The Radio Equipment Directive Compliance Association (REDCA), publishes specific compliance guidance for manufacturers and installers of radio equipment into vehicles.
The purpose of this guidance is to ensure that a uniform approach and process is used by all manufacturers and installers of radio equipment into vehicles to determine the applicability of the RED and demonstrating compliance.
Since the radio equipment is intended to be installed in a vehicle, the manufacturer shall ensure the assessment takes into account the use and operating environment.
The radio equipment manufacturer should consider the following factors:
- Test methods and levels designed or adopted for a particular vehicular environment (e.g. electromagnetic, climatic, dynamic environment)
- Intended installation location(s) of radio equipment relative to humans and domesticanimals.
The vehicle manufacturer shall ensure that the vehicle (host product) meets the applicable legislation. This will be different if the vehicle is subject to Type Approval versus those that are not.
Additionally, the vehicle manufacturer shall ensure that all radio equipment that is installed into a vehicle complies with the RED when the vehicleis placed on the market.
The installer of radio equipment into a vehicle (host product) shall ensure that they follow the instructions for installation and use, as supplied by the radio equipment manufacturer, and that it is used in an environment and manner for which it was intended.
Vehicles (host products) that are subject to type approval need to be assessed against the applicable type approval legislation (such as E-marking). If the radio equipment installed at the time of manufacture of the vehicle is not modified and installed according to the instructions provided by the radio equipment manufacturer, then the vehicle manufacturer doesn’t need to declare compliance to the RED.
There is a wide variety of vehicular types which are not subject to approval. Examples of such vehicles include: mining, earthmoving, construction and access machinery, leisure vehicles and forklift trucks.