[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 57 (Friday, March 24, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15529-15531]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-7351]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
49 CFR Part 575
[Docket No. 95-19; Notice 1]
RIN 2127-AF-64
Consumer Information Regulations; Fees for Course Monitoring
Tires and for Use of Traction Skid Pads
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
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SUMMARY: This notice proposes to amend NHTSA's consumer information
regulations on uniform tire quality grading by establishing fees for
the purchase of treadwear course monitoring tires and for the use of
the traction skid pads at NHTSA's Uniform Tire Quality Grading Test
Facility in San Angelo, Texas.
DATES: Comments. Comments must be received on or before May 23, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to the docket and notice numbers above
and be submitted to: Docket Section, National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590. Docket
hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Clive Van Orden, Office of Vehicle
Safety Compliance, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 400
Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590. (202-366-2830).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 203 of the National Traffic and
Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 directed the Secretary of
Transportation to prescribe standards establishing ``a uniform quality
grading system for motor vehicle tires.'' Those standards are found at
49 CFR 575.104. For the purpose of aiding consumers in making an
informed choice in the purchase of passenger car tires, the standards
require motor vehicle and tire manufacturers and tire brand owners to
label such tires with information indicating their relative performance
in the areas of treadwear, traction, and temperature resistance.
The uniform tire quality grading standards require treadwear
performance to be evaluated on a specific roadway course, approximately
400 miles in length, which was established by NHTSA in the vicinity of
Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. The course is designed
to produce treadwear rates that are generally representative of those
encountered by tires in public use. The standards require manufacturers
to correct the projected mileage obtained for tested tires to account
for environmental and other variations that occur during testing on the
course. This is done by comparing the performance of the tested tires
to that of course monitoring tires placed on a vehicle that is part of
the same convoy as the vehicles on which the tires being tested are
placed. The course monitoring tires are specially manufactured under
controlled conditions for NHTSA so that they can be used as a standard
for grading the tires being tested. Section 575.104(e)(ii) of the
standards states that ``the course monitoring tires are made available
by the NHTSA at Goodfellow Air Force Base, San Angelo, Tex., for
purchase by any persons conducting tests at the test course.''
The uniform tire quality grading standards also require that tire
traction be ``evaluated on skid pads that are established, and whose
severity is monitored, by the NHTSA * * *.'' 49 CFR 575.104(f)(1). As
further described in the standards, these test pads are paved with
asphalt and concrete surfaces that have specified locked-wheel traction
coefficients when evaluated in a manner prescribed in the standards.
Two of these traction skid pads have been constructed at NHTSA's
Uniform Tire Quality Grading Test Facility in San Angelo. This facility
also includes an instrumented vehicle and test trailer, and maintenance
support equipment. In addition to this government test facility,
traction skid pads have been constructed at several commercial
facilities. These include the Transportation Research Center's facility
in East Liberty, Ohio, Juan Lopez in Laredo, Texas (formerly the
Uniroyal Proving Grounds), Firestone's facility in Fort Stockton,
Texas, General Tire's Test Track in Uvalde, Texas, and the Smithers
Transportation Test Center in Pecos, Texas. For the purpose of
evaluating tire traction, manufacturers are not restricted to the use
of the traction skid pads at the government facility in San Angelo, and
may use those at any commercial facility.
The Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General
(OIG) recently completed an audit of NHTSA's [[Page 15530]] Uniform
Tire Quality Grading Test Facility in San Angelo. As a result of this
audit, the OIG concluded that NHTSA was not recovering the full cost of
the course monitoring tires that it sells at San Angelo and was not
charging a user fee for the use of the traction skid pads at that
facility, contrary to the requirements of Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) Circular A-25.
OMB Circular A-25 establishes Federal policy regarding fees
assessed for Government services and for the sale or use of Government
goods or resources. The Circular expresses the general policy that
``[a] user charge * * * will be assessed against each identifiable
recipient for special benefits derived from Federal activities beyond
those received by the general public.'' For the purpose of determining
the amount of user charges to assess, the Circular states that ``user
charges will be sufficient to recover the full cost to the Federal
Government * * * of providing the service, resource, or good when the
Government is acting in its capacity as sovereign.'' Full cost is
defined in the Circular as ``all direct and indirect costs to any part
of the Federal Government of providing a good, resource, or service * *
*.'' The Circular further provides that when the Government is not
acting in its capacity as sovereign, ``user charges will be based on
market prices * * *.''
