Columbia Body Manufacturing Co.; Grant of Petition for Temporary Exemption From FMVSS No. 224 |
|---|
Topics: Columbia Body
|
Mark R. Rosekind
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
7 March 2016
[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 44 (Monday, March 7, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11902-11904]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-04971]
[[Page 11902]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
[Docket No. NHTSA-2015-0125]
Columbia Body Manufacturing Co.; Grant of Petition for Temporary
Exemption From FMVSS No. 224
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of grant of petition for temporary exemption from FMVSS
No. 224, Rear Impact Protection.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 30113 and 49 CFR part 555, NHTSA
is granting a petition from Columbia Body Manufacturing Co. (``Columbia
Body'' or ``petitioner''), a small volume manufacturer, for a temporary
exemption from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 224,
Rear impact protection, for certain gravity feed dump body trailers
(``dump body trailers''). This exemption is based on the agency's
determination that compliance with FMVSS No. 224 would cause
substantial economic hardship to a manufacturer that has tried to
comply in good faith with the standard, and that such an exemption is
consistent with the public interest. Columbia Body must affix
certification labels to the exempted trailers stating they have been
exempted from FMVSS No. 224.
DATES: The subject vehicles manufactured by Columbia Body are exempted
from FMVSS No. 224, Rear Impact Protection until March 7, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For legal questions, contact Mr. Ryan
Hagen, Office of the Chief Counsel, NCC-200, National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building 4th
Floor, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-2992; Fax: (202) 366-
3820. For technical questions, contact Mr. Robert Mazurowski, Office of
Crashworthiness Standards, National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building 4th Floor,
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-1012; Fax: (202) 493-2990.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 30113 and 49
CFR part 555, NHTSA is granting a petition from Columbia Body, a small
volume manufacturer, for a temporary exemption from FMVSS No. 224, Rear
impact protection, for dump body trailers. The agency is granting this
petition because compliance with the standard would cause substantial
economic hardship to a small volume manufacturer that has tried to
comply with the standard in good faith. NHTSA believes Columbia Body
has put forth a good faith effort to research and explore potential
options to comply with FMVSS No. 224. As discussed below, NHTSA also
believes that, because dump body trailers help build and maintain
public infrastructure, and because the safety implications of this
grant are minimal, granting this exemption is consistent with the
public interest and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
Additionally, NHTSA received no public comments on this petition.
The petitioner's exemption will be limited to 210 dump body
trailers over the next three years. Columbia Body must include language
on the certification labels it affixes to the exempted dump body
trailers it manufactures notifying the public that the vehicle has been
exempted from FMVSS No. 224.
A. Statutory Authority for Temporary Exemptions
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act),
codified at 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301, provides the Secretary of
Transportation authority to exempt, on a temporary basis and under
specified circumstances, motor vehicles from a motor vehicle safety
standard or bumper standard. This authority is set forth at 49 U.S.C.
30113. The Secretary of Transportation has delegated the authority for
implementing this section to NHTSA.
In recognition of the more limited resources and capabilities of
small manufacturers, authority to grant exemptions based on substantial
economic hardship and good faith efforts is provided in the Safety Act
to enable the agency to give those manufacturers additional time to
comply with motor vehicle safety standards. The Safety Act authorizes
the Secretary to grant a temporary exemption to a manufacturer whose
total motor vehicle production in the most recent year of production is
not more than 10,000 motor vehicles, on such terms as the Secretary
deems appropriate, if the exemption would be consistent with the public
interest and the Safety Act and ``compliance with the standard would
cause substantial economic hardship to a manufacturer that has tried to
comply with the standard in good faith.'' (49 U.S.C.
30113(b)(3)(B)(i)).
