PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following proposed rule:
Proposed Action:
Amendment of Part 160 of Title 15 NYCRR.
Statutory authority:
Vehicle and Traffic Law, section 215(a); and Public Officers Law, section 87(1)(b)
Subject:
Fee for Driver's Manual.
Purpose:
The Department proposes to charge certain entities $1 for the Driver's Manual.
Text of proposed rule:
Paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of section 160.1 is amended to read as follows:
(3) Manual means a type of record, which may be in any printed format, produced by the Department of Motor Vehicles specifically to provide instruction and/or reference material to a selected public and/or departmental employees[.]; provided, however, a driver's manual shall mean the manual produced by the Department of Motor Vehicles specifically to provide instruction to an applicant for a learner's permit pursuant to subdivision 3 of section 502 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
Subdivision (a) of section 160.8 is amended and a new subdivision (b) is added to read as follows:
160.8(a) As prescribed by section 202 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, the fee for a single search shall be $10 and the fee for copies or records searched shall be one dollar per page (a page being one of two sides of material), except that the fee for a copy of an accident report shall be $15.00 plus the $10 search fee. Notwithstanding the foregoing, there shall be no fee for a search for a publication or a manual, and there shall be no fee for a copy of a publication except where a fee is provided by statute. A manual, other than a driver's manual, shall be provided free of charge upon the request of a selected public or an employee for whom the publication was produced, but a fee of seven cents per page (a page being one of two sides of material) shall be charged upon the request of any other person.
(b) Driver's Manual. The fee for a driver's manual shall be $1.00 for for any person or entity other than an applicant for a driver's license who obtains a manual at a Department of Motor Vehicles' office or a person or entity that is exempt from the payment of fees pursuant to subdivision one of section 202 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
Text of proposed rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:
Monica J. Staats, NYS Department of Motor Vehicles, Legal Bureau, Room 526, 6 Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12228, (518) 486-3131, email: monica.staats@dmv.state.ny.us
Data, views or arguments may be submitted to:
Same as above.
Public comment will be received until:
45 days after publication of this notice.
Regulatory Impact Statement
1. Statutory Authority: Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL) section 215(a) provides that the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may enact rules and regulations that regulate and control the exercise of the powers of the Department. Section 502(3) of the VTL requires the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles to provide an applicant for a learner's permit with a copy of the Department's driver's manual which contains the laws relating to traffic, explanations of traffic signs and symbols and other information as the Commissioner shall prescribe.
2. Legislative Objectives: Section 502(3) of the VTL directs the Department to provide a copy of the driver's manual to permit applicants so as to assist new drivers in learning about the rules of the road and other highway safety matters. This proposed regulation would comply with the above legislative requirement by continuing the provision of the manual to permit applicants for free. However, due to the high cost of producing and distributing the manuals, this proposal would allow DMV to recoup some of the costs of publication, shipment and storage by charging other persons or entities $1.00 per copy of the manual, which is a relatively small fee easily affordable by the vast majority of purchasers.
3. Needs and Benefits: The Department of Motor Vehicles is required by law to provide a driver's manual to all applicants for a learner's permit free of charge. Although under no statutory obligation to do so, the Department also issues such manuals to school districts, driving schools, libraries and American Automobile Association (AAA) offices for no fee, as a courtesy to these entities. The cost for printing the manuals in the current two year printing cycle is approximately $347,000.00. In addition, there are associated shipping and storage costs borne by the Department in order to provide the manuals to their intended recipients. Permitting the Department to charge the non-public entities a small fee for the manuals will help defray the Department's costs in producing, shipping and storing the manuals.
Further, as the entire manual is provided on DMV's public website, the Department will accrue the additional benefit of attracting more customers to the website, thereby furthering the aims of the Department's "Greening DMV" initiative, a program intended to reduce the consumption of paper by the Department and its customers.
