[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 156 (Tuesday, August 13, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49268-49270]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-19568]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
[OMB Control No. 9000-0056; Docket 2012-0076; Sequence 53]
Federal Acquisition Regulation; Submission for OMB Review; Report
of Shipment
AGENCY: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
ACTION: Notice of request for public comments regarding an extension
with changes to a previously existing OMB clearance.
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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the
Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a
previously approved information collection requirement concerning
report of shipment. A notice was published in the Federal Register at
78 FR 11885, on February 20, 2013. One comment was received.
DATES: Submit comments on or before September 12, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0056, Report of Shipment by any of the following methods:
Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov.
Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching the
OMB control number. Select the link ``Submit a Comment'' that
corresponds with ``Information Collection 9000-0056, Report of
Shipment''. Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a
Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and
``Information Collection 9000-0056, Report of Shipment'' on your
attached document.
Fax: 202-501-4067.
Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory
Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20405-
0001. ATTN: Hada Flowers/IC 9000-0056, Report of Shipment.
Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information
Collection 9000-0056, Report of Shipment, in all correspondence related
to this collection. Submit comments regarding this burden estimate or
any other aspect of this collection of information, including
suggestions for reducing this burden to: FAR Desk Officer, OMB, Room
10102, NEOB, Washington, DC 20503. All comments received will be posted
without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
and/or business confidential information provided.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Curtis E. Glover, Sr., Procurement
Analyst, Office of Acquisition Policy, by telephone at (202) 501-1448
or [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Purpose
In accordance with FAR 47.208 and the clause at FAR 52.247-68,
Report of Shipment (REPSHIP), military (and, as required, civilian
agency) storage and distribution points, depots, and other receiving
activities require advance notice of shipments en-route from
contractors' plants. Generally, this notification is required only for
classified material; sensitive, controlled, and certain other protected
material; explosives, and some other hazardous materials; selected
shipments requiring movement control; or minimum carload or truckload
shipments. It facilitates arrangements for transportation control,
labor, space, and use of materials handling equipment at destination.
Also, timely receipt of notices by the consignee transportation office
precludes the incurring of demurrage and vehicle detention charges.
Unless otherwise directed by a contracting officer, a contractor shall
send the notice to the consignee transportation office at least twenty-
four hours before the arrival of the shipment.
Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this
collection of information is necessary; whether it will have practical
utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection
of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and
methodology; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and ways in which we can minimize the
burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond,
through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
B. Discussion and Analysis
One respondent submitted public comments on the extension of the
previously approved information collection. The analysis of the public
comments is summarized as follows:
Comment: The respondent commented that the extension of the
[[Page 49269]]
information collection would violate the fundamental purpose of the
Paperwork Reduction Act because of the burden it puts on the entity
submitting the information and the agency collecting the information.
Response: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA),
agencies can request an OMB approval of an existing information
collection. The PRA requires that agencies use the Federal Register
Notice and comment process, to extend the OMB's approval, at least
every three years. This extension, to a previously approved information
collection, pertains to FAR 47.208 and the clause at FAR 52.247-68. The
purpose of this provision and associated clause is to require
contractors to give advance notice to the Government when they are
shipping classified material; sensitive, controlled, and certain other
protected material; explosives, and some other hazardous materials;
selected shipments requiring movement control; or minimum carload or
truckload shipments. The notice of shipment is relied upon by the
Government to prepare for the receipt of supplies or equipment that
requires special handling. Not granting this extension would eliminate
the Government's ability to receive the supplies or equipment in a
timely or efficient manner.
Comment: The respondent commented that the agency does not
accurately estimate the public burden an extension of the information
collection requirement would create.
Response: The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM)
handles the majority of these types of shipments in the Federal
Government. Based on information received from USTRANSCOM, and in
consideration of the public comments received, the estimated burden
hours were revised upward. The annual respondents are estimated at
approximately 33, with the overall number of responses per year right
around 10,000. The estimated average number of responses per respondent
is 303. These revisions to the information collection result in upward
adjustment to the estimated total burden hours from 167 hours to 9,999
hours (see section (C) for detailed analysis).
Comment: The respondent commented the collective burden of
compliance with the information collection requirement greatly exceeds
the agency's estimate and outweighs any potential utility of the
extension.
Response: The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) was designed to improve
the quality and use of Federal information to strengthen decision
making, accountability, and openness in government and society. Central
to this process is the solicitation of comments from the public. This
process incorporates an enumerated specification of targeted
information and provides interested parties a meaningful opportunity
for comment on the relevant compliance cost. This process has led to
decreases in the overall collective burden of compliance for the
information collection requirement in regards to the public. Based on
OMB estimates, in FY 2010, the public spent 8.8 billion hours
responding to information collections. This was a decrease of one
billion hours, or ten percent from the previous fiscal year. In effect,
the collective burden of compliance for the public is going down as the
Government publishes rules that make the process less complex, more
transparent, and reduce the cost of Federal regulations to both the
contractor community and Government.
