CHAMELEON CARRIERS
When a trucking company accumulates serious safety violations — crashes, failed inspections, hours-of-service violations — it risks being shut down by the FMCSA. Some operators respond by dissolving the company and reincorporating under a new name, new DOT number, and sometimes a new owner of record. They carry the same trucks, the same drivers, and the same unsafe practices, but start with a clean safety record.
This is not a gray area. Using multiple DOT numbers to evade a negative compliance history is unlawful under federal law. Yet it has been widespread and difficult to detect — until now.
In February 2026, the FMCSA announced plans to strengthen enforcement against chameleon carriers, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stating these bad actors have caused deadly accidents. CoopCheck was built to support that effort with public data.
WHERE THE DATA COMES FROM
CoopCheck is built on the FMCSA CENSUS1 dataset — the federal government's official registry of all active and inactive motor carriers operating in the United States. This dataset is updated monthly by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and is public record.
Our current dataset covers over 2.6 million carrier registrations from the April 2026 FMCSA release, refreshed monthly. Each record includes the carrier's legal name, DBA name, physical address, phone number, DOT number, fleet size, and operational status.
Safety history data — crashes, inspections, and violations — is sourced from the FMCSA SMS (Safety Measurement System) input files, also updated monthly. When a carrier is not yet in our snapshot database, CoopCheck falls back to a live FMCSA API lookup to surface real-time data.
Cluster analysis is performed against this dataset using shared contact information — phone numbers and physical addresses — as the primary signals of related carrier activity.
HOW WE DETECT CLUSTERS
CoopCheck identifies carrier clusters — groups of two or more registered carriers that share the same phone number or physical address. This shared-contact methodology is the same signal the FMCSA's own registration system uses to flag potential chameleon activity, but we surface it publicly and in real time.
A cluster does not prove fraud. Legitimate businesses can share addresses (office buildings, freight terminals) or phone numbers (brokerages, fleet management companies). What a cluster does is flag a pattern worthy of closer scrutiny — especially when combined with inactive DOT status, high carrier counts at a single address, or a history of safety violations.
Risk levels are assigned based on the number of carriers sharing a contact point:
| Risk Level | Signal | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| CRITICAL | 10+ carriers sharing a phone or address | Unusually high concentration. Warrants immediate review by investigators. |
| HIGH | 5–9 carriers | Elevated pattern. May indicate serial reincorporation or shared management. |
| MEDIUM | 2–4 carriers | Worth noting. Could be legitimate or could indicate early-stage reincorporation. |
| CLEAR | No cluster detected | No shared contact signals found. Does not mean the carrier is safe — only that this pattern was not detected. |
THE COMPOSITE SAFETY SCORE
Each carrier in our database receives a Chameleon Score — a composite 0–100 number that combines cluster risk with real FMCSA safety history. Higher scores mean higher risk. The score produces a letter grade (A through F) shown in search results and the carrier detail panel.
The score is calculated from five weighted sub-scores:
| Component | Weight | How it's calculated |
|---|---|---|
| Cluster Risk | 30% | CRITICAL=100, HIGH=70, MEDIUM=40, CLEAR=0 |
| Fatality Score | 25% | Total fatalities × 35, capped at 100 |
| Crash Score | 20% | Total crashes × 15, capped at 100 |
| OOS Rate | 15% | Out-of-service rate across all inspections × 100 |
| Inspection Score | 10% | Basic violations per inspection × 20, capped at 100 |
Grades are assigned as follows: A (0–15), B (16–22), C (23–50), D (51–70), F (71–100).
Carriers with no crash or inspection records and no cluster signal receive a PASS — a green stamp indicating no safety incidents on file. This is distinct from a scored grade: PASS means clean record, not merely low risk. If a carrier is currently Out of Service despite a clean history, a regulatory warning is shown alongside the PASS to ensure users have full context before making any decision.
WHEN A CARRIER ISN'T IN OUR DATABASE
Our snapshot covers millions of carriers, but not every registered carrier will appear in search results. When a search returns no database matches, CoopCheck automatically queries the FMCSA live API to surface real-time carrier data.
Live results show the same safety score, PASS stamp, fleet size, and operational status as database results — computed on the fly from FMCSA's current data. CoopCheck also cross-references each live carrier's phone number against our cluster database in real time, so cluster tags appear on live results where a match is found. The safety score, however, is based on crash and inspection history only — the full Chameleon Score (which weights cluster risk at 30%) requires a complete database record.
Clicking any live result opens a full detail panel with address, fleet, operational status, cluster alert if applicable, and a direct link to the carrier's FMCSA safety record for deeper due diligence.
AUTHORIZED VS. NOT AUTHORIZED
Every carrier result displays an authorization badge — a distinct signal separate from the safety score that tells you whether the carrier is currently permitted to operate.
| Badge | What it means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ AUTHORIZED | Carrier is active and allowed to operate per FMCSA records. | Safe to proceed — verify full record at FMCSA for final due diligence. |
| PASS + OOS | Clean safety history but operating authority is revoked or suspended. Common cause: lapsed insurance, administrative non-compliance. | Do not book. Legal exposure for engaging an unauthorized carrier regardless of safety record. |
| ✕ NOT AUTHORIZED | Carrier has active safety violations or regulatory action and is out of service. | Do not engage. Carrier is prohibited from operating under federal law. |
Authorization status is sourced directly from the FMCSA live API in real time. For carriers in our snapshot database, click Verify Auth ↗ in the detail panel to confirm current status at FMCSA, as authorization can change between our monthly data refreshes.
CONNECTING LIVE RESULTS TO CLUSTERS
When a carrier appears via live FMCSA lookup rather than our database, CoopCheck now cross-references the carrier's phone number against our chameleon cluster database in real time. If a match is found, the carrier's result row shows a cluster tag — even though the carrier itself is not yet in our snapshot.
This means a carrier can show PASS + In Cluster simultaneously. That combination is significant: it indicates a carrier with no individual safety history that shares contact information with a high-concentration cluster. This is precisely the chameleon pattern — a new or reincorporated entity at a flagged address with no safety history yet.
For brokers and insurers, this combination warrants additional due diligence even when the individual safety score is clean. The cluster context is the risk signal, not the score alone.
WHAT COOPCHECK IS NOT
CoopCheck flags patterns. It does not make legal determinations. A CRITICAL risk rating means a carrier shares contact information with many others — not that it has been found guilty of fraud, safety violations, or any wrongdoing.
A CLEAR rating does not mean a carrier is safe to hire or work with. It means our detection method found no cluster signal. Chameleon operators who change both address and phone number will not appear in our clusters.
Our dataset reflects FMCSA registration data and is only as accurate as that source. Carriers may have updated contact information that has not yet propagated to the federal registry.
CoopCheck is intended as a research and investigation tool, not as the sole basis for any legal, hiring, or contracting decision.
INDUSTRY COVERAGE
The chameleon carrier problem has received growing attention from regulators, journalists, and the freight industry. Below are key resources for understanding the issue.