Trucking fleets shed old identities in scheme to evade federal enforcement | 60 Minutes
In a Nutshell
Chameleon carriers, networks of often foreign-owned trucking companies like Serbia-based Super Ego Holding, evade U.S. federal safety regulations by frequently changing names and DOT numbers to erase thousands of violations, poor maintenance, and accidents—making them four times more crash-prone and contributing to over 5,300 truck-related deaths in 2024. These schemes exploit drivers through lease scams, pay skimming, illegal clock resets for excessive hours, and duct-taped rebranding, as revealed by whistleblowers, former employees, and a class-action lawsuit from over 800 truckers. The FMCSA struggles with oversight of 700,000 carriers using outdated systems but is prioritizing investigations into top offenders like Super Ego.
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Eight-month investigation into chameleon carriers: commercial trucking fleets, often foreign-owned and operated, that shed one identity for another after racking up safety violations and flouting federal regulations. Investigation took place at truck stops in Florida and with sources in Europe. Focused on Super Ego Holding, a network of commercial trucking and leasing companies based in Serbia and the US. Currently under federal investigation and named in a class action lawsuit. Regulators and former employees call it one of the most notorious chameleon schemes, a ticking time bomb on roadways.
Chameleon carriers are basically a network of companies and they constantly reincarnate. And the idea is we are revenue focused. We are going to start this trucking company. We are going to run it into the ground just make as much money as we possibly can.
Rob Carpenter, trucker for 25 years, now trucking safety consultant, tracks chameleon companies which surged since the pandemic. Chameleon carriers skirt federal regulations and escape bad safety records by changing company names to evade detection.
And when you move on to the next, you're really doing that to try to abandon the history that you've created with that other trucking company because you've run so poorly in the past year, right? So then you just adopt a new identity and you move on to a new carrier. Just dissolve that company and completely put a new name on the truck and move on.
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