Wisconsin Department of Transportation - Comments

Docket Number NHTSA-2010-0046 NHTSA Initial determination on Wisconsin’s petition for approval of alternate odometer disclosure: Wisconsin comments Docket Management Facility US Department of Transportation West Building Ground Floor Room W12-140 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE. Washington DC 20590-0001 May 12, 2010 Mr. Kevin Vincent Chief Counsel National Highway Traffic Safety Administration US Department of Transportation Dear Mr. Vincent: NHTSA’s initial determination (Federal Register April 22, 2010, page 20965-20974) asks Wisconsin to respond to three specific concerns. 1. Wisconsin must conform its program to federal odometer law requirements with regard to disclosure when seller is unavailable. Wisconsin’s petition stated that two persons are required to complete an odometer disclosure, and described an exception that Wisconsin currently allows, in the “paper title world.” This exception allows one person to complete the odometer disclosure. The situation occurs because sometimes a seller will merely sign the title and give the title to the buyer, neglecting to complete any other information including the odometer disclosure. The buyer presents a title which is assigned to the buyer but the seller has not completed the odometer disclosure. Wisconsin currently allows the buyer to state the odometer reading with a brand of “not actual.” Later, if the seller becomes available and makes the odometer disclosure, Wisconsin will change the brand to “actual.” NHTSA states that this practice does not conform to federal odometer law, which requires an odometer disclosure statement, including the brand, to be made at the time of transfer. NHTSA states that Wisconsin must conform our practice to federal law. Wisconsin is changing its practice, and will no longer grant this exception. If a buyer presents a title that is merely signed but the odometer disclosure is not completed, Wisconsin will allow a buyer to give the odometer reading with a brand of “not actual,” and the “not actual” brand cannot be changed, even if the seller appears later. Wisconsin DMV has an internal process that we follow, to change a policy or procedure. We have begun the process. The change will be effective as soon as we complete the process. Wisconsin will not allow this exception under e-Odometer. Indeed, Wisconsin’s electronic system will contain a “hard stop” that will not even allow the situation to occur. A vehicle seller will be required to enter the odometer reading, status, and seller signature into e-Odometer, and the system will not allow the seller portion of the transaction to conclude until these are entered. E-Odometer will not allow the seller to move the transaction into “pending” status – awaiting buyer odometer acceptance – until the odometer reading, status, and seller signature have been entered. There will be no opportunity for the seller to simply assign the title without disclosing odometer reading and status. In effect, the vehicle is not available for the sale transaction until the seller has completed the seller required entries. 2. Wisconsin must create a mechanism for lessors to retain each odometer disclosure statement they give and receive for five years; and 3. Wisconsin’s system must provide lessors the ability to place a brand on the odometer disclosure statement by the lessee if the lessor believes, or has reason to believe, that the disclosure by the lessee does not reflect the actual mileage of the vehicle. Wisconsin will build e-Odometer to include a method for the lessor to brand the title if the lessor believes, or has reason to believe, that the lessee’s disclosure does not reflect the actual mileage of the vehicle. The lessor’s brand will become part of the vehicle title record. The system will only allow a lessor the option to somehow override the lessee’s odometer disclosure; it will not be available to any other type of person authorized to update e-Odometer. We will design the transaction either for the lessor to enter a brand that will override the lessee’s status notation with the lessor’s brand that will be carried forward on the title, or for the lessor to enter a new odometer reading (or duplicate the lessee’s reading) and enter the brand – whichever is the method that NHTSA would prefer. Wisconsin also will create a mechanism for the lessor to retain all odometer statements it receives for the required 5-year period. We will design this mechanism so it will not be optional on the lessor’s part – we understand that our system must provide this copy to the lessor. We will design e-Odometer to provide either a print of the e-Odometer record or electronic access to the electronic record in the DMV database. In either case, the lessor will have complete information to satisfy all federal requirements: lessee name and address, date, odometer reading and status that the lessee has given, and the complete vehicle description. However, we are not yet prepared to elaborate on exactly how lessor/lessee processing will be designed, and we are unable to do so within the comment period time frame. Wisconsin’s implementation plan schedules lessee odometer disclosure in the second implementation phase. We will design lessor/lessee processing as part of the second phase programming. We will consult with NHTSA to be sure our system fully complies with NHTSA requirements. Therefore, Wisconsin requests that NHTSA approve our petition with the understanding that we will consult with NHTSA sufficient to satisfy NHTSA that we have met all requirements in the lessor/lessee transaction. If NHTSA is unable to approve our petition with that provision, we request that NHTSA approve all the rest of our petition, except for the lessor/lessee transaction process. We would expect to file a separate petition for approval of an electronic lessor/lessee transaction in the future. In this case and until Wisconsin were to receive NHTSA approval for an electronic lessor/lessee transaction, e-Odometer would contain only the odometer disclosures associated with title transfer. Wisconsin would continue to rely on secure paper odometer statement from the lessee to the lessor upon lease termination. The lessor would continue to retain the secure paper odometer statement for 5 years. Finally, when the lessor transferred the vehicle, if the lessor believed or had reason to believe that the lessee odometer statement was not actual, the lessor would provide its odometer reading and its brand of “not actual” in its disclosure – made in e-Odometer – to the transferee. Thank you for the opportunity to reply to your questions. Sincerely, /signed/ Lynne B. Judd Administrator Division of Motor Vehicles