While most freight carriers go to great lengths to comply with federal regulations and adhere to public safety laws, a small number of rogue companies choose to ignore these laws and regulations. The worst of these rogue companies attempt to hide their dangerous practices from federal oversight by creating a new company to avoid accountability and keep their tractor-trailers on the road, generating profit.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has coined the phrase “Chameleon Carrier” to describe motor carriers that deliberately close up shop and reopen with a new name and DOT number to avoid facing penalties and paying fines that are generally incurred as the result of an adverse safety history.  FMCSA has long acknowledged that chameleon carriers place the motoring public at extreme risk and has made efforts to identify and regulate companies that engage in this practice.

In a 2013 study on this issue, the U.S. Government Accountability Offices found that carriers engaging in chameleon practices were three times more likely to be involved in a severe crash than carriers that operate in compliance with the law. You can find a summary of the study here, or you can see the complete study here.

Cases involving crashes caused by tractor-trailers often require a substantial commitment of time and resources, combined with a vast knowledge of federal rules and regulations.