Driver History Initiative Projects; Fiscal Year 1999 Funding

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 91 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25530-25533]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-11925]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration


Driver History Initiative Projects; Fiscal Year 1999 Funding

AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of solicitation.

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SUMMARY: This notice solicits proposals from States for projects to 
improve the timeliness, accuracy, and completeness of reporting and 
recording of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) traffic

[[Page 25531]]

convictions within a State and between States. Where safety and 
identification of traffic offenders can be improved, these grants would 
provide funding to assist States to improve the reporting and recording 
of traffic convictions. The FHWA, in partnership with the National 
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will provide grant funds 
to the selected States to carry out the projects for driver 
improvements and enhancements.

DATES: Proposals must be submitted on or before August 10, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Submit all proposals to: the State Director, Department of 
Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Motor Carrier 
and Highway Safety in your State. Those desiring notification of 
receipt of their proposal submission must include a self-addressed, 
stamped envelope or postcard. If you need the name and address of the 
State Director in your State, you can call (202) 366-9579 between the 
hours of 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program issues: Mr. Norm Anger, 
Office of National and International Safety Programs, (202) 366-2170, 
or Mr. Phillip Forjan, Office of Motor Carrier Research and Standards, 
(202) 366-4001: For legal issues: Ms. Suzanne O'Malley, Office of Chief 
Counsel, (202) 366-1367 Federal Highway Administration, Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. Office 
hours are from 7:45 am to 4:15 pm, e.t., Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Electronic Access

    An electronic copy of this document may be downloaded using a modem 
and suitable communications software from the Federal Register 
Electronic Bulletin Board Service at (202) 512-1661. Internet users may 
reach the Federal Register's home page at: http://www.nara.gov/fedreg 
and the Government Printing Office's database at http://
www.acesss.gpo.gov/nara.

Background

    The Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations 
Act for Fiscal Year 1999, Pub. L. 105-277, 112 Stat 2681, enacted on 
October 21, 1998, set aside grant funds for states to carry out 
projects for driver improvements and enhancements.
    This is the second year in which the FHWA, in cooperation with the 
NHTSA, is making funds available to States desiring to improve their 
CMV driver license adjudication and data exchange systems. While the 
funding is primarily intended to improve driver license adjudication 
reporting and information exchange for CMV drivers, it does not 
preclude States' non-commercial systems from benefitting from any 
system improvements. The agencies are seeking grant applications from 
States willing to undertake a systematic review of their license 
citation and conviction reporting systems and the development of plans 
to improve the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of driver license 
information exchange with courts, prosecutors, and law enforcement. 
This may include procedural changes within the State licensing agency, 
new or expanded communications with courts, prosecutors and police, or 
perhaps regulatory and/or legislative changes. The initiative is a 
collaborative effort of the FHWA and the NHTSA, which jointly will 
provide the funding, as well as the American Association of Motor 
Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which will provide technical support 
during all phases of the projects.
    Extensive studies and research conducted over a period of years 
have found that driver error is a major cause of motor vehicle crashes. 
Driver error is a complex problem with many components including age, 
experience, time of day, extent of familiarity with the roadway, 
emotional/physical/mental state, traffic patterns, etc. Improving 
driver behavior is an essential component to improving highway safety. 
Federal, State, and local governments spend millions of dollars 
annually on training, education, public information and law enforcement 
efforts to protect the motoring public by detecting and deterring 
unsafe driver behavior. The enforcement component of these programs 
produces thousands of citations for driving violations every day. This 
Driver History Initiative is designed to assist States to answer the 
question of what happens to those convictions.
    The backbone of the effort to deal with unsafe drivers is the 
driver control system. This is the adjudicatory framework by which law 
enforcement, prosecutors, courts and motor vehicle licensing agencies 
issue citations, adjudicate driving offenses, report those offenses for 
entry on the driver record, and exchange that information among the 
participants in that State's system and with licensing and adjudication 
systems outside that State. If the driver control system breaks down, 
or if it is not working efficiently, there is no method for identifying 
potential problem drivers for remediation. Without early detection and 
corrective action, these violators can develop into chronic offenders 
and become the problem drivers that cause crashes and injuries, and 
fatalities. The accurate and timely exchange of driver licensing 
information between jurisdictions can save lives, and the Federal 
government's implementation of these grants is designed to achieve that 
objective. In addition, timely, accurate and complete recording of 
traffic adjudications insures that the millions of dollars spent 
annually to fund roadside traffic enforcement achieve maximum safety 
benefit and that officers are not needlessly placed at risk when 
conducting traffic enforcement activities.

