Interpretation ID: nht79-3.17

DATE: 06/14/79

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Frank Berndt; NHTSA

TO: Mr. Robert S. Ordman

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in response to your letter of May 22, 1979, in which you asked the status of Intermark Tire Company's petitions concerning the Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) Standards. You also noted that Intermark's petitions have not been published in the Federal Register.

Intermark's petition for exemption does not qualify as a petition for temporary exemption from motor vehicle safety standards under Part 555 (49 CFR Part 555), and consequently was not published in the Federal Register, since that part applies only to manufacturers of motor vehicles. Intermark's petition for rulemaking was not published because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Associate Administrator for Rulemaking determined that public comment was not necessary to a determination on the petition (49 CFR 552.6).

NHTSA plans in the near future to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to exclude limited production tires from the applicatio of the UTQG Standards.