In selling course monitoring tires to manufacturers, the government
is acting in its capacity as sovereign, because the manufacturers have
no practical alternative means of acquiring tires with a specific base
course wear rate that must be used in grading the treadwear of the
tires they are testing. Before it was audited by the OIG, NHTSA was
charging $304.50 for each course monitoring tire that it sold. In its
audit report, the OIG noted that this amount was not sufficient to
recover the full cost incurred by the government in furnishing these
tires. In order to recover this full cost, NHTSA raised the charge for
each course monitoring tire to $379.00 in January, 1995. Through this
notice, NHTSA is proposing to formally establish $379.00 as the fee for
each course monitoring tire that it sells. This amount was derived by
performing the following calculation for the 700 course monitoring
tires that are purchased annually by NHTSA:
Purchase price of course monitoring tires................... $175,000
General facility costs relating to tires.................... 3,400
Warehouse storage fees...................................... 24,000
Salaries relating to tires.................................. 29,825
Testing fees to establish base course wear rate for tires... 32,800
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Total................................................... 265,025
Number of tires purchased= 700
$265,025/700 = $378.61 cost per tire.
Because manufacturers are not required to use the traction skid
pads at NHTSA's San Angelo facility for the purpose of meeting the tire
traction grading requirements of 49 CFR 575.104(d), and may use any of
the several commercial facilities that are available for that purpose,
the government is not acting as sovereign in making the San Angelo
facility available for traction tests. Accordingly, the government may
charge a market rate for the use of the traction pads. Based on an
agency review of the rates charged by commercial facilities, NHTSA
proposes to assess a user charge of $288 per day for the use of the
traction skid pads at San Angelo. While not exceeding market rates,
such a charge would be sufficient for NHTSA to recover the costs that
can be allocated to industry use of its traction skid pads. Those costs
are calculated as follows, based on an equivalent of 360 days of
industry use in 1993:
Skid pad calibration expenses............................... $6,210
General facility costs relating to skid pads................ 7,140
Depreciable items (skid system, water truck, air compressor,
skid track, tractor sweeper, equipment, buildings)......... 65,904
Salaries relating to skid pads.............................. 24,375
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Total................................................... 103,629
$103,629/360 days industry use = $287.86 cost per day.
Rulemaking Analyses and Notices
1. Executive Order 12866 (Federal Regulatory Planning and Review) and
DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures
This proposal was not reviewed under E.O. 12866. NHTSA has analyzed
this proposal and determined that it is not ``significant'' within the
meaning of the Department of Transportation's regulatory policies and
procedures.
2. Regulatory Flexibility Act
In accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, NHTSA has
evaluated the effects of this action on small entities. Based upon this
evaluation, I certify that the proposed amendment would not have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
Motor vehicle and tire manufacturers and tire brand owners typically
would not qualify as small entities. This amendment would affect small
businesses, small organizations, and small governmental units to the
extent that these entities purchase vehicles and tires. However,
because the user fees proposed in this amendment could be spread across
a manufacturer's entire production, the amendment would have a
negligible cost impact on vehicles and tires. For these reasons,
vehicle manufacturers, small businesses, small organizations, and small
governmental units that purchase motor vehicles would not be
significantly affected by the proposed user fees. Accordingly, no
regulatory flexibility analysis has been prepared.
3. Executive Order 12612 (Federalism)
This action has been analyzed in accordance with the principles and
criteria contained in Executive Order 12612, and it has been determined
that the proposed rule would not have sufficient Federalism
implications to warrant preparation of a Federalism Assessment. No
State laws would be affected.
4. National Environmental Policy Act
The agency has considered the environmental implications of this
proposed rule in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act
of 1969 and determined that the proposed rule would not significantly
affect the human environment.
