Final Thoughts

By Michael E. Wilson, ARA Chief Executive Officer michael@a-r-a.org

ARA Efforts Continue to Make a Difference: Policymakers Begin to Understand Need for Bulk VIN and Parts Data

hile composing this article for Automotive Recycling magazine, news- wires are reporting that U.S. Trans- portation Secretary Anthony Foxx just announced that Fiat Chrysler Auto- mobiles (FCA) has acknowledged that the company has violated the U.S. Motor Vehicle Safety Act by failing to repair vehicles with safety defects. As a result, FCA will now have to submit to rigorous federal oversight, buy back some defective vehicles from owners, and pay $105 mil- lion in civil penalties, the largest fine ever imposed by the Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

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As part of the consent order issued by NHTSA, FCA also has committed to ini- tiate and lead an effort to provide secure back-end access to manufacturers’ VIN search tools to allow for bulk access to VIN search results. While the details of this development are not yet available, rest assured that the ARA leadership and staff will be working diligently to gain bulk access to this data.

DRIVERS FROM AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY DEFECTS

• In 1966, Congress passed the National

Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (NTMVS Act) which prohibits the sale of new motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment that fail to comply with an appli- cable Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS).

• Over 30 years later, in 2000, Con- gress passed the Transportation Recall En- hancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act (TREAD Act) that ex- tended the NTMVS Act prohibition to cover the resale of used equipment (parts) subject to recall that have not been fixed. • In 2012, Congress enacted the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) which provided for a recall data- base with individual VIN look-up tool to be established by 2014.

70 Automotive Recycling | July-August 2015 LAWS TO PROTECT

ARA has aggressively promoted the need for access to bulk VIN recall data and parts data so that you are able to identify in a streamlined, integrated and efficient manner those OEM parts which have been recalled. ARA is also taking steps to ensure that automotive manufac- turers adhere to the laws as written (see box) and provide ARA members with fair market value for recalled parts that recy- clers must remove from their inventory. High level meetings with Congress and the automakers are ongoing to consider how best to address the fair market value of those parts that ARA members have and continue to take out of the market. As most in the industry are aware, the number of defective automotive parts in today’s marketplace is increasing at alarm- ing rates, in fact some 100 million vehicles have been recalled since the beginning of 2014 in the United States alone. ARA understands that these recall campaigns create multiple challenges for our mem- bers – professional automotive recyclers who provide safe and quality OEM recy- cled automotive parts to the marketplace. As your industry association, ARA contin- ues to work to help protect and promote your inventory of safe and quality OEM recycled parts in this era of continuous automotive safety recalls. ARA is very pleased with the current ongoing dialog between Association lead- ers and staff and with the NHTSA Administrator and his staff regarding the industry’s ability to integrate bulk VIN data into inventory management systems so that those VINs/parts that have been recalled can be flagged throughout the automotive recycling process to avoid possible market penetration. The ARA also is working to educate consumer groups and federal policymakers/indus- try stakeholders about the need for access to parts data, the results of which are: • U.S. Department of Transportation

Secretary Anthony Foxx recently stated for the record that automakers should provide “parts numbers related to recalls” in an “efficient and easy to use format directly to recyclers and others who need this information.”

• In December 2014 and June 2015, U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger asked automakers as well as organizations representing domestic and foreign auto manufacturers why professional automo- tive recyclers do not have access to the automakers parts data.

• During a May 2015 NHTSA Recall

Workshop, ARA argued the case and a consensus of participants agreed with the position that stakeholders should have access to bulk VIN data and parts data. • Ongoing discussions with consumer groups have led to an increased under- standing of how consumers benefit from continued access to OEM recycled parts. • As a result of the several meetings ARA has had with the new NHTSA Administrator and his staff, there is increased recognition of our issues and the important role that professional auto- motive recyclers play in providing safe OEM recycled parts to the marketplace. • The NHTSA Administrator has agreed to serve as a keynote speaker at ARA’s 2015 Annual Convention & Expo, during which he indicated his interest in talking with ARA members about their role in the automotive parts supply chain. Clearly, ARA’s demands for access to bulk VINs and OEM parts data are unre- lenting and continuous. ARA is proud to know that because of these efforts, many more policymakers and stakeholders under- stand the critical role that professional recy- clers play in today’s automotive parts marketplace. With your help, ARA looks forward to continuing to lead the charge to a streamlined and quality driven automotive parts supply chain, that helps to protect the safety of the nation’s drivers.