Inside This Issue...

In the first venture that offers AAMVA's Fraudulent Document Recognition (FDR) Level I online course and the FDR Level II classroom course to appropriate commercial markets, the association announced this week it has teamed with AllRegs to extend its training curriculum into the residential mortgage lending industry. AllRegs, the leading online publisher of reference information for the aforementioned industry, offers distance learning and classroom training and cites fraud as a major issue in the mortgage market. This strategic partnership offers the AAMVA membership the opportunity to share its knowledge in a commercial market by helping to prevent and reduce fraud. With AAMVA and AllRegs sharing the revenues, the association leadership believes this will allow for greater flexibility in either developing new courseware for the membership without any assessments or reducing costs to members receiving training, or both. AAMVA retains content control to ensure the integrity of the courseware. And students in these courses will sign and abide by any applicable security agreements. Also, trainers for any commercial market will be contractors and not jurisdiction trainers. For more information, visit the All Regs Web site or contact Patrice Aasmo via e-mail or (703) 908-5787, or David Saddler via e-mail or (703) 908-5768.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announces its plan to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) its request to revise a currently-approved information collection (IC) entitled “Request for Revocation of Authority Granted,” docketed as OMB Control Number 2126-0018. This information collection notifies the FMCSA of a voluntary request by a motor carrier, freight forwarder, or property broker to amend or revoke its registration of authority granted. FMCSA will seek OMB’s review and approval of this revised IC and invites public comment on this request. FMCSA must receive comments on or before June 4, 2007. You may submit comments identified by the FMCSA Docket Number FMCSA-2007-26852 via the Web site at http://dms.dot.gov.

On Jan. 6, 2006, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a notice in the Federal Register at 71 FR 969 to solicit public comments on the quality, timeliness, comprehensiveness, and other characteristics of data collected on motor vehicle registration and licensed driver information. Based on public comments received, the FHWA has determined to make a change to the driver’s license data definition for teenage drivers, to eliminate the collection of information on disqualified commercial driver's licenses, and to develop enhanced software to receive and process motor vehicle registration and licensed driver data more efficiently.

If you haven’t already done so, please respond to the following surveys. Thank you!

• Kansas – Records Reciprocity with Tribal Nations (Ends 04/18/2007)
• California – Road Test for Dementia (Ends 04/30/2007)

The nation's top transportation official recently announced plans to make new crash prevention technology standard equipment on every new passenger vehicle sold in America by 2012. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Nicole R. Nason announced the final rule to require the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) on all new passenger vehicles during a tour with automakers at the New York International Auto Show. ESC uses automatic computer controlled braking to keep drivers from losing control on slippery roads or in emergency maneuvers, in many cases preventing deadly rollovers from occurring. The final rule will require all manufacturers to begin equipping passenger vehicles with ESC starting with model year 2009, and to have the feature available as standard equipment on all new passenger vehicles by the 2012 model year (September 2011). The agency estimates ESC will save between 5,300 and 9,600 lives annually and prevent between 168,000 and 238,000 injuries. A copy of the final regulation and the accompanying regulatory analysis is available on Safercar.gov. More information on the ESC technology is available on NHTSA's Web site. 

On Sunday, April 1, AAMVA successfully conducted its first Network Control Software (NCS) Disaster Recovery Drill. The purpose of this drill was to confirm that NCS functionality and subscriber connectivity could be successfully switched between the NCS primary and secondary sites in the event of a disaster.   Thanks to everyone for your support and cooperation during Sunday's drill. 

The Legal Services Discipline would like to announce that the registration materials are now available on the AAMVA Web site for the 2007 Motor Vehicle & Traffic Law Institute. The law institute will be held August 4-8, 2007 in Pittsburgh, PA. We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburgh!

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced publication of the annual insurer report on motor vehicle theft for the 2001 reporting year. Section 33112(h) of Title 49 of the U.S. Code requires this information to be compiled periodically and published by the agency in a form that will be helpful to the public, the law enforcement community, and Congress. As required by section 33112(c), this report provides information on theft and recovery of vehicles; rating rules and plans used by motor vehicle insurers to reduce premiums due to a reduction in motor vehicle thefts; and actions taken by insurers to assist in deterring thefts. Interested persons may obtain a copy of this report and appendices by contacting the U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Management, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. Docket hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Requests should refer to Docket No. 2004-17217. This report and appendices may also be viewed online at NHTSA's Web site. 

The 11th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED 2007) will be held June 18-22, 2007 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal Convention Centre under the theme "Benchmarking, Evaluation and Vision for the Future." Early bird registration ends April 15, 2007. The preliminary program has been finalized and features plenary, panel, roundtable sessions and an extensive and dynamic poster session. You can consult the Preliminary Program at TRANSED 2007 Web site.

The 2nd International Fit to Drive Congress will be held in Vienna, Austria on June 14 and 15, 2007. This year's conference, with a theme of "Reality and Vision - Common Problems, European Solutions," continues to explore the topic of fitness to drive and related road safety matters in Europe. As the second in a series of similar events, Fit to Drive is organised by the German Association of Technical Inspection Agencies (Verband der TÜV e.V.) in cooperation with the Austrian Road Safety Board (Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit / KfV) and several scientific and professional organisations. Speakers from EU institutions and a range of European countries will address the following topics: primary prevention in pre-school, school and driver education and training; general prevention through legislation and enforcement, demerit point systems; secondary prevention with a special focus on the persistent drink-driver; risk assessment in medical and psychological matters; driver counselling, assessment, rehabilitation and therapy in different countries of the EU; interlock systems and rehabilitation and comparative studies of traffic safety in Europe. For more information, visit the Fit to Drive Web site.

Jurisdictions have differing processes for dealing with commercial drivers cited for having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of more than .04 while driving a commercial motor vehicle. In the upcoming Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) Modernization project, AAMVA wants to ensure it accurately captures the data necessary for all jurisdiction requirements. To help in this aim, please respond to the survey titled "Citation of CDL Holder for BAC > .04 in CMV."