Tire registration bill introduced in Senate

By Miles Moore, Senior Washington reporter

WASHINGTON (July 10, 2015) — A bill requiring independent tire dealers to submit tire registration information electronically to tire manufacturers has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

The Tire Efficiency, Safety and Registration Act — S. 1741 — would also direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create minimum performance standards for fuel efficiency and wet traction, and to establish a tire recall database to allow tire dealers and owners to determine whether their tires are subject to safety recalls.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced the bill July 9, with Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., as co-sponsors.

Also, NHTSA does not currently have a consumer-friendly, easy-to-use database for tire recall searches, it said.

Officials of the Tire Industry Association (TIA) could not be reached immediately for comment. However, TIA has opposed tire registration mandates on independent dealers since the RMA first proposed them in December 2014 at a meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Such a requirement would potentially lead to a return to the mandatory tire registration law of the 1970s, which would be unduly punitive to independent tire dealers, TIA said. Independent tire shops could be fined up to $700,000 per location if found in violation of mandatory registration mandates, it said.

TIA also opposes the Obama administration's GROW AMERICA Act, a six-year, $478 billion transportation funding proposal, because it contains tire registration language similar to that in the Senate's Tire Efficiency, Safety and Registration Act.