FY 1998 Awards: A Strong Beginning

    The Department of Transportation and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 1998, Pub. L. 105-66, 111 Stat. 1425, made 
available $1 million dollars in Information Systems funding for the 
FHWA for driver program improvements. The FHWA made that full amount 
available for grants to States for improvement of their traffic 
adjudication systems. The NHTSA provided $200,000 in additional funding 
to support this program, making $1.2 million available to the States 
for FY 1998. Twelve States submitted grant proposals, totaling just 
under $3 million dollars. Each grant proposal was reviewed based on its 
adherence to the grant application criteria contained in the Federal 
Register notice published on April 9, 1998 (63 FR 17474) and the extent 
to which it addressed driver licensing adjudication system problems in 
that particular State. The results of the review lead to full funding 
of five proposals, partial funding of four proposals, and no funding to 
three States, because they either failed to meet the required criteria 
specified in the notice or did not meet the deadline for submitting 
grant applications.
    Some of the projects which were funded are as follows: an analysis 
of a current driver citation reporting process and the design of a new 
system to automate this process; a study on the impact of diversion and 
deferral programs on the accuracy and integrity of driver histories; 
and the reprogramming of a driver control system to accept driver crash 
data, a vital component of the driver control record.

Driver History Initiative Projects

    The FHWA seeks to improve the timeliness, completeness, accuracy, 
and

[[Page 25532]]

clarity of State driver history files by promoting an integrated driver 
licensing system. Such a system will improve and enhance the driver 
control system by its ability to facilitate identification, 
prosecution, and adjudication of problem drivers. It will benefit 
drivers who have satisfied the penalties or conditions of a driving 
restriction by promptly updating their driving record. It will ensure 
that all drivers have complete, accurate, and up-to-date histories 
available as needed for employment and insurance purposes.
    The Initiative will again begin with federally-funded State 
projects. It will once more involve States that are willing to explore 
and test new and proven methodologies and protocols, allowing for rapid 
electronic exchange of driver history information. A major component of 
the projects will continue to be to test procedures that facilitate 
citation tracking from issuance to resolution. The projects should also 
enhance the accuracy, speed, and completeness of driver history 
information exchange among the various components of the system, 
including law enforcement, prosecutors, the courts, and driver 
licensing agencies, both within the State and between States.
    The scope of potential projects or plans need not to be limited to 
information systems development, changes, or enhancements. The State 
may have a system that is technically sound but hampered by State 
procedures, policies, laws, or legislation preventing the State from 
utilizing its system in the most efficient and effective manner. The 
FHWA will entertain proposals that may not involve the system but still 
would meet the project goals. One example of a procedural problem is 
the handling of out-of-State convictions. Some States treat paper 
notification of out-of-State convictions differently than electronic 
notification of similar convictions; several States lack the authority 
to assess points or penalties for convictions received electronically. 
Some States report there are certain out-of-State convictions which 
they cannot enter on drivers' records because of State-to-State 
statutory inconsistencies.

Project Goal

    The goal of the FHWA is to ensure timely, accurate, and complete 
reporting and recording of traffic convictions within State courts, 
State licensing agencies, prosecutors; and between and among States to 
reliably identify potential problem drivers by enhancing existing 
systems, developing new systems, or revising existing procedural 
practices and/or procedures.
    The Initiative's primary objective is to achieve enhancements in 
the development, exchange, retention, and reporting of driver histories 
of CMV operators. The FHWA believes that any enhancements to the 
commercial segment of the driver licensing system will also have a 
positive effect on processing of traffic offenses for drivers of non-
commercial vehicles. While focusing primarily on improving CMV traffic 
adjudication systems, State proposals that also serve to improve or 
enhance non-commercial systems ancillary to the CMV improvements are 
eligible for funding. One of the results of these grants will be to 
broadly share information among States on methods to improve traffic 
adjudication and recordkeeping systems. Consequently, States submitting 
applications for grant funding will be required to report regularly on 
project activities and progress and share the results of their efforts 
with other jurisdictions. The FHWA, the NHTSA and the AAMVA will 
facilitate these efforts and provide technical assistance to all 
jurisdictions.

