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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 192 / Thursday, October 7, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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estimate, and values this time at a loaded median hourly rate of $31.50 for customer service representatives.31 This results in an annual cost of approximately $159,000 5,045
downgraded licenses per year 1 hour $31.50.
In sum, FMCSA estimates 10-year total costs for SDLAs to be approximately $30.1 million undiscounted. At a 7 percent discount rate, the 10-year total cost is estimated at $23.1 million and the annualized cost is estimated at $3.3 million. FMCSA
notes that States can apply for CDLPI
grant program funding to offset the cost associated with IT development and operations and maintenance.
FMCSA will incur initial IT
development costs of just over $1.0
million in 2019 dollars in the first year of the 10-year analysis period. FMCSA
would incur annual operations and maintenance expenses of $203,000
$1.02 million 20 percent beginning in the second year of the 10-year analysis period. Over the remaining 9
years of the analysis period, the Agency will incur $1.8 million of operations and maintenance expenses $203,000
9 years. The sum of initial IT
development costs and annual O&M
expenses results in FMCSA incurring total undiscounted costs of $2.8 million over the 10-year analysis period $1.0
million + $1.8 million. At a 7 percent discount rate, the Agency is estimated to incur $2.2 million in IT development and operations and maintenance expenses over the 10-year analysis period. The annualized cost at a 7
percent discount rate is estimated at $0.3 million.
Driver Opportunity Cost and CLP/CDL
Reinstatement Cost Under the final rule, a driver could incur an opportunity cost equal to the income forgone between the time he or she is eligible to resume operating a CMV i.e., when an employer reports a negative RTD test result to the Clearinghouse and when the SDLA
reinstates the commercial privilege to the drivers license.
The estimate of opportunity costs drivers may incur is a function largely of the number of drivers that SAPs refer to outpatient education programs versus intensive outpatient treatment IOT
programs. In the 2016 RIA, the Agency assumed an education program would be completed in 16 hours and an IOT
31 The hourly median wage for the BLSSOC 43
4051 Customer Service Representative is $16.69.
FMCSA adjusts this wage rate using the previously identified fringe benefits rate of 73 percent and the overhead rate of 15.9 percent. See https
www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151251.htm.

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program would be completed in 108
hours over 12 weeks. The final rule requires SDLAs to record a downgrade on the drivers CDLIS record within 60
days. If the driver completes the RTD
process before the SDLA records a downgrade in CDLIS, the SDLA would be required to terminate the downgrade, consistent with State law. A driver referred to a 16-hour education program by a SAP may complete the RTD process before the SDLA records the downgrade in CDLIS. In this case, a driver would be qualified to operate a CMV without having to comply with State-established procedures to reinstate the CMV driving privilege and would not incur opportunity costs.
In the 2016 RIA, the Agency assumed that 75 percent of drivers who violated the drug and alcohol program would be referred to a 16-hour education program.
The remaining drivers would be referred to a 108-hour IOT program. In July 2018, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration SAMHSA, published a report titled National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services NSSATS: 2017. Data on Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities.
SAMHSA reported that 82 percent of individuals in outpatient programs participated in education programs. The remaining 18 percent participated in IOT programs.32 FMCSA reviewed the 2018 SAMHSA survey report and found that the client characteristics regarding outpatient program attendance were not reported, and therefore the 2017 report provides the most recent estimate of the percentage of individuals completing education programs. The Clearinghouse, which has been operational since January 2020, accurately reports driver count information that informs the percentage of drivers who complete RTD procedures within the 60-day timeframe.33 However, this data was collected during the coronavirus disease 2019 COVID19 pandemic, which has had significant short-term impacts on the U.S. economy and labor market.
While the long-term impacts remain unclear, FMCSA does not think it prudent to estimate costs over a 10-year 32 The report is available at https
www.samhsa.gov/data/report/national-surveysubstance-abuse-treatment-services-n-ssats-2017data-substance-abuse, Table 51a accessed June 16, 2019.
33 As of January 1, 2021, the Clearinghouse recorded just over 52,000 drivers with a drug or alcohol violation, of which more than 60% had not started the RTD process. Over 30% of drivers with a violation had either started or completed RTD.
While this data is logically consistent with the assumptions in this analysis, FMCSA cannot determine how the COVID pandemic affected either the total number of violations or the RTD process and is not using Clearinghouse data to inform impact estimates at this time.

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period based on information collected during the COVID19 pandemic, which drastically affected employment, freight rates, and even mental health and substance abuse prevalence. Further, FMCSA did not receive comments regarding any inaccuracy of the SAMHSA data and therefore continues to rely on it for the purposes of this analysis.
Based on the U.S. DOTs survey data for 2018, extrapolated to the entire CDL
population, FMCSA estimates that 62,279 drivers will test positive and be required to complete the RTD process annually.34 The 2016 RIA estimated that 45 percent, or 28,026 of these drivers, will complete the RTD process.35 Based on SAMHSAs survey, the Agency estimates that 82 percent, or 22,981 of the 28,026 drivers, will complete the RTD process before SDLAs record the downgrade and will not incur opportunity costs.36 The remaining 5,045 drivers 28,026 drivers 18
percent presumably will be referred to an IOT program and be required to comply with any reinstatement procedures established by the State that could cause a driver to incur opportunity costs.
Depending on the State, a driver may be required to appear in person at the SDLA to complete the reinstatement process that could require the driver to incur opportunity costs for the time to travel to and from the SDLA. Some SDLAs allow the transaction to be completed by email or through the SDLA website. For purposes of this analysis, the Agency assumes that drivers will need to complete the transaction in person, which may result in an overestimation of the cost to drivers. The Agency assumes that it will take one day for a driver to travel to an SDLA and complete the reinstatement 34 U.S. DOT Agency MIS data. Available at:
https www.transportation.gov/odapc/DOT_
Agency_MIS_Data. Accessed on November 2, 2020.
35 DOT FMCSA Commercial Drivers License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse: Final Rulemaking Regulatory Impact Analysis. December 13, 2016.
Available at: https beta.regulations.gov/
document/FMCSA-2011-0031-0183.
36 FMCSA notes that, while States have 60 days to complete a downgrade of the CLP/CDL, they may elect to record the downgrade sooner, thereby reducing the time frame for drivers to complete the RTD process requirements prior to the downgrade.
If this occurs, drivers referred to the 16-hour education program may be subject to reinstatement procedures at the SDLA. FMCSA is unable to estimate the likelihood or frequency of such an occurrence, and continues to assume all drivers referred to a 16-hour education program will complete the RTD process prior to the State recording the downgrade. The Agency believes this is a reasonable assumption, particularly given the increased incentive to quickly complete the RTD
process following the notification to drivers of an impending downgrade.

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