State Notification to Consumers of Motor Vehicle Recall Status

NHTSA is responsible for reducing deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes. This is accomplished by setting and enforcing safety performance standards for motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment, and through grants to state and local governments to enable them to conduct effective local highway safety programs. NHTSA investigates safety defects in motor vehicles, sets and enforces fuel economy standards, helps states and local communities reduce the threat of impaired drivers, promotes the use of safety belts, child safety seats and air bags, investigates odometer fraud, establishes and enforces vehicle anti-theft regulations and provides consumer information on motor vehicle safety issues.

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, 49 U.S.C. §§ 30101 et. seq., as amended (the Safety Act), requires a motor vehicle manufacturer to notify the owners and purchasers of its vehicles of a safety-related defect, or that the vehicle does not comply with an applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standard. 49 U.S.C. § 30118. A vehicle manufacturer must provide notice of a recall, in a manner prescribed through regulation by NHTSA, to each person registered under State law as the owner and whose name and address are reasonably ascertainable by the manufacturer through State records or other available sources or (if a registered owner is not notified through State registration information) to the most recent purchaser known to the manufacturer. 49 U.S.C. § 30119(d).

In order to identify owners of vehicles subject to a safety-related recall and provide notification to them, a motor vehicle manufacturer typically contracts with a third party that obtains vehicle registration data for the affected vehicles from State motor vehicle administrations. The motor vehicle manufacturer then notifies owners and purchasers by U.S. Mail, about the safety recall and, among other things, about how to obtain a remedy to fix the defect or noncompliance. See 49 U.S.C. § 30119(d); 49 CFR part 577. To obtain a remedy, the consumer must then present the recalled motor vehicle to an authorized dealer for the dealer to remedy the defect or noncompliance. 49 U.S.C. § 30120. 

Recall completion rates can and do vary widely depending on a variety of factors such as the age and type of vehicle, as well as owners’ perception of relative risk. See NHTSA, Report to Congress: “Vehicle Safety Recall Completion Rates Report” (2017).[1] Considering this wide range, regardless of completion averages, the fact remains that there are at any time tens of millions of vehicles on the road with unremedied safety defects or noncompliances, each one creating a safety risk. NHTSA and the motor vehicle industry have sought to improve notice of safety-related defects to owners and to develop ways to increase the rate at which owners complete the remedy identified in the notice.  

In 2016, in accordance with Section 24105 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, Pub. L. No. 114-94, § 24105 (2015), NHTSA announced a pilot program to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a State process to inform consumers of open motor vehicle recalls at the time of motor vehicle registration. The grant was conditioned upon a State having the capability to use a vehicle identification number (VIN) to identify whether the specific vehicle was subject to an open safety recall. In 2017, NHTSA awarded the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration a grant to provide vehicle owners and lessees notice of open safety related recalls on their vehicles. Maryland began notifying vehicle owners and lessees in the Spring of 2018. 

Since the start of the Maryland notification program, several States have expressed an interest in partnering with NHTSA to provide similar recall notification to consumers in their states. While the Maryland Pilot Program offers a promising effort to increase consumer awareness to repair open safety recalls (and an opportunity to measure the effectiveness of such notification), additional notification by State DMVs will increase consumer awareness of open safety recalls and increase the repair rate of recalled vehicles. NHTSA believes such efforts will ultimately reduce the risk of a crash or injury due to a safety defect.  Under its existing authority provided in the Safety Act, NHTSA is offering this opportunity to further develop this State-to-consumer notification program to increase awareness of open recalls.

NHTSA encourages applicants to be creative and innovative when developing a proposal (application) for this grant. NHTSA is interested in proposals that provide vehicle owners and lessees with frequent notifications at touchpoints between the State and the vehicle. For example, NHTSA is interested in proposals that may offer options at the time of vehicle registration and other unique notification methods (or even follow-up notification). One potential option is to have notification at the time of registration and at motor vehicle emissions and/or safety inspection stations. A State is free to propose a process to make use of the functionality that may exist through its inspection stations or other intersections between the State and the consumer’s vehicle. NHTSA does not want to discourage innovative approaches, provided they satisfy the program requirements of notification at the intersection of a vehicle owner or lessee and the State.

NHTSA is also interested in proposals that provide an analysis of recall completion data on an ongoing basis to assist in program evaluation, or assessment of owners’ attitudes toward a particular recall notification protocol. In particular, NHTSA is interested in ways for a State to identify the motor vehicles that were remedied following notification of an open recall by the State. NHTSA looks forward to reviewing resourceful approaches that will motivate owners to remedy open recalls.