[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 130 (Friday, July 7, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 35459-35460]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-16812]



      

  Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 130 / Friday, July 7, 1995 / Proposed 
Rules   

[[Page 35459]]


DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Parts 573, 576 and 577

[Docket No. 93-68; Notice 5]


Defect and Noncompliance Reports; Record Retention; Defect and 
Noncompliance Notification; Notice of Public Meeting; Request for 
Comments

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This document announces a public meeting at which NHTSA will 
seek information from the public in connection with several specified 
issues raised by petitions for reconsideration of a final rule amending 
49 CFR Part 573, ``Defect and Noncompliance Reports,'' Part 576, 
``Record Retention,'' and Part 577, ``Defect and Noncompliance 
Notification.'' 60 FR 17254 (April 5, 1995). This document also invites 
written comments on those issues.

DATES: The meeting will be held on July 24, 1995, at 10:00 a.m. Those 
wishing to make oral presentations should contact Jonathan White, at 
the address or telephone number listed below, no later than July 14, 
1995. Written comments must be submitted to the agency no later than 
July 31, 1995.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held at the Ramada Inn (near the 
Detroit Metro Airport), 8270 Wickham Road, Romulus, MI 48174. Written 
comments may be submitted at the public meeting or mailed to the Docket 
Section, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Room 5109, 400 
7th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. Please refer to the docket and 
notice number set out above when submitting written comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan D. White, Office of Defects 
Investigation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 400 
Seventh Street, SW, Room 5319, Washington, DC 20590; (202) 366-5227.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 5, 1995 (60 FR 17254), NHTSA 
published a final rule that amended several provisions of its defect/
noncompliance investigation, defect/noncompliance notification, and 
recordkeeping regulations. 49 CFR Parts 552, 554, 573, 576, and 577. 
Petitions for reconsideration of certain of those amendments were filed 
by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, Inc. 
(AIAM), Chrysler Corporation (Chrysler), Ford Motor Company (Ford), 
General Motors Corporation (GM), and PACCAR, Inc. (PACCAR).
    The reconsideration petitions addressed the following seven 
provisions adopted or modified by the April 5 final rule: Section 
573.5(c)(8), submission of proposed schedule for recall to NHTSA; 
section 577.5, notification to lessors/lessees of defect and 
noncompliance determinations; section 573.7(d) and (e), retention of 
lists of leased vehicles affected by safety recalls; section 576.5, 
record retention period; section 573.5(c)(10), submission of draft 
owner notification letters to NHTSA; section 577.5, marking of owner 
notification envelopes; and section 577.10, follow-up owner 
notification.
    NHTSA has decided that it would be appropriate to obtain additional 
information on the first four issues noted above. Therefore, by this 
notice, the agency is announcing that it will conduct a public meeting 
to obtain such information. In addition, NHTSA is also soliciting 
written comments on these four issues. The agency will address the 
other three matters raised by the petitions for reconsideration; 
however, they will not be discussed at the meeting.
    1. Section 573.5(c)(8), Submission of recall schedule. Section 
573.5(c) sets forth the information that a manufacturer must include in 
the report it submits to NHTSA after a determination by the 
manufacturer or NHTSA that a defect or noncompliance exists in motor 
vehicles or items of replacement equipment. The April 5 final rule 
added a provision to section 573.5(c)(8) to require manufacturers to 
include in their ``program for remedying the defect or noncompliance'' 
a schedule for implementation of the notification and remedy 
requirements of the statute where it appears that the campaign would 
not be commenced within 30 days or completed within 75 days of the 
notification to the agency.
    Four petitioners requested reconsideration of the time frames 
specified in the amendment. NHTSA seeks additional information as to 
whether the specified time periods are appropriate and the burdens, if 
any, of submitting the required schedule.
    2 and 3. Section 577.5(h) and (i), Duty to notify lessors and 
lessees of defect and noncompliance determinations; and section 
573.7(d) and (e), Retention of lists of leased vehicles affected by 
safety recalls. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act 
added a statutory provision that requires lessors that are notified of 
a recall applicable to a leased motor vehicle to provide notification 
of the recall to their lessees in the manner prescribed by NHTSA 
regulation. 49 U.S.C. 30119(f). To implement this provision, in the 
April 5 final rule NHTSA amended its owner notification requirements, 
49 CFR 577.5, by adding new paragraphs (h) and (i). Section 577.5(h) 
requires manufacturers to include information regarding the lessor's 
obligation in each owner notification letter. Section 577.5(i) provides 
that lessors must send a copy of the owner notification letter to their 
lessees unless the manufacturer has notified the lessee directly.
    In addition, the agency amended 49 CFR 573.7, which establishes 
requirements for the retention of lists of recipients of recall 
notifications, by adding new paragraphs (d) and (e) regarding lessor 
and lessee notifications. For many years, section 573.7(a) has required 
manufacturers of motor vehicles to maintain lists of the names and 
addresses of all registered owners or purchasers of vehicles covered by 
defect or noncompliance recalls in order to enable NHTSA, inter alia, 
to monitor the effectiveness of such recalls. New section 573.7(d) 
requires manufacturers that have information indicating that a 
particular vehicle covered by a recall is a leased vehicle to identify 
the vehicle as leased on the list required by section 573.7(a) or to 
maintain a separate list of leased vehicles covered by the campaign. 
New section 573.7(e) requires manufacturers and lessors to maintain 
information (for one year after the lease expires) identifying the 
lessees (and their leased vehicles) to which the manufacturer and/or 
lessor provided notification of a recall.
    Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors raised several concerns 
regarding these amendments. Among other things, these petitioners 
contended that language regarding the responsibilities of lessors 
should not be included in all owner notification letters, since it 
could be confusing and counter-productive. They also contended that 
requiring the manufacturers to maintain separate records regarding 
lessors and lessees notified created an unreasonable burden on them.
    NHTSA encourages discussion of alternative solutions to the lessee 
notification issue that are less burdensome, yet will permit the agency 
to assure compliance with the requirements of 49 U.S.C. 30119(f). The 
agency particularly wishes to receive input from lessors and/or lessor 
associations, which have not participated in this rulemaking to date.
    4. Section 576.5, Records retention period. NHTSA imposes 
recordkeeping 

