The U.S. Department of Transportation is now offering electronic notification to people who want an easier way to follow U.S. transportation regulatory activities, including rulemakings on topics such as hours of service.

The department's current docket management system makes rulemakings, adjudication documents and public comments on the rulemakings electronically accessible to the public. The initiative announced today adds to that system by providing an option to be notified every time a substantive, government document is posted in the department's docket.
Users will be able to select specific rulemakings or adjudicatory proceedings by their regulatory identification number (RIN), docket number or operating administration. Users also will be able to select regulatory documents that have a federalism, tribalism or small business or entity impact.
The President's Management Council in October selected the U.S. Department of Transportation to lead the Online Rulemaking Initiative. The objective of the initiative is to make it easier for the public to participate in the rulemaking process, establishing a foundation for electronic democracy as envisioned by the Bush administration.
People who want to use the new service may sign up for it by going to http://dms.dot.gov/ and selecting "List Serve." The system will then prompt users to enter their email address. Once the system verifies a user's email address, he or she may then select an "agent" which is an automatic document hunter. The user tells the "agent" what to look for and, every 24 hours, the agent will retrieve a list of documents matching the criteria selected by the user.