For years, the trucking industry has struggled to pin down its craftiest chameleons — carriers that shed troubled identities, reappear under new ones and keep rolling despite safety or regulatory concerns.
Now, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are taking aim at the problem, with three bills targeting different points in the carrier registration and enforcement process.
Both the House and Senate have introduced versions of the Safety and Accountability in Freight Enforcement Act (H.R.7539 and S.5150). Both pieces of legislation, dubbed the SAFE Act, focus heavily on detection and prevention, directing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to develop advanced screening capabilities to identify suspicious registration applications before operators can return under a new identity.
The Registration Enforcement for Vehicle Operations of Known Evaders Act (H.R.10237, better known as the REVOKE Act) focuses more directly on registration and enforcement, requiring carriers subject to federal registration requirements to have an active U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) number. The legislation would also strengthen the FMCSA’s authority to inactivate registrations that fail to meet federal requirements.
Taken together, the proposals would strengthen FMCSA’s ability to identify connections among related operations, flag potentially problematic applications for review and act against carriers that fail to maintain valid federal registration.
David Heller, senior vice president of safety and government affairs for the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA), said the measures address different weaknesses in the existing system.
“The REVOKE Act would provide the FMCSA with stronger authority to ensure that only carriers with active and valid USDOT registrations operate on the nation’s roadways,” he said. “By requiring an active USDOT number, clarifying registration requirements and authorizing the immediate inactivation of registrations that fail to meet federal standards, the legislation closes critical loopholes that have allowed unsafe operators to remain in business.”
The SAFE Act, he said, addresses the issue from another direction.
“Similarly, the SAFE Act would strengthen enforcement efforts by directing FMCSA to better understand the scope of the chameleon carrier problem and develop advanced tools to detect suspicious registration applications before unsafe operators can return to service under a new identity,” he said.
SAFE Act: Detecting connections before registration
The SAFE Act would require the FMCSA to develop, test and implement an advanced automation tool designed to identify characteristics indicating “substantial continuity” between an applicant and an existing or former operation.
Rather than relying on a single identifier, the system would search for combinations of connections that could indicate an applicant is associated with another operation.
Among the factors the FMCSA could examine are:
- Common ownership and management;
- Addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses;
- Vehicles and other equipment;
- Drivers and employees;
- Company facilities;
- Insurance coverage;
- Previous USDOT numbers; and
- The dates companies began or ceased operations.
The system could also identify lapses in insurance coverage and other patterns associated with attempts to avoid previous regulatory or financial consequences.
Importantly, the SAFE Act would not allow an automated system to make the final call. Applications flagged by the tool would be subject to further review by FMCSA personnel, and applicants denied registration based on information identified through the system would have an appeals process.
The legislation also calls for greater information sharing among federal and state agencies, potentially giving regulators a broader picture of relationships among applicants and previously registered entities.
“Enhanced screening and data analysis capabilities will help regulators identify bad actors earlier, improve enforcement effectiveness and prevent safety risks before they reach the road,” Heller said.
Measuring the problem
The SAFE Act includes another component: determining how widespread chameleon-carrier activity actually is.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined the issue back in 2012 but said the FMCSA did not know the total number of chameleon carriers operating in the U.S.
The SAFE Act would put the GAO back on the job, requiring a new study of the prevalence and characteristics of chameleon carriers and how the problem has evolved since that report.
Among other things, the GAO would examine fatalities, serious injuries and property damage associated with chameleon carriers; changes in the methods used to evade enforcement; and shortcomings in federal monitoring and enforcement.
That updated assessment could be particularly important because much of the frequently cited federal data on chameleon carriers is now more than a decade old.
REVOKE Act: Strengthening registration enforcement
Where SAFE emphasizes finding connections before a new registration is approved, the REVOKE Act addresses whether an operator is legally entitled to continue operating under its current registration number.
The legislation would amend federal law to explicitly prohibit operations requiring federal registration unless the employer or person conducting those operations has an active USDOT number.
It would also require the USDOT to issue an active number only after determining that an applicant has met federal registration requirements. A USDOT number could be immediately inactivated if the holder does not have valid registration or fails to submit required periodic updates.
For TCA, that distinction is significant.
Heller said the REVOKE Act would give FMCSA “stronger authority to ensure that only carriers with active and valid USDOT registrations operate on the nation’s roadways.”
In effect, the SAFE Act attempts to make it harder for an operator to evade its record of violations when seeking a new identity, while the REVOKE Act strengthens the government’s ability to enforce the validity of the registration an operator is already using.
Different tools, common objective
TCA views the bills as complementary rather than competing approaches.
“Taken together, these bipartisan measures will enhance motor carrier accountability, improve the integrity of the federal registration system and promote safer highways for truck drivers and the motoring public alike,” Heller said.
He emphasized that the measures are aimed at a relatively small portion of the industry.
“The REVOKE Act and SAFE Act target a small group of repeat offenders whose actions jeopardize public safety and tarnish the reputation of the broader trucking industry,” he said.
Heller also pointed to FMCSA’s recent enforcement efforts as evidence that the legislation comes at an opportune time.
“The reality is that FMCSA and its recent enforcement blitz make these bills ideal for the current state of FMCSA,” he said. “Our industry cannot simply fall backwards into the world that we once operated in, by allowing the unscrupulous actors of our industry to continue to operate, but rather provide the agency the essential tools and resources to continue the positive momentum that FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs and his team have enacted across the country.”
Editor’s note: As of October 2026, all three measures remain pending before congressional committees and have not yet been enacted.
This article first appeared in the November/December 2026 print edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.
Linda Garner-Bunch has been with The Trucker since 2020, picking up the reins as managing editor in 2022. Linda has nearly 40 years of experience in the publishing industry, covering topics from the trucking and automotive industry to employment, real estate, home decor, crafts, cooking, weddings, high school sports — you name it, she’s written about it. She is also an experienced photographer, designer and copy editor who has a heartfelt love for the trucking industry, from the driver’s seat to the C-suite.
