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Recyclers News Press
U.S. Congressman Continues to Ask
Automakers for Access to OEM Data on
Behalf of ARA Members
At the latest of an ongoing series of U.S. congressional
hearings on the Takata airbag recall,
Rep. Adam
Kinzinger (R-IL)
once again stepped up to the plate
and
asked the two automaker associations how the
automakers plan on sharing part data with profes-
sional automotive recyclers.
As reported previous-
ly [by ARA] Rep. Kinzinger first spoke on behalf of pro-
fessional automotive recyclers when he asked a similar
question of automakers at a hearing in the same sub-
committee in December of last year.
During the June 2 hearing,
the Congressman asked
the following questions of
the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers and the As-
sociation of Global Au-
tomakers, which represent
most of the worldwide au-
tomakers:
"At our December hearing I asked our panel which in-
cluded BMW, Toyota and Honda if they agreed that
sharing OEM part numbers and other identifiable infor-
mation with the automotive recycling industry would
increase safety. They agreed and expressed support
for the efforts to improve methods to identify parts and
to share part numbers with recyclers. Earlier this year,
Transportation Secretary Foxx stated that he also sup-
ported auto manufacturers providing part numbers to
recyclers, and that furthermore manufacturers should
provide this information in an easy-to-use format and
the key here is that this approach would not require the
creation of any new government program or bureau-
cracy - it's something that the industry should tackle on
its own.
To Mr. Bozzella and Mr. Bainwol: It appears that we
have a unique instance when regulators and industry
seem to agree on an approach to address a problem in
large part because everyone understands that sharing
this information would improve safety.
My question is this: If you know the answer, when and
how do your members plan on making this information
available to recyclers? And are you aware of any dis-
cussions in the industry to help share this information
to improve safety? Can your organizations facilitate
this and make something like this happen?"
Regrettably, the Associations' President/CEO's who
testified answered in the same manner as did their col-
leagues in December and requested additional time to
respond to the questions. The Congressman request-
ed they respond back directly to his office as well as
for the record. To watch the House hearing segment in
it's entirely, use this link:
http://www.c-span.org/video/? c4539843/takata-hearing .ARA is aggressively represent-
ing your business interests as
the re-calls of Takata airbags
continue. Policymakers and reg-
ulators alike have become well
versed in the need for access to
part data. The hurdle that still
exists however is how policy-
makers will require automakers to provide this data to
professional automotive recyclers so that recyclers can
efficiently and correctly identify recalled parts. ARA
continues to remind policymakers that it is only with
this data access that recyclers will have the tools to be
able to satisfactorily comply with any federal regula-
tions prohibiting the sale of recalled parts.
ARA Updates
Industry news from the national association