Interpretation ID: aiam3435
Pupil Transportation
Department of Education
Lansing
MI 48909;
Dear Mr. Louderback: This responds to your March 30, 1981 letter pertaining to the mountin of an old school bus body on a new chassis. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has stated that such a mounting constitutes the manufacture of a new motor vehicle and must comply with all applicable safety standards in effect at the time of that manufacture. This statement comes from previous agency interpretations of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and from the rationale underlying the provisions of section 571.7(e) of our regulations. You state that section 571.7(e) applies only to trucks and, accordingly, has no application to school buses.; The agency has had a longstanding position that a vehicle combining a old body and new chassis is a new vehicle. This position was developed and applied long before the proposal for section 571.7(e) in May 1975. See, for example, the enclosed 1972 letter of interpretation and the discussion of pre-proposal interpretations in the enclosed copy of the May 1975 proposal.; The codification in section 571.7(e) of the agency's position a regards trucks did not alter its similar position as regards other vehicle types. I am enclosing a 1978 interpretation stating that school buses will be treated under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in the same fashion as trucks are under section 571.7(e). The reason for this interpretation is the similarity of the practice of manufacturing school buses and trucks on new truck chassis. Accordingly, the agency has applied the same rationale in determining those vehicles, e.g., buses, that are to be considered newly- manufactured.; In light of these existing interpretations and in the interest o safety, the agency is retaining its position that vehicles using old bodies and new chassis be treated as newly manufactured vehicles.; Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Chief Counsel