NHTSA established 49 CFR part 555, Temporary Exemption from Motor
Vehicle Safety and Bumper Standards, to implement the statutory
provisions concerning temporary exemptions. Under Part 555, a
petitioner must provide specified information in submitting a petition
for exemption. These requirements are specified in 49 CFR 555.5, and
include a number of items. Foremost among them are that the petitioner
must set forth the basis of the application under Sec. 555.6, and the
reasons why the exemption would be in the public interest and
consistent with the objectives of the Safety Act (49 U.S.C. Chapter
301).\1\ A manufacturer is eligible to apply for a hardship exemption
if its total motor vehicle production in its most recent year of
production did not exceed 10,000 vehicles, as determined by the NHTSA
Administrator (49 U.S.C. 30113).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ While 49 U.S.C. 30113(b) states that exemptions from a
Safety Act standard are to be granted on a ``temporary basis,'' (49
U.S.C. 30113(b)(1)) the statute also expressly provides for renewal
of an exemption on reapplication. Manufacturers are nevertheless
cautioned that the agency's decision to grant an initial petition in
no way predetermines that the agency will repeatedly grant renewal
petitions, thereby imparting semi-permanent status to an exemption
from a safety standard. Exempted manufacturers seeking renewal must
bear in mind that the agency is directed to consider financial
hardship as but one factor, along with the manufacturer's ongoing
good faith efforts to comply with the regulation, the public
interest, consistency with the Safety Act, generally, as well as
other such matters provided in the statute.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. Rear Impact Protection
FMVSS No. 224, Rear impact protection,\2\ requires that all
trailers with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kilograms
(kg) (10,000 pounds (lb)) or more be fitted with a rear impact guard
that conforms to FMVSS No. 223, Rear impact guards.\3\ This
requirement, however, has presented problems for certain specialized
vehicles, such as road construction vehicles where interaction between
the rear impact guard and the specialized paving or dumping equipment
can cause engineering challenges. In 2004, NHTSA finalized a rule that
excludes road construction controlled horizontal discharge semitrailers
(RCC horizontal discharge trailers), which discharge asphalt to a
paving machine by use of a mechanical drive and conveyor belt.\4\ In
that final rule, NHTSA concluded that the installation of rear impact
guards would interfere with the intended function of the trailers and
were impractical, given the design and mission of these trailers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ 49 CFR 571.224.
\3\ 49 CFR 571.223.
\4\ 69 FR 67663 (November 19, 2004). Available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2004/11/19/04-25703/federal-motor-vehicle-safety-standards-rear-impact-guards-final-rule (last
accessed on November 5, 2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 11903]]
The 2004 final rule decided against a regulatory exemption for
gravity feed dump trailers, which do not have the mechanical drive and
conveyor belt as discussed above, because gravity feed dump trailers
can be versatile vehicles used for a wide variety of tasks. NHTSA was
concerned that creating an exemption in the regulation itself for
gravity feed dump trailers could potentially permit a large vehicle
population with greater exposure than RCC horizontal discharge trailers
to be exempted from the standard. Instead, NHTSA anticipated dealing
with gravity feed dump trailers through the exemption process.\5\ Prior
to that final rule, NHTSA had granted an exemption to gravity feed dump
trailers manufactured by Columbia Body.\6\ Since that final rule, NHTSA
has continued to grant exemptions to manufacturers of gravity feed dump
trailer manufacturers through the procedures in 49 CFR part 555.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Id. at 67666.
\6\ 68 FR 7406 (February 13, 2003). Available at: http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=NHTSA-2002-13955-0004&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf (last accessed on
November 6, 2015).
\7\ See: 69 FR 30989 (June 1, 2004), available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2004/06/01/04-12334/reliance-trailer-co-llc-grant-of-application-for-renewal-of-temporary-exemption-from-federal-motor (last accessed on November 6, 2015),
and 74 FR 42142 (August 20, 2009), available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2009/08/20/E9-19956/beall-corporation-grant-of-application-for-a-temporary-exemption-from-fmvss-no-224 (last accessed on November 9, 2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. Overview of Columbia Body's Petition
Consistent with 49 U.S.C. 30113 and the procedures in 49 CFR part
555, Columbia Body of Clackamas, Oregon, a small volume trailer
manufacturer, petitioned the agency for a three year temporary
exemption from the rear impact protection requirements in FMVSS No. 224
based on substantial economic hardship.
Columbia Body is a small manufacturer that currently employs 40
full time employees and has annual sales of $5-6 million. It produces
two, three, and four axle ``dump style'' trailers that use a hydraulic
hoist to raise the front end of the trailer and discharge its load
through the tailgate. Columbia Body has produced an average of 17
trailers that do not require an exemption per year over the last three
years.