[[Page 35460]]
requirements on vehicle manufacturers in order to assure that they 
preserve records needed for investigation and resolution of alleged 
safety-related defects and noncompliances. The April 5, 1995 final rule 
changed the retention period from five years from the date the record 
was generated or acquired by the manufacturer to eight years from the 
last day of the model year in which the vehicle to which it relates was 
produced. (The agency's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking had proposed 
requiring records to be maintained for the longer of the five-years-
from-acquisition or eight-years-from-production periods. 58 FR 50326 
(Sept. 27, 1993). That proposal was modified in response to 
manufacturer comments.)
    AIAM, Chrysler, and Ford indicated that the amendment would require 
substantial changes to manufacturers' record retention programs and 
could increase their records maintenance costs. The agency is seeking 
information on alternatives to the amendment (including the possibility 
of returning to the preexisting requirement) that would allow it to 
obtain adequate information from vehicle manufacturers, without adding 
unreasonable recordkeeping burdens.
    Effective Date of Amendments: By separate notice published in 
today's Federal Register, NHTSA is extending indefinitely the effective 
dates of the four amendments discussed above, in order to permit the 
agency to consider additional information before ruling on the 
petitions for reconsideration. The effective date as established on May 
16, 1995 (60 FR 26002) for all other amendments made by the April 5 
final rule continues to be July 7, 1995.
    Procedural Matters: Persons or organizations wishing to appear at 
the public meeting should contact Jonathan White at the address or 
telephone number set out above by the indicated date. Persons wishing 
to make an oral presentation should indicate the approximate amount of 
time the presentation will take. NHTSA reserves the right to limit any 
presentation if time considerations or other factors warrant.
    If a speaker wishes to include slides, motion pictures, or other 
visual aids, he or she must bring a copy to the meeting, so NHTSA can 
include the material in the rulemaking record.
    NHTSA staff may ask questions of any speaker. Participants may 
submit written questions for the NHTSA staff, at its discretion, to 
address to other participants. Except where authorized by NHTSA staff, 
participants will not be permitted to question each other directly.
    A schedule of participants making oral presentation will be 
available at the designated meeting room. If time permits, persons who 
have not requested time, but would like to make a presentation, will be 
afforded an opportunity to do so.
    NHTSA will place a copy of all written statements in the rulemaking 
docket. A verbatim transcript of the meeting will be prepared and also 
placed in the docket.
    Participation in the meeting is not a prerequisite for the 
submission of written comments. NHTSA invites written comments from all 
interested parties on these issues. It is requested but not required 
that 10 copies of all written materials be submitted.
    If a commenter wishes to submit information under a claim of 
confidentiality, three copies of the complete submission, including 
purportedly confidential business information, should be submitted to 
NHTSA's Chief Counsel. Copies from which the purportedly confidential 
information has been deleted should be submitted to the Docket Section. 
A request for confidentiality must be accompanied by a cover letter 
setting forth the information specified in the agency's confidential 
business information regulation, 49 CFR Part 512.
Kathleen C. DeMeter,
Director, Office of Defects Investigation.
[FR Doc. 95-16812 Filed 7-5-95; 2:51 pm]
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