NHTSA reporting about potential defects

Many commercial vehicle upfitters understand that under vehicle certification regulation (49 CFR Part 566) as the assembler of a motor vehicle, they are considered a manufacturer by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Additionally, they understand their responsibilities as final-stage manufacturers and alterers to certify those vehicles meet the required Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Many upfitters have heard of NHTSA’s Early Warning Reporting requirements, even if they are not subject to the quarterly reporting obligations for larger volume manufacturers. These requirements are included in 49 CFR Part 579 — Reporting of Information and Communications About Potential Defects and part of the regulatory changes brought about by Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act as enacted by Congress in the early part of the millennium. However, some upfitters may not fully understand the duties and obligations for submitting communications to NHTSA that they may send as part of their operations regarding potential defects. Some of these requirements may be less obvious than others, but the following is an overview. Within these requirements is Section 579.5, which requires manufacturers to furnish “a copy of all notices, bulletins, and other communications (including those transmitted by computer, telefax, or other electronic means and including warranty and policy extension communiqués and product improvement bulletins) other than those required to be submitted pursuant to §573.6(c)(10) of this chapter, sent to more than one manufacturer, distributor, dealer, lessor, lessee, owner, or purchaser, in the United States, regarding any defect in its vehicles or items of equipment (including any failure or malfunction beyond normal deterioration in use, or any failure of performance, or any flaw or unintended deviation from design specifications), whether or not such defect is safety-related.” This same subpart additionally requires manufacturers to furnish “a copy of each communication relating to a customer satisfaction campaign, consumer advisory, recall, or other safety activity involving the repair or replacement of motor vehicles or equipment, that the manufacturer issued to, or made available to, more than one dealer, distributor, lessor, lessee, other manufacturer, owner, or purchaser, in the United States.” Further, each copy “shall be in readable form and shall be submitted not later than five working days after the end of the month in which it is issued [emphasis added].” NHTSA recommends that these be in PDF format. Since submitting these forms of communication is the responsibility of a “manufacturer,” it’s important to note that under the definition in this part, it “means a person manufacturing or assembling motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment, or importing motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment for resale. This term includes any parent corporation, any subsidiary or affiliate, and any subsidiary or affiliate of a parent corporation of such a person.” Unlike other portions of Part 579, production volumes are not a factor in the requirements to submit these communications. In the commercial vehicle community, this includes all facets of the industry from upfitters, body and equipment manufacturers to motor vehicle and equipment assemblers (chassis OEMs, intermediate-stage manufacturers, final-stage manufacturers and altered-stage manufacturers), as well as importers of such equipment and vehicles for resale. This subpart casts a wide net for the responsible organizations and the forms of communications about defects that need to be submitted to NHTSA on a monthly basis so the agency can determine whether a safety issue is involved; and if so, engage in proactive communications with manufacturers where NHTSA believes there is a misunderstanding or misidentification of the risk or particular issue. To submit these communications via email, the next subpart, Part 579.6, states “submissions under §579.5 must be submitted to tsb@dot.gov.” Although not codified along with this, these communications must be accompanied by an index that includes a concise summary of the subject matter of each and identifies the make, model and model year of the affected vehicles (or, if this information is not available, identifying information for the affected equipment). Attachments cannot exceed 20 MB in size, per email. Please be aware that for security reasons, zip files are blocked and cannot be sent to NHTSA. Even if you do not have any documents that need to be submitted for a given month, NHTSA recommends that manufacturers still send in a “negative report” to indicate there were no communications over the previous month. NHTSA also offers a Manufacturer Communications Portal (MCP) at mcp.nhtsa.gov, where these communications can be entered, indexed and uploaded. For questions regarding MCP, contact the MCP help desk at mc.helpdesk@dot.gov or call 202-366-3348. Additional resources: NHTSA Recommendations for Manufacturer Communications Manufacturer Communications Portal (MCP) User Guide v1.4 49 CFR Part 579—Reporting of Information and Communications About Potential Defects NHTSA Manufacturer Help Desk (888) 399-3277

NHTSA reporting about potential defects

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