Columbia Body states that recently, many of its gravity feed dump
body competitors have gone bankrupt, leading purchasers to request the
trailers from Columbia Body. Given the recent requests, Columbia Body
seeks to ensure it is able to fill any potential orders. If the
exemption were granted, Columbia Body projects that it would sell no
more than 70 of the exempted trailers per year. Columbia Body states
that the trailers in question are designed specifically for use with
paving machines. Without an exemption, Columbia Body states it will
suffer substantial economic hardship, projecting it will have to lay
off seven or eight of its 40 employees starting in 2016.
In its application, Columbia Body provides specific financial
information from the last three years. In 2012, Columbia Body posted a
net loss of $108,000, followed by a $215,000 loss in 2013. In 2014, it
posted a net profit of $302,000. If an exemption is not granted,
Columbia Body projects it will post a $169,000 net profit for 2016, in
comparison to $1 million net profit if an exemption is granted.
Columbia Body states that it has put forth a good faith effort to
comply with FMVSS No. 224, however, is not possible for the company to
produce a trailer at a reasonable price and with the utility its
customers require for paving. Specifically, the rear end of the type of
trailer in question interfaces with the front end of an asphalt paving
machine, dumping hot asphalt into the paving machine's receiver. To
establish this connection, the paving machine hooks to the rear wheels
of the dump trailer. In order to prevent asphalt from spilling out
while being transferred from the dump trailer to the paving machine,
the paving machine fits 16 to 18 inches beneath the bottom of the dump
trailer. The interaction between the dump trailer and paving machine
occurs in the space where an underride guard would otherwise reside.
Columbia Body states that it has looked into possible solutions to
this problem, including $50,000 in research in 2005 and 2006 to
evaluate solutions to comply with FMVSS No. 224. One solution included
adding removable underride guards. Columbia Body states, however, that
``[e]ven if we could install a removable underride guard it will put
equipment operators in an unsafe situation installing and removing the
guard.'' The petitioner states that the area where a removable
underride guard would be installed is often covered in asphalt buildup.
Additionally, Columbia Body believes that the cleaning, maintenance,
and heavy impacts on the underride guard and the area immediately
around it when contacting the paving machine would affect the
structural integrity of the underride guard.
Another solution Columbia Body states it looked into involved
constructing a sub-frame ``with the ability to slide the dump body
forward when in transit and slide it to the rear to provide the proper
over hang [sic] when paving.'' Columbia Body states that although this
design is possible, conversations with prospective customers indicate
the design ``would not be acceptable'' because of the added cost and
weight associated with building such a structure.
Columbia Body states that so long as the paving industry continues
to use the same method of paving roads, it remains a physical
impossibility to manufacture this type of trailer and comply with FMVSS
No. 224.
In support of its petition for exemption, Columbia Body notes that
gravity feed dump trailers have limited highway exposure due to their
function. Specifically, the trailers themselves are on the road for
short periods of time. ``Asphalt batch plants are typically set close
to the paving activity to limit time traveling between the two paving
activities.'' Additionally, the petitioner states that in many
instances, these paving machines are often performing their transport
tasks away from the driving public in restricted access construction
areas.
Finally, Columbia Body believes its ability to obtain an exemption
is in the public interest. Columbia Body has informed NHTSA that
customers requesting its gravity feed dump trailers are doing so in
order to pave local roadways. Many purchasers are local municipalities,
or companies that support local municipalities in creating and
maintaining roads for the traveling public. Therefore, the petitioner
believes supplying gravity feed dump trailers is in the public
interest.
D. Notice of Receipt and Summary of Comments
On December 17, 2015, NHTSA sought comment on Columbia Body's
petition by publishing a notice of receipt in the Federal Register.\8\
NHTSA received no comments on the petition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ See: 80 FR 78817 (December 17, 2015), available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/12/17/2015-31709/columbia-body-manufacturing-co-receipt-of-petition-for-temporary-exemption-from-fmvss-no-224 (last accessed on January 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. Final Decision
Columbia Body petitioned NHTSA for a temporary exemption from FMVSS
No. 224 under 49 U.S.C. 30113(b)(3), and in accordance with NHTSA's
regulations at 49 CFR 555.6. NHTSA may grant such a petition if it
finds that compliance with the standard would
[[Page 11904]]
cause substantial economic hardship to a small volume manufacturer \9\
that has tried to comply with the standard in good faith, and that
granting such an exemption is consistent with the public interest.
