Tire registration and recalls

Jan. 7, 2016
Without technology, locating bad tires will be an exercise in frustration

With recent passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, tire manufacturers were successful in their efforts to switch the tire registration system from voluntary to mandatory. Under the current version of 49 CFR Part 574—Tire Identification and Recordkeeping, the seller of a tire(s) is required to provide the purchaser or lessor with the tire identification number(s), or TIN, so the purchaser or lessor can register the tire(s) with the manufacturer. In the event of a recall, the manufacturer would then be able to notify the purchaser or lessor that the tires need to be replaced.

As a result of the FAST Act, the responsibility for submitting the purchaser’s or lessor’s contact information will now fall on the seller, thereby removing the purchaser or lessor from the process.

One of the dirty little secrets in the tire business is that Part 574 has always applied to truck tires. Every time a fleet purchases or leases a truck tire(s), it should receive a registration card with the TIN(s) so the fleet can register the tire(s) with the manufacturer. It rarely happens since people have assumed that this particular regulation only covers passenger and light truck tires, but the language in Part 574 specifically applies to tires used on all motor vehicles manufactured after 1948, so I’m going to assume that it applies to every tire with the letters “DOT” stamped on the sidewall.

For the retail segment of the tire industry, this shift in responsibility will have a tremendous impact on operations. Tire dealers will eventually be required to gather all of the consumer information and electronically transmit the contact info with the TIN(s) to the manufacturer every time they sell a tire. What does this mean for fleets?

First of all, the dealers who sell tires will soon be required to register the TINs with the manufacturer on behalf of the fleet. Someone a lot smarter than yours truly will have to determine the actual registered owner of the tires so they can be notified of a recall.

What nobody talked about was recovery. Registering tires is important, but the primary focus should be on recovering the tires that were subjected to the recall in the first place. In the event of a passenger or light truck tire recall, the manufacturer notifies the consumer, who simply walks out to their vehicle to see if the recalled TINs match the TINs on their tires. For truck tires, it’s not quite that simple.    

There were a lot of questions in the months leading up to the passage of the FAST Act, and too many of the elected and agency officials in Washington, DC, didn’t listen to any of them. In my opinion, the mandatory tire registration language was a done deal from the start because money and influence carries more weight inside the Beltway than the voices of small businesses. 

The bottom line is that fleets will be the ones ultimately responsible for locating recalled tires and without leveraging technology, that process will be incredibly labor-intensive and marginally effective. Now is the time for fleets to combine their influence and demand electronic identification from their tire suppliers. Unlike retail, fleets have the buying power in the truck tire market so the tire manufacturers will be forced to listen.

Radio frequency identification or similar technology is the only way that trucking companies can effectively locate recalled tires in a nationwide system with hundreds of thousands of wheel positions. Without it, the trucking industry will be forced to find defective needles in the stacks of needles the old fashioned way, with a clipboard and flashlight.  

Kevin Rohlwing can be reached at [email protected].

About the Author

Kevin Rohlwing

Kevin Rohlwing is the SVP of training for the Tire Industry Association. He has more than 40 years of experience in the tire industry and has created programs to help train more than 180,000 technicians.

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