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Interpretation ID: 30102ad_aerial_work_platform

    Mr. Mark A. Rangos
    Manager, Product Support
    Product Safety and Reliability Dept.
    JLG Industries, Inc.
    1 JLG Drive
    McConnellsburg, PA 17233-9533


    Dear Mr. Rangos:

    This responds to your letter of December 8, 2003, concerning requirements for trailer-mounted aerial work platforms that are being developed by JLG Industries, Inc. (JLG), which are used primarily to lift personnel and materials to elevated work locations in industrial or construction environments.

    You state that the aerial work platform structure is mounted upon a trailer chassis for the sole purpose of portability, to move the machine from one job site to another to perform its primary function as an aerial work platform. In a normal application, the machine is towed to a job site and set up for utilization. To be prepared for use, the machine must be maneuvered into position in proximity to the work location. Once in position, the stabilizers are deployed to stabilize and level the chassis. You also state that the machine may remain on the job site for "hours, days, months, or extended periods." Lastly, you claim that towing the machine upon the streets, roads, or highways is incidental to its use on job sites and performed only for the purpose of transfer to work locations. You asked us to confirm your interpretation that this machine would not be considered a "motor vehicle" as specified under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. For the reasons that follow, we confirm your understanding.

    By way of background, Chapter 301 of Title 49, U.S. Code (U.S.C.) (Safety Act) authorizes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to establish Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) applicable to new motor vehicles and new items of motor vehicle equipment. The Safety Act defines a "motor vehicle" as:

    a vehicle driven or drawn by mechanical power and manufactured primarily for use on public streets, roads, and highways, but does not include a vehicle operated only on a rail line.

    49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(6).

    If a vehicle is a motor vehicle under the above definition, then it must comply with all applicable FMVSS. However, if a vehicle is not a motor vehicle under this definition, then it need not comply with the agencys safety standards.

    Whether the agency will consider construction equipment, such as an aerial work platform structure that is mounted upon a trailer chassis, to be a motor vehicle depends upon its use. It is the agencys position that this statutory definition does not encompass mobile construction equipment, such as cranes and scrapers, which use the highway only to move between jobsites and which typically spend extended periods of time at a single jobsite. In such cases, the on-highway use of the vehicle is merely incidental and is not the primary purpose for which the vehicle was manufactured.

    However, in those cases where certain types of construction equipment make more frequent use of the roadways, the agency has determined such equipment to be a motor vehicle under the Safety Act. For example, dump trucks have been determined to be motor vehicles because they regularly use the highways to travel between jobsites and stay on such jobsites for only a limited period of time, thereby rendering their on-highway use more than "incidental."

    Your letter states that the aerial work platform structure is mounted upon a trailer chassis and may be towed from jobsite to jobsite. Your letter goes on to state that the duration of the aerial work platform structures use on jobsites is variable, ranging from "hours, days, months, or extended periods."

    Based upon the information and literature you have provided, it does not appear that your aerial work platform structures are "motor vehicles" as that term is defined in the Safety Act. This conclusion is based upon the assumption that your equipment generally spends extended periods of time at a single construction site and only uses the public roads infrequently to travel between jobsites. Accordingly, your aerial work platform structures would not be subject to the FMVSS.

    However, if the agency were to receive additional information indicating that the aerial work platform structures use the road more than on an incidental basis, then the agency would reassess this interpretation.

    I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions regarding NHTSAs safety standards, please feel free to contact Edward Glancy of my staff at this address or by telephone at (202) 366-2992.

    Sincerely,

    Jacqueline Glassman
    Chief Counsel

    ref:VSA
    d.4/1/04