123(c) from either
the filing or the public release of motor
carrier reports." (See TCA Petition, Page
2.)
The Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC) collected financial data from
regulated motor carriers from the 1930s
until the end of 1995, when the ICC was
abolished and data collection was
transferred to DOT. (See 49 U.S.C.
11145 and implementing regulations at
49 CFR part 1420.) Between 1978 and
1994, the ICC reduced the reporting
requirements by shortening report forms
and easing record retention
requirements. These changes followed
the shift in the ICCs focus from close
economic regulation of the motor carrier
industry to broad industry oversight.
Upon transfer of the program and an
additional program review, BTS further
reduced the carriers reporting burden
(see 64 FR 13916, 13918; March 23,
1999). Currently, for common and
contract motor carriers of property, the
BTS regulations create three carrier
classes based on revenue: Class I, with
annual operating revenues of $10
million or more, file the annual report
(Form M) and quarterly reports (Form
QFR); Class II, with annual operating
revenues of between $3 million and $10
million, file only the annual report
(Form M); and Class III, with annual
operating revenues of less than $3
million, are exempt from any filing
requirements.
The reporting forms require the motor
carriers to provide certain financial
information (see 49 U.S.C. 14123(a)(1)):
"at a minimum, such reports shall
include balance sheets and income
statements."
Unless a motor carrier requests an
exemption from filing or from public
release, the information is made
publicly available. (See 49 U.S.C.
14123(c)(1) and (2) and the
implementing regulations at 49 CFR
1420.8 and 1420.9.) BTS grants an
exemption from filing to an individual
carrier that shows that "an exemption is
required to avoid competitive harm and
preserve confidential business
information that is not otherwise
publicly available." (See 49 U.S.C.
14123(c)(1).) The carrier must submit a
written request containing sufficient
supporting documentation, before BTS
will consider a proposed exemption.
BTS grants an exemption from public
release upon a showing that the carrier
is not a publicly-held corporation or not
subject to financial reporting
requirements of the Securities and
Exchange Commission, and that the
exemption is necessary to avoid
substantial competitive harm and to
avoid the disclosure of information that
qualifies as a trade secret or privileged
or confidential information under 5
U.S.C. 552(b)(4) (the fourth exemption
of the Freedom of Information Act).
Again, the carrier must submit a written
request containing supporting
information.
The statutory standards for issuing an
"exemption from filing" and an
"exemption from public release" are
very similar. However, the TCA states
"BTS disregarded the Congressional
intent by making exemptions from
reporting or public release available
only in theory, while denying them in
fact." (TCA Petition, Page 5.) In
addition, the TCA argues, "any benefits
of the reporting scheme are far
outweighed by its burdens" (TCA
Petition, Page 4), and it urges the
Department to exempt all motor carriers
of property from the requirement to file
these financial reports.
Request for Public Comments
We are issuing this invitation for
comments on the TCA petition and
views on whether DOTs motor carrier
financial reporting requirements should
be retained, amended, supplemented,
replaced, or removed, including the
selected forms and reports involved
with the requirement. We are posing a
series of questions in the hope that
public comments will address several
issues in particular:
(1) Do you use DOTs motor carrier
financial information and, if so, how do
you use it?
(2) Should the criteria used to
evaluate whether a carrier has
demonstrated that it will suffer
competitive harm by release of its
financial information be changed? (The
criteria used by BTS are those in
Exemption 4 of the Freedom of
Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4): the
information is commercial or financial
and received from a source outside the
Government, and its disclosure would
likely lead to significant competitive
harm to the supplier of the information
or make it harder for the Government to
obtain similar information in the
future.)
(3) Should DOT change the reporting
thresholds for Class I and II carriers of
property and, if so, what level of annual
operating revenues should be used?
(Raising the reporting thresholds would
reduce the number of carriers required
to report, while lowering the thresholds
would increase the number of carriers.)
(4) Should DOT continue to require
Class I carriers of property to submit
quarterly reports (Form QFR)?
(5) Should DOT eliminate or add
specific line items in the annual report
(Form M) and, if so, which specific line
items should be eliminated/added?
(6) If your company is subject to the
current Form M reporting requirements,
what is the annual cost for your
company to comply with those
requirements? Please explain, in detail,
how you calculated this total cost.
Issued in Washington, DC on August 12, 2003.
Emil Frankel,
Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy.
[FR Doc. 03-20932 Filed 8-14-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P
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