NHTSA believes these exemption criteria are satisfied.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ ``A manufacturer is eligible for an exemption . . . only if
the Secretary determines that the manufacturer's total motor vehicle
production in the most recent year of production is not more than
10,000.'' 49 U.S.C. 30113(d).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
First, based on the detailed financial documentation Columbia Body
has provided the agency, NHTSA believes Columbia Body would suffer
substantial economic hardship without an exemption for its dump body
trailers. Columbia Body posted a cumulative net loss over the last
three years. Looking forward, Columbia Body would have to lay off seven
to eight of its 40 employees in 2016.
Second, Columbia Body has demonstrated that it has made good faith
efforts to comply with FMVSS No. 224. The dump body trailers subject to
this petition are designed to attach to a paving machine that secures
to the rear end of the dump body trailer. When attached to the dump
body trailer, the paving machine hooks to the rear wheels of the
trailer and tucks underneath the rear end of the dump body trailer.
This interaction between the dump body trailer and a paving machine
thwarts the installation of an underride guard. Despite the known
design challenges, Columbia Body invested a significant amount of time
and money investigating a way to comply with FMVSS No. 224 while
maintaining the dump body trailer's paving utility. It developed
potential solutions to the compliance challenges, and invested in a
finite element analysis of the situation. Further, Columbia Body
discussed the resulting potentially compliant design with prospective
paving customers, who responded that an increase in cost and loss of
payload capability were not acceptable for their business needs. From
its research, Columbia Body reasonably concluded that it could not
produce its dump body trailers with compliant guards unless paving
machines are modified to no longer hook to the rear wheels of the dump
body trailer. Such redesign of paving machines was not practical.
In the 2004 final rule amending FMVSS No. 224, NHTSA stated that
``[i]n certain limited circumstances, the agency [will grant] temporary
exemption to gravity feed dump trailer manufacturers based, in part, on
impracticability of compliance.'' \10\ We have closely evaluated the
petition and conclude that practicability problems posed by Columbia
Body's dump body trailers support a grant of the petition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ 69 FR 67663 (November 19, 2004). Available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2004/11/19/04-25703/federal-motor-vehicle-safety-standards-rear-impact-guards-final-rule (last
accessed on January 7, 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third, NHTSA believes it is consistent with the public interest to
grant Columbia Body this exemption. The overhang required by these
trailers, while not exclusive to paving applications, is specifically
manufactured to attach to a paving machine. These trailers serve as a
tool for paving asphalt surfaces, most commonly, public roads; they are
needed for that public function. Given the few remaining companies that
produce dump trailers for paving, we believe that the exemption would
result in more dump trailers being available for paving and other
purposes, which would facilitate construction projects. Further,
because these trailers are used primarily in road construction
applications, their exposure to the traveling public is reduced. In
many instances, these trailers are traveling in restricted area
construction zones or with a paving machine attached to the rear end.
Moreover, the impact on safety by this exemption is further limited
by the fact that relatively few vehicles would be affected. The number
of exempted trailers allowed under this exemption is tailored to
Columbia Body's projected production over the next three years, meaning
that a maximum of only 210 trailers in total will be exempted.
NHTSA also considered the impacts of not granting the exemption.
Columbia Body states that the failure to receive an exemption could
cause it to lay off seven to eight of its 40 employees starting in
2016. Given the practicability problems the petitioner faces in meeting
FMVSS No. 224 and the efforts made to comply, the negligible safety
impacts of an exemption, and the increased availability of dump
trailers as a result of an exemption, we do not believe that the
potential job losses would be warranted. Taking all of these things
into consideration, NHTSA believes this exemption is in the public
interest.
Based on the exemption requirements and the information before the
agency, NHTSA is issuing a temporary exemption to Columbia Body from
FMVSS No. 224 for a period of three years for the dump body trailers it
manufactures for paving applications.\11\ This exemption is limited to
210 trailers during the temporary exemption period. Further, dump body
trailers that are exempted from FMVSS No. 224 must display
certification labels noting this exemption as required by 49 CFR
555.9(c).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ As noted previously in this notice, the gravity dump body
trailers Columbia Body seeks an exemption for require 16 to 18
inches of clearance rearward of the rear wheels.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Columbia Body is granted NHTSA Temporary Exemption No. EX 16-01,
from FMVSS No. 224.
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30113; delegation of authority at 49 CFR
1.95.
Issued on: February 29, 2016.
Mark R. Rosekind,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2016-04971 Filed 3-4-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P