Action
Notice to establish a new system of records.
Summary
FMCSA proposes to establish a system of records under the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) for its Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP), as required by 49 U.S.C. 31150. The system of records will make crash and inspection data about commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers rapidly available to CMV drivers (operator-applicants) and prospective employers of those drivers (motor carriers), via a secure Internet site, as an alternative to requiring them to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request or Privacy Act request to FMCSA for the data. Operator-applicants and motor carriers must pay a fee to access data in PSP, but use of PSP is optional. Motor carriers may continue to request the information from FMCSA under FOIA, and operator-applicants may continue to receive their own safety performance data free of charge by submitting a Privacy Act request to FMCSA. The PSP system will be administered by a FMCSA contractor, National Information Consortium Technologies, LLC (NIC). The PSP contractor will not be authorized to provide data to any persons other than motor carriers, for pre-employment screening purposes, and operator- applicants, as required in section 31150 (b)(3). A data request from any other person (e.g., a law firm) will be treated as a FOIA request by FMCSA. FMCSA will perform audits of the PSP contractor to ensure performance, privacy and security objectives are being met. The PSP system will only allow operator-applicants to access their own data, and will only allow motor carriers to access an individual operator- applicant's data if the motor carrier certifies the data is for pre- employment screening and that it has obtained the operator-applicant's written consent. The system of records is more thoroughly detailed below and in the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) that can be found on the DOT Privacy Web site at http://www.dot.gov/privacy.