Nearly a year since the federal government started requiring automakers and certain suppliers to submit safety information, an estimated 10 percent have responded by submitting quarterly data on warranty claims and consumer complaints or notifying the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that they will start soon.

The rest don’t know they’re supposed to submit information or don’t know how.

“There are still a large number of organizations that are not compliant. There are still a large number, particularly supply organizations, who don’t understand how it applies to them,” said Marianne Grant, who specializes in the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act for El Segundo, Calif.-based Syncata Corp., which has made a niche for itself in helping auto companies comply with the regulations.

Grant will be part of a panel at Auto-Tech, a conference held by the Automotive Industry Action Group at Detroit’s Cobo Center that kicks off Tuesday. The conference, expected to attract about 4,000 industry executives and more than 150 exhibitors, is meant to bring automakers and suppliers together to mingle, discuss issues affecting the industry and take a look at new technology hitting the market.

This year’s speakers include General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner and DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive Officer and President Dieter Zetsche.

The TREAD Act, approved in 2000 and implemented in November 2003, was a response to rollovers of Ford Explorers equipped with certain Firestone tires. It requires auto manufacturers and suppliers of child seats and tires to submit safety data including warranty claims and customer complaints. Other auto suppliers have to supply less information.

The gap between the number of manufacturers reporting _ there’s a deadline Monday for second- quarter data _ and those who are not could decrease. NHTSA is contacting 5,000 to 6,000 auto manufacturers and child seat and tire makers that, according to its sometimes dated records, are supposed to report.

Of those companies, 357 are filing the required quarterly reports. Another 142 have notified NHTSA they will start reporting soon, NHTSA says.

“It has amazed me at times about how little some suppliers out there know and some of the real small vehicle manufacturers, for that matter,” said Stephen Selander, attorney with Warner, Norcross & Judd LLP , who will also speak at Tuesday’s workshop.

Companies could face fines of $5,000 a day for every day they don’t comply, up to $15 million.

For those that have been reporting, the law has forced companies to find ways to capture , consolidate and analyze data before submitting the information to NHTSA.

“Manufacturers may very well get a better view of the data because it’s all together. Similarly, they may look at the data a little more critically, because they now know it’s in NHTSA’s hands as well,” Selander said.

The act has also made some companies want to improve communication across departments and with their suppliers, Grant said.

“It’s made some people wake up and realize that there are opportunities in this as well as burdens,” she said.

The TREAD law recently came into the spotlight when a consumer group became outraged that NHTSA prohibited public disclosure of the data it collects from auto companies.

The government decided not to release the information after automakers argued that the information would be overwhelming to consumers and give competitors too much information.

The stance prompted Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, to sue the government, asking a court to order the information made public.

For more information about Auto-Tech, contact the Automotive Industry Action Group at 248-358-3570 or go to www.aiag.org.