Interpretation ID: nht72-3.2

DATE: 04/28/72

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Douglas W. Toms; NHTSA

TO: National Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association, Inc.

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of April 5, 1972, concerning the amendment to Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 117, published March 23, 1972 (Docket 1-8; Notice 7, 37 F.R. 5950). In your letter you protest against the labeling requirements of the standard. It is not clear from your letter, however, whether you are referring to both the requirements for affixed labels (S6.3.1), or for permanent labeling (S6.3.2), or both, and as a consequence we have treated your comments as referring to the labeling requirements in general.

You state in your letter that retreaders, particularly small retreaders, cannot meet the labeling requirements "on any reasonable and practical basis." You state further that you have demonstrated how the labeling requirements will force retreaders to hire additional personnel, increase production time, and consequently increase the retreaders' cost per tire. You also claim that the labeling issue is a "fairly simple problem" whose solution can be easily found within the statutes.

Congress, in enacting section 201 of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, made it clear that motor vehicle tires should be permanently labeled with specific items of information dealing with their safe use. The labeling requirements of Standard No. 117 are based on this statutory mandate and do recognize and allow for difficulties retreaders might have in meeting all of the requirements for labeling set forth in section 201. For example, Standard No. 117, in not requiring that the generic name of the cord material or the actual number of plies be included in the labeling information for retreaded tires, recognizes that this information will not be available for some casings which are allowed to be used.

The NHTSA considers the labeling requirements of Standard No. 117 to be both reasonable and practical, and believes they can be met by the overwhelming majority of retreaders, if not all, in an economical manner. Each item of information is now available to the retreader should the need to relabel arise. By using the procedures and technology developed for compliance with the Tire Identification and Recordkeeping regulations (49 CFR Part 574), by combining labeling information on the same label where appropriate, and by careful sorting of casings before retreading, the NHTSA believes that even the smallest retreader can meet these requirements. While the requirements will no doubt cause some changes in existing production techniques, with a possible slowing initially of the production process, there is no reason to believe that these changes, once instituted, will result in significant permanent increases in the costs and time needed for the production of retreaded tires.

Finally, you cite figures showing what you claim is an abnormally high number of retreaded tire manufacturers who have gone out of business in the past year, and ask, "How many more will be lost before we get reasonable and practical and understandable regulations?" We understand your concern for retreading companies that have gone out of business. But since Standard No. 117 has not yet become effective, these closings are obviously not the result of NHTSA regulations.