The Department understands that charging a fee for the manual will impose an (albeit small) expense on hundreds of private entities that receive the manual. Therefore, the Department will only charge one dollar for each manual, which is a fair cost for helping to defray the Department's costs in providing the manual. In addition, in light of the fiscal plight facing many political subdivisions such as school districts, the Department will not charge such entities any fee for the manuals. This exemption is also consistent with the VTL section 202(10, which exempts public bodies from fees for documents to be used for a public purpose.
As the State faces serious financial constraints, steps both large and small are necessary to reduce spending. The proposed amendment represents one such step to reduce spending by defraying the costs of producing this statutorily mandated publication.
4. Costs:
a. To regulated parties: Non-public entities, such a driving schools and AAA offices which order the manuals from DMV for their customers shall pay a $1.00 fee for each manual. The cost for such entities will depend entirely upon on how many manuals they choose to provide to their customers. In addition, the driver's manual is available on the Department's website free of charge. Thus, such entities may download the manual at no cost to themselves.
b. To the State the agency and local governments: There are no costs to the State, DMV or to local governments, as the fee will be waived for school districts and other governmental entities which obtain the manuals from DMV. The savings to DMV as the result of this proposed regulation will depend upon how many manuals are purchased by the non-public entities receiving them. Currently, DMV distributes about 472,000 manuals a year to non-public entities. Even if such entities continue to receive half of that number of manuals, DMV would collect approximately $236,000 from such entities.
c. Source: DMV's Budget Office.
5. Local government mandates: There are no new mandates imposed upon local governments because the fee for the manual is waived for local governments.
6. Paperwork: This proposal imposes no new paperwork requirements upon regulated parties.
7. Duplication: This proposal does not duplicate any law, regulation or procedure.
8. Alternatives: There are no known alternatives for recouping some of the costs for providing these statutorily mandated publications, other than charging the nominal fee as proposed. A no action alternative was considered, but in light of the state's fiscal problems, charging a minimal fee for the manual outweighed the minor burden imposed upon the commercial/private entities that will pay for the manual.
9. Federal standards: This rule does not exceed any minimum standards of the Federal government.
10. Compliance schedule: Upon adoption of the regulation.
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
1. Effect of rule: The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) provides multiple copies of the driver's manual to several hundred entities throughout the State, including bulk quantities to larger organizations, such as AAA. These manuals are then distributed by these entities to driver license applicants and are used for study in preparation for the written license test. The organizations that obtain the manuals from DMV shall be assessed a one dollar fee for each manual. About half of the 500 entities receiving multiple copies are non-public organizations, and many of these are small businesses, mostly driving schools and some livery companies. The other half of the entities receiving the manuals consists of school districts or arms of local government, which will not be assessed a fee.
2. Compliance requirements: Those non-public entities that wish to continue to provide the manuals to their customers may choose to pass the minimal fee on to their customers, or such entities may absorb the fee. In addition, the driver's manual is available on-line on the DMV website at no cost.
3. Professional services: This regulation would not require recipients of the manuals to obtain new professional services.
4. Compliance costs: The costs to recipients will depend on how many manuals they wish to receive from DMV. Again, no fee will be charged to local government entities or school districts.
5. Economic and technological feasibility: This proposal will not impose any new technological requirements on recipients.
6. Minimizing adverse impact: As explained in the Regulatory Impact Statement's "Alternatives" section, DMV did not consider any alternative methods of bringing about the desired change since this method clearly represents the best course of action in recouping some of the Department's costs in providing these manuals. In addition, the driver's manual is available on-line on the DMV website for no fee.
7. Small business and local government participation: Since this regulation does not negatively impact local governments and because the impact on small businesses is negligible, participation was not deemed necessary.
Rural Area Flexibility Analysis
A Rural Area Flexibility Analysis is not submitted with this proposed rule because it will have no adverse or disproportionate impact on rural areas of the State.
Job Impact Statement
A Job Impact Statement is not submitted with this proposed rule because it will have no adverse impact on job development in New York State.
