All over the nation, chameleon carriers are hiding in plain sight.
A bill in the Senate wants to prevent these high-risk trucking companies from blending in.
This week, Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Andy Kim, D-N.J., introduced the SAFE Act. S5150, which is identical to the House version introduced by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., aims to develop an advanced automation tool to help detect applications from chameleon carriers.
A chameleon carrier is a trucking company that illegally reopens under a new name and DOT number after being cited or shut down by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“In recent years, we’ve seen chameleon carriers become a major issue on Indiana’s roads, putting Hoosiers at risk and punishing law-abiding truckers,” Young said in a news release. “When unsafe trucking companies evade enforcement by reopening under a new identity, everyone who shares the road with them is put at greater risk. Our bill will help federal regulators to identify these fraudulent operators before they hit the road, strengthening highway safety and potentially saving lives.”
The SAFE Act is supported by several trucking organizations, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
“Chameleon carriers have undermined America’s highway safety and damaged the professionalism of the trucking industry by evading enforcement, dodging penalties and reopening under new identities,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “Law-abiding small business truckers strongly support Senator Young and Senator Kim’s bipartisan SAFE Act. This legislation will help identify and weed out bad actors before they have the opportunity to ever become chameleon carriers, helping stop fraud before it occurs. OOIDA and our members applaud the introduction of this important bill in the Senate.”
The bill would require FMCSA to conduct a study on chameleon carriers and test an advanced automation tool to help enforcement identify the bad actors.
Under the bill, FMCSA would be directed to submit a report on the study’s findings within one year of the legislation’s enactment. The report would include information about the prevalence of chameleon carriers and the estimated number of fatalities these companies have caused.
The prevalence of chameleon carriers received national attention when the CBS News Show, “60 Minutes,” reported on the problem earlier this year.
Rob Carpenter, a CDL holder and trucking safety consultant, told “60 Minutes” that these bad carriers’ playbook is to “abandon the history that you’ve created with the other trucking company because you’ve run so poorly in the past year … So, then you just adopt a new identity and you move on to a new carrier.”
“60 Minutes” cited data from Fusable that chameleon carriers are four times more likely to be involved in severe crashes. LL
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