Dealers - Distributors

Back to Overall Law on 49 CFR Part 574 [ URL ]
Title 49--Transportation : Code of Federal Regulations

CHAPTER V--NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PART 574--TIRE IDENTIFICATION AND RECORDKEEPING
	574.8	Information requirements—tire distributors and dealers.
		Note with particularity (but without exclusion of the rest of § 574.8) : (a) Independent distributors and dealers. (1) Each independent distributor and each independent dealer selling or leasing new tires to tire purchasers or lessors (hereinafter referred to in this section as “tire purchasers”) shall provide each tire purchaser at the time of sale or lease of the tire(s) with a tire registration form. (2) The distributor or dealer may use either the registration forms provided by the tire manufacturers pursuant to §574.7(a) or registration forms obtained from another soure. Forms obtained from other sources shall comply with the requirements specified in §574.7(a) for forms provided by tire manufacturers to independent distributors and dealers. (3) Before giving the registration form to the tire purchaser, the distributor or dealer shall record in the appropriate spaces provided on that form: (i) The entire tire identification number of the tire(s) sold or leased to the tire purchaser, and (ii) The distributor's or dealer's name and address or other means of identification known to the tire manufacturer.

CHAPTER V--NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PART 578--CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES
	578.6	Civil penalties for violations of specified provisions of Title 49 of the United States Code - (essentially, civil penalty of not more than $5,000 for each violation. A separate violation occurs for each motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment and for each failure or refusal to allow or perform an act required by any of those sections. The maximum civil penalty under this paragraph for a related series of violations is $16,050,000).

Under section 113(f) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (15 USC 1402(f) and part 574 (the “Act”), it is the tire manufacturer who has the ultimate responsibility for maintaining the records of first purchasers. Therefore, it is the tire manufacturer or its “designee” to maintain these records. The term designee, as defined in the regulation, allows tire manufacturers to designate more than one person / company to maintain the federally required information. Similarly, tire distributors and retailers can act as the manufacturer's designee thereby selecting TRR as designee.

As a designee, Tire Recall Registry, Inc. ("TRR") acts as a clearing house of high volume highly organized / sortable electronic data that is expertly disseminated to tire manufacturers. Dealers and distributors are provided confirmation of reporting along with a record of transactions arising during the previous month (or more frequently as requested).

TRR eliminates paperwork burdens on distributors and dealers by providing the most direct connection between consumers and tire manufacturers for the all-important (and Federally mandated task) of registering tire identification numbers at the point of sale when it is most effectively done to assure future safety ... precision without the hassle of (more) paperwork.

Users of the Internet gateway to Tire Recall Registry electronically provide the following information at the point of sale:

the customer's name and address (email optional),
brand of tire purchased, quantity sold, and state of purchase,
the complete DOT tire identification number (TIN) of the tire(s) sold, and
the dealer's contact information (i.e., name, address,).

EVERY BRAND OF TIRE - EVERY MANUFACTURER