The Transportation Safety Equipment Institute (TSEI) is a non-profit trade association serving the needs of manufacturers of OEM and aftermarket motor-vehicle safety devices and associated equipment. TSEI provides government representation and market research services, monitors proposed and enacted legislation and regulations, and serves as a technical forum to resolve industry problems.The main goal of TSEI is to enhance the capabilities and competitiveness of member companies while supporting highway safety through:

• Technical Exchange
• Benchmarking
• Government Relations: Private Sector-Public Sector Cooperation and Dialogue
• Networking: Building Business and Professional Relationships Among the Members
• Building our Members' Reputation for Delivering Quality Products and Services to their Customers
• Exchange with the Academic Community

If you would like more information about the The Transportation Safety Equipment Institute call TSEI at 919-406-8841, fax to 919-406-1306 or via e-mail tsei@mema.org.

• Continuous review of relative industry standards.
• Review technological developments and new systems as they relate  to standard development and the collective impact on safety.
• Members participate in a round robin test program to assure industry laboratory accuracy between companies (including independent labs).
• Ongoing review of industry and government research, rulemaking and legal updates to determine the impact on the industry.
• Compliance activities include reviewing the industry and monitoring for non compliant products.

Each year TSEI invites members to participate in a survey of their business results as measured through a series of financial and operating ratios. The information is shared among participating member companies.

 Government Relations 

• Provide insight into NHTSA rulemaking and regulatory compliance activities.
• Members benefit from TSEI’s long-standing good relationship with NHTSA’s rulemaking and compliance staff. This access can be particularly useful to new members and small and medium sized companies that may have little or no direct government relations experience.
• Support members’ individual efforts to provide comments to NHTSA on current and proposed regulations. Providing technical information and estimates of the financial and business impact of regulatory proposals in aggregated form, with data from many companies collected on an anonymous basis, leverages each individual company’s position with NHTSA and strengthens the entire industry’s position before the Agency.
• The Fall Meeting is usually held in Washington DC. U.S. and Canadian regulators and other prominent officials in the transportation and safety field are invited to address the group and meet with members personally.

• The TSEI Spring Meeting offers senior level engineering and sales executives, company CEOs and spouses the opportunity to meet and socialize in a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. A member golf tournament, receptions, banquets and other recreational activities are arranged for members and spouses during this three-day gathering.

 Exchange with the Academic Community 

• TSEI currently has two academic members, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and Northwood University.
• In terms of technical benefits, participation by UMTRI enhances members’ knowledge of the work that is being performed at that Institution relative to their products, thus members can benefit more readily from its research and technical resources.
• In terms of business benefits, Northwood University’s “extern program” enhances members’ access to a qualified pool of young workers with special interest and training in the automotive field for summer employment and permanent positions after graduation.