TIA opposes transport bill's tire registration language

WASHINGTON (May 13, 2015) — The Tire Industry Association (TIA) is urging its members to contact relevant committee members in Congress and ask them to remove tire registration language from the Obama administration's transportation funding bill, also known as the “GROW America Act.”

TIA's action is directed specifically at Section 4112, titled “Tire Registration by Independent Sellers,” which appears on page 189 of the bill, according to TIA Executive Vice President Roy Littlefield in the May 11 issue of TIA's Weekly Legislative Update.

If passed, Section 4112 would give the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) authority to change the current voluntary tire registration standard, according to Mr. Littlefield.

“It's reasonable to assume that NHTSA would require the distributor or dealer to maintain the records and electronically transmit the information to the manufacturer at no cost to the consumer,” Mr. Littlefield said.

“Based on those assumptions, TIA believes that NHTSA intends to reinstate some form of a mandatory tire registration system. If passed, a dealer could be fined up to $700,000 per location for not registering tires.”

With the current stopgap transportation funding law set to run out May 31, Congress must act quickly to extend transportation funding, and it is impossible to tell which provisions in the GROW America Act or other legislation will be approved, Mr. Littlefield said.

While the legislation didn't have a bill number as of May 11, it would certainly pass through both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee if considered in Congress, Mr. Littlefield said. He provided the names of all the members of those committees by state, and urged TIA members to contact them and ask them to oppose Section 4112.