Interpretation ID: nht81-3.33

DATE: 11/04/81

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Frank Berndt; NHTSA

TO: Semperit of America Inc.

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in response to your telephone inquiry of October 13, 1981, asking whether tire tread labels required under the. Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) Standards must continue to be affixed to tires once applicable UTQG grades are added to sidewall molds for the tires. The UTQG regulation contemplates that tire grading information will be made available to consumers simultaneously through a variety of means, including tread labels (49 CFR @ 575.104(d)(1)(i)(B)), sidewall molding (49 CFR @ 575.104 (d)(1)(i)(A)), and leaflets available at the point of sale (49 CFR @ 575.104(d)(1)(ii)). While the regulation was recently amended to permit tire grades to be molded on the tire sidewall at any time up to six months after introduction of a new tire line (46 FR 41514, August 17, 1981), this change in no way affected the obligation imposed by @ 575.104(d)(1)(i)(B) that UTQG tread labels be affixed to all replacement tires to which the regulation applies. Thus, once the sidewall molding requirement takes effect for a line of tires, the regulation requires that UTQG information be displayed on the tires both by means of sidewall molding and by labels attached to the tread surface.