Vol. 143, No. 4 — February 18, 2009

Registration

SOR/2009-33 February 5, 2009

MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT

Regulations Amending the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (Vehicle Identification Number)

P.C. 2009-167 February 5, 2009

Whereas, pursuant to subsection 11(3) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (see footnote a), a copy of the proposed Regulations Amending the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (Vehicle Identification Number), substantially in the annexed form, was published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on August 2, 2008, and a reasonable opportunity was afforded to interested persons to make representations to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities with respect to the proposed Regulations;

Therefore, Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, pursuant to subsection 11(1) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (voir référence b), hereby makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (Vehicle Identification Number).

REGULATIONS AMENDING THE MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY REGULATIONS (VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER)

AMENDMENTS

1. The portion of item 115 of Schedule III to the French version of the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (see footnote 1) in column II is replaced by the following:

Colonne I	Colonne II
Article (NSVAC)	Description
115	Numéro d’identification du véhicule

2. (1) Subsection 115(1) of Schedule IV to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

115. (1) Every vehicle shall have a vehicle identification number and that vehicle identification number shall not be the same as the vehicle identification number of a vehicle having a model year of 1980 or later manufactured within the preceding 60 years.

(2) The portion of paragraph 115(2)(c) of Schedule IV to the Regulations before subparagraph (i) is replaced by the following:

(c) in the case of a low-speed vehicle, multi-purpose passenger vehicle, passenger car, three-wheeled vehicle or truck having a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less, be

(3) Paragraph 115(3)(a) of Schedule IV to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

(a) the first three characters, the third of which shall not be “9”, shall uniquely identify the manufacturer and the class of vehicle, if the manufacturer manufactures 1,000 or more vehicles of a prescribed class annually;

(a.1) the first three characters, the third of which shall be “9”, and the twelfth to fourteenth characters shall uniquely identify the manufacturer and the class of vehicle, if the manufacturer manufactures less than 1,000 vehicles of a prescribed class annually;

(4) Subparagraph 115(3)(b)(i) of Schedule IV to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

(i) the seventh character shall be alphabetic for a multi-purpose passenger vehicle, passenger car, three-wheeled vehicle or truck having a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less,

(5) Paragraph 115(3)(d) of Schedule IV to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

(d) the tenth character shall be the code that corresponds to the vehicle model year as set out in Table II;

(6) Paragraphs 115(3)(f) to (h) of Schedule IV to the Regulations are replaced by the following:

(f) the twelfth to seventeenth characters shall be sequentially assigned by the manufacturer during the manufacturing process, if the manufacturer manufactures 1,000 or more vehicles of a prescribed class annually;

(g) the fifteenth to seventeenth characters shall be sequentially assigned by the manufacturer during the manufacturing process, if the manufacturer manufactures less than 1,000 vehicles of a prescribed class annually; and

(h) the fourteenth to seventeenth characters shall be numeric for all vehicles and the thirteenth character shall be numeric if the vehicle is a multi-purpose passenger vehicle, passenger car, three-wheeled vehicle or truck having a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less.

(7) Subsections 115(10) and (11) of Schedule IV to the Regulations are replaced by the following:

(10) If a character in a vehicle identification number identifies engine net power, the engine net power represented by that character shall not differ by more than 10 per cent from the actual engine net power.

(11) Manufacturers of vehicles in respect of which this section applies shall apply to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association for the characters referred to in paragraphs 3(a) and (a.1) that uniquely identify the manufacturer and class of vehicle.

(12) Despite subsections (1) to (11), every vehicle having a model year of 2009 or earlier shall comply with the requirements of this section as it read on the day before the day on which this subsection came into force.

(8) Tables I and II to section 115 of Schedule IV to the Regulations are replaced by the following:

TABLE I

Item	Column I Class of Vehicle	Column II Decipherable Information
1.	Passenger car or three-wheeled vehicle	Make, line, series, body type, engine type and all restraint system types and their location in the vehicle
2.	Multi-purpose passenger vehicle	Make, line, series, body type, engine type and gross vehicle weight rating. In addition, for multipurpose passenger vehicles with a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less, all restraint system types and their location in the vehicle.
3.	Truck	Make, model or line, series, chassis, cab type, engine type, brake system and gross vehicle weight rating. In addition, for trucks with a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less, all restraint system types and their location in the vehicle.
4.	Bus	Make, model or line, series, body type, engine type and brake system
5.	Trailer	Make, type of trailer, body type, length and axle configuration
6.	Motorcycle or restricted-use motorcycle	Make, type of cycle, line, engine type and engine net power
7.	Incomplete vehicle	Make, model or line, series, cab type, engine type and brake system
8.	Trailer converter dolly	Make, series and axle configuration
9.	Snowmobile	Make, type of snowmobile, line, engine type and engine net power
10.	Low-speed vehicle	Make, engine type, brake system, all restraint system types, body type and gross vehicle weight rating

TABLE II

MODEL YEAR CODES

Year	Code
2010	A
2011	B
2012	C
2013	D
2014	E
2015	F
2016	G
2017	H
2018	J
2019	K
2020	L
2021	M
2022	N
2023	P
2024	R
2025	S
2026	T
2027	V
2028	W
2029	X
2030	Y
2031	1
2032	2
2033	3
2034	4
2035	5
2036	6
2037	7
2038	8
2039	9

COMING INTO FORCE

3. These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are published in the Canada Gazette , Part II.

REGULATORY IMPACT
ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Issue and objectives

This amendment modifies the Canadian requirements for Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) in section 115 of Schedule IV of the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations. This amendment is needed to ensure that each vehicle sold in Canada has a unique identification number. The current identification system has a usable span of thirty years, within which each vehicle produced has a unique 17-character VIN. This amendment allows the 17-character VIN to continue to be unique for each vehicle produced within a sixty-year period of time.