Comment: The respondent commented that the Government's response to
the Paperwork Reduction Act waiver for Far Case 2007-006 is instructive
on the total burden for respondents.
Response: Serious consideration is given, during the open comment
period, to all comments received and adjustments are made to the
paperwork burden estimate based on reasonable considerations provide by
the public. This is evidenced, as the respondent notes, in FAR Case
2007-006 where an adjustment was made from the total preparation hours
from three to sixty. This change was made considering particularly the
hours that would be required for review within the company, prior to
release to the Government.
The burden is prepared taking into consideration the necessary
criteria in OMB guidance for estimating the paperwork burden put on the
entity submitting the information. For example, consideration is given
to an entity reviewing instructions; using technology to collect,
process, and disclose information; adjusting existing practices to
comply with requirements; searching data sources; completing and
reviewing the response; and transmitting or disclosing information. The
estimated burden hours for a collection are based on an average between
the hours that a simple disclosure by a very small business might
require and the much higher numbers that might be required for a very
complex disclosure by a major corporation. Also, the estimated burden
hours should only include projected hours for those actions which a
company would not undertake in the normal course of business. Careful
consideration went into assessing the estimated burden hours for this
collection, and it is determined that an upward adjustment is warranted
at this time.
C. Annual Reporting Burden
There is no centralized database in the Federal Government that
maintains information regarding the use of FAR 47.208 and the clause at
FAR 52.247-68. Therefore, subject matter experts were consulted to
obtain additional information that helped in estimating the revised
public burden.
Information from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) was not
used to gather the data for this information collection, given that
agencies are not required to report classified information into FPDS
(see FAR 4.603(b)). Based on a review of the applicable clause, it was
determined that the types of contracts associated with this information
collection are: Contracts that result in the shipments of--
(A) Classified material, protected sensitive, and protected
controlled material;
(B) Explosives and poisons, class 1, division 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3;
class 2, division 2.3 and class 6, division 6.1;
(C) Radioactive materials requiring the use of a III bar label; or
(D) When a truckload/carload shipment of supplies weighing 20,000
pounds or more, or a shipment of less weight that occupies the full
visible capacity of a railway car or motor vehicle, is given to any
carrier (common, contract, or private) for transportation to a domestic
destination (other than a port for export)
Data from Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 was retrieved from the United
States Transportation Command`s (USTRANSCOM) Defense Transportation
Tracking System (DTTS). The primary mission of DTTS is to provide
safety, security, and in-transit visibility of all DOD shipments by
updating information from its database to USTRANSCOMs Global
Transportation Network. USTRANSCOM preformed a comprehensive review to
determine the number of contractor shipments that were tracked in FY
2012. Based on information from USTRANSCOM, it was reported that in FY
2012 approximately 10,000 shipments from 33 unique vendors reported the
notice of shipment requirement, as identified in FAR 47.208 and the
clause at FAR 52.247-68. The subject matter experts
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determined that 33 unique vendors was a sufficient baseline for
estimating the number of respondents. USTRANSCOM further provided that
the number of shipments varied from contractor to contractor, ranging
from as few as 11 shipments per contractor at the low end, to over 1900
shipments per contractor at the high end. USTRANSCOM also determined
that averaging the number of shipments for FY 2012 (approximately
10,000) by the number of unique vendors (33), was a sufficient
baseline, for this estimate, in determining the average number of
responses per respondent. Therefore it is estimated that, in accordance
FAR 47.208 and the clause at FAR 52.247-68, contractors were required
to provide advance notice of shipments en-route to military (and as
required, civilian agency) storage and distribution points, depots, and
other receiving activities, and those shipments contained classified
materials, sensitive, controlled, and/or certain other protected
material, explosives, and/or some other hazardous materials, on average
303 times per year. Further, based on information received from
USTRANSCOM, the estimated time require to prepare this notification
remains at 10 minutes. These revisions represent an increase from the
previously approved information collection.
Respondents: 33.
Responses per Respondent: 303.
Annual Responses: 9,999.
Hours per Response: .167.
Total Burden Hours: 1,670.
Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the
information collection documents from the General Services
Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., 2nd
Floor, Washington, DC 20405-0001, telephone (202) 501-4755. Please cite
OMB Control No. 9000-0056, Report of Shipment, in all correspondence.
Dated: August 8, 2013.
Karlos Morgan,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of
Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office
of Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-19568 Filed 8-12-13; 8:45 am]
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