SAIL-Europe

Major changes in the administrative procedures of the EELQMS Marketers' Letter of Conformance (LoC) August 4th 2017

Under the European Engine Lubricant Quality Management System (EELQMS), lubricant marketers making claims against the ACEA Oil Sequences are required by ACEA to submit a Letter of Conformance (LoC) to ATIEL. Submission of this letter implies a commitment to develop and manufacture engine lubricants in accordance with the guidelines described in the EELQMS. The LoC is generally valid for a two-year period and current letters expire on 31 October 2017. You will therefore need to renew your registration before then.

This year, there will be some major changes to the administration of the LoC registration system that are intended to strengthen compliance and add additional services to the growing number of registrants. These changes comprise:

• strengthening of the quality compliance system through the introduction of ongoing product surveys;
• the introduction of a registered EELQMS quality trademark to be used exclusively by LoC signatories;
• provision of privileged access for LoC registrants to training and education materials;
• a switch to a fee based system not dissimilar to the one which has been in use in the US for many years.

ATIEL will continue to intensify its efforts to raise awareness of EELQMS at lubricants conferences and events world-wide. ATIEL will also work in conjunction with national lubricants associations to increase the understanding of the system and the benefits it can bring to its signatories and to further promote and enhance compliance among a growing share of market players.

To implement these changes and to support the management of the extended services in future, ATIEL has retained a service provider, SAIL BVBA, which will become the main point of contact for all activities associated with the registration of the LoCs.

What will you need to do?

• Each company that is a LoC signatory will need to renew its registration by 1 November 2017.
• Following validation of your application, SAIL will issue an invoice for the annual registration fee of € 975 per annum (excluding VAT).
• Once the annual fee is received:
  • your company's name will be included on the List of Signatories on the website.
  • SAIL will send you a copy of the EELQMS quality trademark licence agreement, which will give the signatory an exclusive right to use the trademark on documentation and labels of the brands registered by the company in the LoC.