Interpretation ID: nht72-4.46

DATE: 05/25/72

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Richard B. Dyson; NHTSA

TO: National Association of School Bus Contract Operators

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of April 21, 1972, concerning problems some school bus manufacturers are having completing school buses manufactured with chassis ordered before January 1, 1972. You request our opinion as to whether these buses can be delivered even though they exceed by 350 pounds the GAWR specified for the rear axle of the chassis.

One purpose of the Certification requirements and the requirements regarding "Vehicles Manufactured in Two or More Stages," which went into effect January 1, 1972, and which require manufactures to specify GAWR and GVWR, was to prevent the construction of motor vehicles of insufficient capability to carry anticipated loads. In our view, a manufacturer who completes a vehicle whose loaded weight or axle loads are in excess of its weight ratings is manufacturing a potentially unsafe vehicle which could be subject to the defect notification provisions of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The regulations apply to motor vehicles completed after January 1, 1972, and will apply to the school buses in question.

We do not consider the notice of December 28, 1971, to allow these manufacturers to omit GAWR and GVWR from their certification labels. That notice allows this to be done only when a final-stage manufacturer, using a chassis manufactured before January 1, 1972, does not have and cannot obtain the gross axle and vehicle weight ratings for particular vehicles. These ratings have evidently been furnished to the school bus manufacturers who are the subject of your letter, and as a consequence they are responsible for placing these values on the labels of the completed vehicles.