Interpretation ID: 17040.ztv

Mr. Pat Riebalkin
Production Manager
Gorlan Trailer Fairing Inc.
112-A
12827 76th Avenue
Surrey, B.C. V3W 2V3
Canada

Dear Mr. Riebalkin:

This is in response to your letter of December 23, 1997, to this Office requesting "an official letter identifying the national regulations regarding conspicuity marking or lighting for our aerodynamic freight trailer fairing." Your company markets and sells fairings to trailer dealerships, who in turn, install them at their facilities, using their employees. The fairing is suspended one inch below the bottom of the trailer bed. You report that when the fairing is in place, it does not cover conspicuity marking or marker lamps. However, when the fairing is raised, it obscures the marker lamps and some conspicuity tape.

You have asked four specific questions:

"1. Do we need to add lights or conspicuity tape to our fairing?"

The answer is no. Under the applicable law that this agency enforces, 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301 - Motor Vehicle Safety, Gorlan would be a manufacturer of motor vehicle equipment, but Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment, does not apply to equipment such as trailer fairings. If the dealer attaches the fairing to the trailer before its first sale, the dealer must ensure that the trailer continues to comply with Standard No. 108 before he sells the trailer. If the dealer installs the fairing on a trailer in use, it must ensure that its modifications do not make inoperative the trailer's original lighting equipment when the installation is completed. In essence, this means that the vehicle must remain in compliance when the installation is completed. Compliance is judged with a motor vehicle in its normal operating configuration (e.g., doors and decklid closed). When the fairing is in its intended operating configuration, you have indicated that the trailer continues to conform to Standard No. 108. Therefore, no additional lamps or tapes appear required for conformance purposes.

Even if a trailer did not conform when the fairing is in use, the responsibility for bringing it into, or retaining, conformity with Standard No. 108 would lie with the trailer dealer who installs the fairing, and not with the fairing manufacturer.

"2. Can we add reflectors for aesthetics?"

A trailer dealer may sell a trailer equipped with a fairing carrying "reflectors for aesthetics" if the reflectors do not impair the effectiveness of equipment required by Standard No. 108. In addition to the red and white segments of conspicuity tape, Standard No. 108 requires amber side marker lamps and reflectors to the front (and in the center if the trailer is 30 feet or more in overall length) and red side marker lamps and reflectors to the rear. We believe that effectiveness of side lighting devices is best preserved if the reflectors which Gorlan is contemplating installing are amber from the trailer midpoint forward, and red to the rear of the midpoint. This will prevent confusion to observers approaching the trailer from the side.

As noted earlier, a dealer may not install a fairing on a trailer in use if it makes inoperative the lighting equipment required by Standard No. 108. Because of the possibility of confusion (making the required reflectors and lamps "inoperative"), we believe that Gorlan's fairing reflectors should be amber from the midpoint forward, and red to the rear of the midpoint.

"3. Because this fairing will hang one inch below the trailer floor beams, will we need to replace any side marker lights that get removed? Should the light be then placed onto the trailer or the fairing? If an arrow lamp is removed can it be replaced with a DOT approved reflex side marker lamp?"

Yes, the trailer dealer will have to replace any side marker lamps that are removed in the course of installing the fairing, and the lamp should be installed on the trailer. Paragraph S5.3.1 of Standard No. 108 specifies that any side marker lamp or reflector required by the standard must "be securely mounted on a rigid part of the vehicle . . . that is not designed to be removed except for repair. . . ." The fairing is an accessory, added to the completed trailer and presumably as easily removed as added. We therefore do not consider the fairing to be a part of the vehicle not designed to be removed except for repair.

We are not sure what an "arrow lamp" is, but if it is a lamp required by Standard No. 108, it may be replaced in the same location and orientation by one performing the same function that bears a DOT certification mark on it (which does not signify "DOT approval" but is a mark of the manufacturer certifying that the lamp meets Standard No. 108's performance requirements).

"4. How do the Federal Motor Carrier Standards govern in respect to this type of product?"

The Motor Carrier Standards of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) apply to trailers in commercial use in interstate commerce. One intent of FHWA's standards is to ensure that the Federal motor vehicle safety standards continue to be met when a vehicle subject to its jurisdiction is in use. Therefore, the FHWA would also permit the fairing under the same performance conditions as we do: although the fairing may obscure lamps and conspicuity marking when a trailer is not being operated, when the trailer is in use, it must continue to show the conspicuity tape and marker lamps and reflectors, and in the same locations, as required by the NHTSA standards.

If you have any questions, you may telephone Taylor Vinson of this Office (202-366-5263).

Sincerely,
John Womack
Acting Chief Counsel
ref:108
d.4/8/98