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GAO Targets 'Reincarnated' Motor Carriers
Unsafe companies evade FMCSA shut down orders by changing names, report says
At least 500 and perhaps more than 1,000 trucking companies shut down by the government for violating safety rules may still be operating under new names, say federal investigators.
The federal Government Accountability Office is taking aim at “reincarnated” motor carriers —bus operators and trucking companies that flout government orders to shut down by going out of business and then starting up again with a new name.
Congress last year demanded an investigation when a carrier that operated a bus involved in a fatal Texas accident was found to be a “reincarnation” of a company ordered out of service by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration two months earlier.
The motor coach operator had simply registered with the FMCSA using a new name, but the same physical and mailing address. At the time of the crash, the carrier had not yet received its new operating authority from the FMCSA.
GAO investigated 220 motor coach companies shut down by the FMCSA in 2007 and 2008 and found that 20 bus operators resumed business under new names.
It also identified a potential 1,073 other carriers including commercial truckers that may have been “reincarnated” companies. At least 500 of those motor carriers were still operating as recently as June. The GAO asked FMCSA to investigate those companies.
Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.
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