5. Civil Justice Reform
This proposed rule would not have any retroactive effect. Under
section 103(d) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (49
U.S.C. 30111), whenever a Federal motor vehicle safety standard is in
effect, a state may not adopt or maintain a safety standard applicable
to the same aspect of performance which is not identical to the Federal
standard. Section 105 of the Act (49 U.S.C. 30161) sets forth a
procedure for judicial review of final rules establishing, amending or
revoking Federal motor vehicle safety standards. That section does not
require submission of a petition for reconsideration or other
administrative proceedings before parties may file suit in court.
Public Comments
Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the proposal.
It is requested but not required that 10 copies be submitted.
All comments must not exceed 15 pages in length. (49 CFR 553.21).
Necessary attachments may be appended to these submissions without
regard to the 15-page limit. This limitation is intended to encourage
[[Page 15531]] commenters to detail their primary arguments in a
concise fashion.
If a commenter wishes to submit certain information under a claim
of confidentiality, three copies of the complete submission, including
purportedly confidential business information, should be submitted to
the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the street address given above, and seven
copies from which the purportedly confidential information has been
deleted should be submitted to the Docket Section. A request for
confidentiality should be accompanied by a cover letter setting forth
the information specified in the agency's confidential business
information regulation. 49 CFR part 512.
All comments received before the close of business on the comment
closing date indicated above for the proposal will be considered, and
will be available for examination in the docket at the above address
both before and after that date. To the extent possible, comments filed
after the closing date will also be considered. Comments received too
late for consideration in regard to the final rule will be considered
as suggestions for further rulemaking action. The NHTSA will continue
to file relevant information as it becomes available in the docket
after the closing date, and it is recommended that interested persons
continue to examine the docket for new material.
Those persons desiring to be notified upon receipt of their
comments in the rules docket should enclose a self-addressed, stamped
postcard in the envelope with their comments. Upon receiving the
comments, the docket supervisor will return the postcard by mail.
List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 575
Consumer protection, Labeling, Motor vehicle safety, Motor
vehicles, Rubber and rubber products, Tires.
In consideration of the foregoing, the agency proposes to amend
Sec. 575.104, Uniform tire quality grading standards, in Title 49 of
the Code of Federal Regulations at part 575 as follows:
PART 575--[AMENDED]
1. The authority citation for Part 575 would continue to read as
follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, and 30123; delegation of
authority at 49 CFR 1.50.
2. A new appendix D would be added to Sec. 575.104, to read as
follows:
Sec. 575.104 Uniform tire quality grading standards.
* * * * *
Appendix D--User Fees
1. Course monitoring tires: A fee of $379.00 will be assessed
for each course monitoring tire purchased from NHTSA at Goodfellow
Air Force Base, San Angelo, Tex. This fee is based upon the direct
and indirect costs attributable to: (a) The purchase of course
monitoring tires by NHTSA, (b) a pro rata allocation of salaries and
general facility costs associated with maintenance of the tires, (c)
warehouse storage fees for the tires, and (d) testing fees paid by
NHTSA to establish the base course wear rate for the tires.
2. Use of Government traction skid pads: A fee of $288.00 will
be assessed for each day that the traction skid pads at Goodfellow
Air Force Base, San Angelo, Tex. are used. This fee is based upon
the direct and indirect costs attributable to: (a) Depreciation on
facilities and equipment comprising or used in conjunction with the
traction skid pads (i.e., skid system, water truck, air compressor,
skid track, tractor sweeper, equipment, buildings), (b) the
calibration of the traction skid pads, and (c) a pro rata allocation
of salaries and office operating expenses associated with
maintenance of the traction skid pads.
3. Fee payments shall be by check, draft, money order, or
Electronic Funds Transfer System made payable to the Treasurer of
the United States.
4. The fees set forth in this appendix continue in effect until
adjusted by the Administrator of NHTSA. The Administrator reviews
the fees set forth in this appendix and, if appropriate, adjusts
them by rule at least every 2 years.
Issued on: March 21, 1995.
Barry Felrice,
Associate Administrator for Safety Performance Standards.
[FR Doc. 95-7351 Filed 3-23-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P
