For years, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been playing Whac-A-Mole with unsafe carriers.
Shutting down a trucking company for violations or unsafe practices doesn’t do much if the motor carrier can resume operations under a new name and DOT number.
These trucking companies that are able to evade FMCSA’s enforcement are known as chameleon carriers.
A provision in the House Highway and Transportation Committee’s highway bill aims to put the brakes on chameleon carriers.
Along with funding for truck parking, restroom access for truck drivers, a ban on predatory lease-purchase arrangements and efforts to stop cargo theft, the chameleon carrier provision is among the reasons the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is calling the BUILD America 250 Act “the most pro-trucker highway bill in recent memory.”
SAFE Act
In February, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., introduced the Safety and Accountability in Freight Enforcement (SAFE) Act.
HR7539 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.
OOIDA supports the SAFE Act.
“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. “Rep. Hageman’s SAFE Act takes decisive action to detect and crack down on these bad actors at the registration stage. OOIDA and truckers across America commend Rep. Hageman’s leadership in restoring accountability to the system and standing up for law-abiding small-business truckers and the safety of the motoring public.”
In April, the CBS News Show, “60 Minutes,” exposed the problem of chameleon carriers to a national audience.
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.
Highway bill amendment
The original version of the BUILD America 250 Act did not include any provisions regarding chameleon carriers. However, Rep. Dave Taylor, who is a co-sponsor of the SAFE Act, offered an amendment on May 21 that would include Hageman’s bill.
“This amendment would address chameleon carriers plugging our roads,” Taylor said. “By removing an outdated provision from 2005, my amendment would provide FMCSA with enforcement mechanisms to keep our roads safe.”
What’s next?
Although the measure has been included in the BUILD America 250 Act, there is more work to be done before the committee’s legislation becomes law. The highway bill still needs to pass the House and the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. The current highway bill expires in September.
OOIDA is asking truck drivers to visit its Fighting For Truckers website and send a message to their lawmakers in support of the BUILD America 250 Act and to stop chameleon carriers. LL
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