A longstanding problem in the trucking industry has reached the mainstream media.

On Sunday, April 12, the CBS News show, “60 Minutes,” broadcast a segment about 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.

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.

Earlier this year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said the administration was taking steps to “clean up trucking.” The effort includes shutting down CDL mills, revoking invalid CDLs and cracking down on chameleon carriers.

Barrs told “60 Minutes” that the key is to stop the bad actors from entering the industry in the first place.

“We have a front door problem, meaning we need to stop this before they actually get into the system,” Barrs said.

SAFE Act

In February, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., introduced the Safety and Accountability in Freight Enforcement (SAFE) Act.

HR7539 would direct FMCSA to conduct a study of chameleon carriers and test an advanced automation tool to help enforcement identify bad actors.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association supports efforts to crack down on chameleon carriers.

“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 addition to chameleon carriers, the “60 Minutes” segment touched on predatory lease-purchase arrangements and dispatchers who coerce drivers into breaking hours-of-service regulations.

Specifically, “60 Minutes” reported on a class-action lawsuit against Super Ego Holding that alleges the company misclassified truck drivers as independent contractors, illegally deducted from their pay and violated minimum wage laws. LL