[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 144 (Monday, July 28, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43820-43821]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-17648]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Surface Transportation Board
Notice and Request for Comments
AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board.
ACTION: 60-day notice of request for approval: Extension of Generic
Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service
Delivery.
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SUMMARY: The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board), as part of
its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden,
invites the general public to take this opportunity to comment on the
``Extension of Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative
Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' for approval under the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3519 (PRA). This collection was
developed as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the
process for seeking feedback from the public on the Board's service
delivery. This notice announces our intent to submit this collection to
OMB for approval and solicits comments on specific aspects for the
proposed information collection.
Comments are requested concerning: (a) Whether the collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility,
and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of
information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs
and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to
provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose,
or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the
time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install, and
utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting,
validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining
information, and disclosing and providing information; to train
personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to
search data sources, to complete and review the collection of
information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.
Submitted comments will be summarized and included in the Board's
request for OMB approval.
Description of Collection
Title: Extension of Generic Clearance for the Collection of
Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.
Abstract: The proposed information collection activity provides a
means to garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an
efficient and timely manner, in accordance with the Administration's
commitment to improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback we
mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions and
opinions, but not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results
that can be generalized to the population of study. This feedback will
provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences,
and expectations; provide an early warning with issues about how the
Board provides service to the public; or focus attention on areas where
communication, training, or changes in operations might improve
delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for
ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the Board
and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to
contribute directly to the improvement of program management.
The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: Timeliness,
appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of
service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery.
Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or
maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this
information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and
stakeholders on the Board's services will be unavailable.
The Board will only submit a collection for approval under this
generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:
The collections are voluntary;
The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on
considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or
burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents
and the Federal Government;
The collections are non-controversial and do not raise
issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions
from respondents who have experience with the program or may have
experience with the program in the near future;
Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected
only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
Information gathered will be used only internally for
general service improvement and program management purposes and not for
release outside of the agency;
Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of
substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
Information gathered will yield qualitative information,
and the collections will not be designed or expected to yield
statistically reliable results or used as though the results are
generalizable to the population of study.
Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful
information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the
overall population. Such data uses would require more rigorous designs
than the collections covered by this notice.
As a general matter, information collections will not result in any
new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask
questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes,
religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered
private.
OMB Control Number: 2140-0019.
STB Form Number: None.
Type of Review: Extension without change.
Respondents: Customers and stakeholders of the Board.
Number of Respondents, Frequency, Estimated Time per Response, and
Total Burden Hours: A variety of instruments and platforms will be used
to collect information from respondents. The estimated annual burden
hours (277) are based on the number of collections we expect to conduct
over the requested period for this clearance, as set forth in the table
below.
[[Page 43821]]
Estimated Annual Reporting Burden
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Annual
Type of collection Number of frequency per Hours per Total hours
respondents response response
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Focus Group..................................... 15 1 2 30
Comment Card/Brief Survey....................... 200 2 .17 67
Surveys......................................... 150 2 .6 180
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DATES: Comments on this information collection should be submitted by
September 26, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Direct all comments to Chris Oehrle, Surface Transportation
Board, 395 E Street SW., Washington, DC 20423-0001, or to
[email protected]. When submitting comments, please refer to ``Extension
of Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on
Agency Service Delivery.'' For further information regarding this
generic clearance, contact [email protected]. [Federal Information Relay
Service (FIRS) for the hearing impaired: (800) 877-8339.]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA, a federal agency conducting
or sponsoring a collection of information must display a currently
valid OMB control number. Comments submitted in response to this notice
may be made available to the public through the Board's Web site at
http://stb.dot.gov/stb/index.html. For this reason, please do not
include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as
sensitive personal information or proprietary information. If you send
an electronic comment (e-file or email), your email address is
automatically captured and may be accessed by the public through the
Board's Web site as part of a service mailing list. Please note that
responses to this public comment request containing any routine notice
about the confidentiality of the communication will be treated as
public comments that may be made available to the public
notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.
Dated: July 23, 2014.
Jeffrey Herzig,
Clearance Clerk.
[FR Doc. 2014-17648 Filed 7-25-14; 8:45 am]
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