Proposal Submission

Required Content of Proposals

    While providing flexibility to States, grant proposals must meet 
certain criteria. The grant proposal criteria are designed to ensure 
that project proposals will enhance traffic adjudication systems in the 
State and that key State agencies and organizations participate in 
approved grant activities. Traffic adjudication systems involve law 
enforcement, courts, prosecutors, and driver licensing agencies. To be 
effective, the FHWA and the NHTSA believe that traffic adjudication 
system improvement projects must be multi-disciplinary and reflect the 
expertise and commitment of all participants in the system. 
Consequently, grant applications must specify that all relevant 
participants in the process are involved in the project. A thorough 
evaluation design is another key requirement. The proposal must include 
the following seven items:
    1. Identification of a lead Agency for the project.
    2. Identification of an interdisciplinary working group within the 
State, including but not limited to representation from the motor 
vehicle licensing agency, court system, prosecutors, State law 
enforcement, Governor's Highway Safety Representatives, and State Motor 
Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) agency.
    3. An analysis of existing systems or procedures, including 
discussion of any driver conviction/deferral programs operating in the 
State, an outline of system strengths, and definition of areas 
requiring attention or improvement. The grant proposal should define, 
analyze, and document user procedures, including projected barriers to 
project success, such as any statutory limitations that may affect 
communication and recording of convictions on the system.
    4. System requirements, including project scope, whether new 
technologies would be tested, and methods of gathering, integrating, 
and facilitating data exchange between various users. If the project is 
not system-related, describe existing procedures, the problems they 
generate, proposed new procedures, anticipated outcome, and the means 
to measure the success or impact of the project or program.
    5. A plan for preparing a final report, including the evaluation 
findings and recommendations for other States regarding the strengths 
and weaknesses of this project or program. All grant recipients will be 
required to provide periodic progress reports on funded projects and 
agree to share project results with other jurisdictions.
    6. A detailed plan for implementing the system or procedures, 
including time lines for completion, along with a detailed budget for 
the project. The budget must be sufficiently detailed so that it may be 
evaluated on the costs assigned to each proposed task, the allocation 
of resources to complete the tasks, the procurement of hardware and/or 
software (if applicable), staff hours (broken out by labor category), 
and other costs (e.g., travel, printing, etc.). The budget should 
closely correspond to the tasks outlined in the implementation plan and 
be broken out according to the time lines for completion.
    7. A detailed description of how the success of the project will be 
evaluated and measured. This must include specific descriptions of the 
goals of the project, how progress will be monitored and the final 
evaluation design and due date.

Submission of Proposals

    There will be no formal Request For Proposals (RFP). Proposals 
responding to this notice must be valid for 180 days and may be funded 
at any time during that period. Proposals should be submitted with an 
original and two copies, following the task requirements listed above, 
to the State Director, Federal Highway Administration, Department of 
Transportation, Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety in

[[Page 25533]]

your State. If you need the name and address of the State Director in 
your State, you can call (202) 366-9579 between the hours of 7:45 a.m. 
to 4:15 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

Sample Proposal Available

    A sample proposal was developed and could be used by the States as 
a guideline for submitting their own proposals. The sample proposal can 
be obtained on-line, in portable document format, from the AAMVA web 
site (http://www.aamva.org) and clicking on ``Must See Items.'' If you 
have any problems retrieving the document from AAMVA's web site, please 
call (703) 908-2822. The proposal is also available from the FHWA's web 
site at (http://www.mcregis.fhwa.dot/forms.htm) or from the State 
Director in the FHWA's Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety in 
your State.

Evaluation of Proposals and Award

    A panel comprised of representatives from the NHTSA and the AAMVA 
will assist the FHWA in its technical review of project proposals. The 
AAMVA and the FHWA will also participate in project monitoring, 
evaluation, and information sharing with other States. Members of the 
panel will be available for technical assistance during all phases of 
the projects and will review the evaluations of each final product. The 
panel will evaluate each proposal based on the following factors: (1) 
The intrinsic merit of the proposal; (2) the technical competency of 
the proposal; (3) the potential for utilization of results; (4) 
reasonableness of the costs proposed; and (5) adequacy of proposed 
resources to complete the project requirements satisfactorily, and in a 
timely manner; and (6) the adequacy of the project evaluation design.
    Proposals which most closely meet the seven content criteria and 
the six evaluation criteria as outlined above will be considered for 
funding. In addition, it is understood that States which receive 
funding may be visited by the FHWA representatives who will review the 
progress of their projects , as well as seek input and feedback on the 
Initiative.

Project Funding

    This notice announces the FHWA's intent to provide funding in FY 
1999 for a number of projects relating to driver licensing systems and 
State driver license procedures. States are invited to submit proposals 
outlining their projects to the FHWA's Office of Motor Carriers and 
Highway Safety. The FHWA will fund project management and 
implementation of State systems or revision of State procedures. This 
grant will not require matching funds. The FHWA has $700,000 available 
for this purpose in FY 1999 and contemplates making several awards from 
the proposals submitted. States are also encouraged to explore other 
funding sources in both the private and public sectors to implement 
integrated driver history tracking systems.

    Authority: Pub. L. 105-277, 112 stat. 2681 (1998); 49 U.S.C. 
31102; and 49 CFR 1.48.

    Issued on: May 3, 1999.
Gloria J. Jeff,
Federal Highway Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 99-11925 Filed 5-11-99; 8:45 am]
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