NHTSA calls for comments on tyre registration, labeling

ERJ staff report (TB)

WASHINGTON (Feb. 13, 2012) - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has published two notices in today's Federal Register, asking for public comment on whether current federal requirements for tyre registration and tyre and rim labeling continue to be effective.

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, federal agencies must solicit public comment on proposed or ongoing information collection programs in order to receive necessary approvals from the Office of Management and Budget.

NHTSA is asking stakeholders in tyre registration and labeling:

Whether the information continues to have practical utility;

Whether its estimate of the regulatory burden involved is accurate;

How to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information being gathered; and

How to minimize the regulatory burden on responders, including electronic submission wherever possible.

In its notice on tyre registration, NHTSA estimated the regulation affects some 20 tyre manufacturers, 59,000 tyre dealers and distributors, and 10 million tyre buyers annually. Approximately 54 million tyres are registered every year, requiring 225,000 manual tyre registration hours and 25,000 manual recordkeeping hours annually, the agency said.

A spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Association said the notices were strictly pro forma, required periodically of any government agency that collects information from the public.

“We certainly think tyre registration is important,” the RMA spokesman told Tire Business. “We wish it could be better.”

The tyre registration standard was promulgated many years before electronic registration was possible, and the RMA has been successful in its past efforts to persuade NHTSA to allow greater use of electronic means for registration, he said.

March 14 is the deadline for comments.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)