Description and rationale

Every vehicle manufactured or imported for sale in Canada, is required to have a 17-character VIN. It is an alphanumeric code configuration that provides information regarding manufacturer, year of production, make and model, and several technical details that uniquely identify a specific vehicle. The VIN is needed to facilitate vehicle identification for safety research and for vehicle recall campaigns. It is also used by provincial and territorial jurisdictions for registration purposes. Several other entities, such as vehicle distributors, financial institutions, insurance companies and police departments, use the VIN for warranty validation, insurance claim verification, recall campaigns and vehicle theft investigation.

This amendment requires that the VIN of any two vehicles manufactured within a sixty-year period and having a model year of 1980 or later must not be identical. The VIN system that existed before this amendment was only capable of handling a thirty-year span. To effect the change, the information regarding the make of vehicle moved from the first three positions to positions four through eight. The characters in positions four through eight are alphabetic or numeric. For specific classes of vehicles, position seven is required to be alphabetic. This offers more flexibility to manufacturers to encode the mandatory information and allows them to uniquely identify vehicles for a sixty-year period. A low-volume manufacturer is defined as a manufacturer producing up to one thousand vehicles yearly, and is identified by the number nine in the third position, in conjunction with related information in positions one, two and twelve to fourteen. This amendment applies to vehicles having a model year of 2010 and later. Those vehicles having a model year of 2009 or older are required to comply with the VIN system as it read on the day before this amendment came into force.

This amendment aligns the Canadian requirements regarding the VIN system with recent requirements introduced in the United States. Due to the free movement of goods and the open transportation system between Canada and the United States, it is important that the VIN systems be aligned.

Under the Department’s Strategic Environmental Assessment policy, a preliminary evaluation of the possible effects of this amendment was done. It was determined that this amendment has no impact on the environment.

Consultation

As part of its consultation process, the Department of Transport informs the automotive industry, public safety organizations and the general public when changes are planned to the regulations. This gives them the opportunity to comment on these changes by letter or email. The need to amend the VIN system has been published in the Department’s Regulatory Plan and extensive negotiations took place over the past several years to develop a VIN system that meets the needs of all stakeholders, including the manufacturers and the provincial and territorial governments.

As the provinces and territories use the VIN to identify vehicles in their vehicle registration databases, it is imperative that changes to it align with their current systems. The Department worked with the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators to ensure that all concerns were addressed.

Manufacturers are supportive of this amendment, as they require a unique numbering system that is consistent across Canada and the United States and is recognized throughout the world. The manufacturers wrote to the Department in March 2008, expressing their desire that this amendment be aligned with the final regulatory requirements of the United States and also that it be completed urgently as the new system is needed for the 2010 model year vehicles, which could be produced as early as January 2009.

Several comments were received following the Canada Gazette Part I publication on August 2, 2008. Several petitioners commented on the proposed requirement for manufacturers of model year 2010 and 2011 vehicles, assembled prior to October 27, 2008, to incorporate the VIN configuration as it read on the day before the day the proposed amendment came into force. They noted that this would impose an unnecessary burden on manufacturers and would have resulted in manufacturers having vehicles of the same model year with significantly different VIN configurations. The use of a specific date is problematic, as manufacturers may have to produce 2010 and 2011 model year vehicles using two VIN configurations. In cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the authority regulating the VIN system in the United States, a common approach was developed requiring that all model 2010 and newer vehicles meet the new requirements, regardless of date of manufacture.

Several petitioners also noted that the information required in Table I for low-speed vehicles differed slightly from the information required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. As one of the objectives of this amendment is to align requirements of the VIN system between the two countries, the table has been clarified to eliminate any differences.

Implementation, enforcement and service standards

Motor vehicle manufacturers and importers are responsible for ensuring that their products conform to the requirements of the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations. The Department of Transport monitors self-certification programs of manufacturers and importers by reviewing their test documentation, inspecting vehicles, and testing vehicles obtained in the open market. In addition, when a defect in a vehicle or equipment is identified, the manufacturer or importer must issue a Notice of Defect to the owners and to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. If a vehicle does not comply with a Canadian safety standard, the manufacturer or importer is liable to prosecution and, if found guilty, may be fined as prescribed in the Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

Contact

Ghislain Lalime
Regulatory Development Officer
Road Safety and Motor Vehicle Regulation Directorate
Transport Canada
275 Slater Street, 17th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N5
Email: ghislain.lalime@tc.gc.ca

Footnote a
S.C. 1993, c. 16

Référence b
S.C. 1993, c. 16

Footnote 1
C.R.C., c. 1038