Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/630954
MTD January 2016 No timeline for tire registration Two years? Four years? The effective date is anyone's guess Tire registration is the law of the land, again, but if tire dealers are looking for a defnitive rule book on the issue, they're going to discover lawmakers left them empty handed. The "Tire Effciency, Safety, and Registration Act of 2015," or TESR Act, covers only seven pages of the 1,301-page federal highway bill approved by Congress and signed by the president in December 2015. And while the legislation comes with dead- lines for the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to establish fuel effciency and wet traction minimum performance standards (two years from the date of enactment, or Dec. 4, 2017), the law doesn't contain a deadline for tire registration. Dan Zielinksi, senior vice president of public affairs for the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA), says it will be up to the National Highway Traffc Safety Administration (NHTSA) to set the timeline. The RMA, which lobbied in favor of mandatory tire registration and the creation of minimum perfor- mance standards, didn't request a deadline for the registration portion of the law. Zielinksi says NHTSA has expressed some concern over the 24-month timeline to create tire performance standards. "Those will probably happen frst, and then we'll get a sense from NHTSA of what they need to move forward (on tire registration)," Zielinksi says. "It's always nice to have a timetable, but things can get done without them, too." In the meantime, tire dealers are left to interpret the fewer than 200 words lawmakers used to regulate tire registration. In a nut- shell, the TESR Act requires independent tire dealers and distributors to provide the name and address of consumers, along with tire identifcation information, to manufacturers. And it must provide that information electronically, securely, and at no cost to tire buyers. "I think it's everyone's goal that a much larger percentage of new tires be registered so we have the ability to contact consumers in case there are any issues," says Jim Mayfeld, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Kumho Tire USA Inc. "This will help to increase the number of tires that get registered." That number is one of many registration-related points of contention between the RMA and Tire Industry Association (TIA). In December 2014 the RMA said fewer than 20% of all tires are registered. A special investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board in October 2015 cited a Michelin study of independent tire dealers from 2010-2013 that indicated less than 2% of pur- chased tires were being registered. Roy Littlefeld, TIA's executive vice president, says the numbers don't add up. "We have polled the top 50 retailers in the country and they are registering tires 100%. The company stores are registering 100%. Automobile dealers are registering 100%. When you put all that together, the numbers to me come out more like 85%." Nick Mitchell, Modern Tire Dealer columnist and industry analyst, doesn't think improvements to tire registration will come quickly. "Tire registration is a great idea in theory; however, getting a template in place that everyone can agree with is going to take some time. The sooner the better for the sake of consumers, but my bet is you won't see any real progress on this front until at least 2020." — Joy Kopcha News/views From March 1976: The idea of tire registration via a postcard was conceived. 8