As truck traffic skyrockets, the government and industry haven’t been able to stop thousands of so-called “chameleon carriers.” The consequences can be deadly.
Steve Reilly, Michael Kaplan, John Kelly, Jim Axelrod and Callie Teitelbaum
The warning signs came long before a tractor-trailer skidded across the median of I-75 in Ohio and struck a pickup and an SUV on Christmas Eve morning in 2022, killing four members of the same family, one of whom was pregnant.
The truck was operated by BLF Truck Transportation.
BLF, the shipper contracted to carry a load of flowers, was formerly known as JAJ Trucking. Before that, it operated as JDA Transportation. And before that, it went by ADA Logistics.
Each company was flagged by federal regulators following safety concerns – only for its trucks to return to the road under a new name.
Trucking operators that evade regulators by changing their names and registration information are so common they have a name: “chameleon carriers.” The deadly shell game on America’s highways has a track record of devastation that has persisted for decades despite repeated promises of government crackdowns.
A CBS News analysis of millions of U.S. Department of Transportation data records has found:
- The federal government approved more than 10,000 new trucking companies over the last five years run by the same officers or relatives, operating at the same facilities or using the same trucks as defunct companies with serious safety records. That’s just one of every 100 new applicants since 2021.
- Those reconstituted carriers were four times more likely to be involved in severe crashes as companies that were not reincarnated. At least 141 people died in crashes with them over the last five years. Another 1,800 people were injured.
- Thousands of these cases were brazen – with the same person registering a new company at the same address. Others used post office boxes, mail drops and even hotel addresses instead of the physical address required by federal regulations.
- Hundreds faked identifying information. One agent registered more than 100 new companies using wtffmcsa@hotmail.com – a non-working email address mocking the oversight agency, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or FMCSA.
The red flags CBS News uncovered are familiar to federal regulators — many come from a checklist the agency says it has used for more than a decade to catch reincarnating carriers.
The analysis shows regulators regularly miss warning signs about suspect carriers in their own data.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged long-running problems with chameleon carriers in an interview with CBS News.
“It’s been decades. People haven’t focused on trucking,” Duffy said. “And we’ve seen this corruption and rot billow up. And we’re focused to say, you know what, we’re going to make trucking great again, safe again.”
“This was destruction”
On the morning of Dec. 24, 2022, a family caravaned from Detroit to spend Christmas at a large gathering near Cincinnati. The two vehicles included newlyweds Jeremy and Karen Boehne, along with Karen’s sister Lauren Hahn and her mother Kimberly Siegrist. Karen Boehne was six months pregnant.
Then the family in Cincinnati stopped hearing updates from the caravan.
Four family members who died in the 2022 Christmas Eve crash in Ohio. From left to right: Lauren Hahn, Jeremy Boehne, Karen Boehne and Kimberly Siegrist. The unborn son of the Boehnes was also killed in the crash. Provided by Dave Hahn
“I kept calling my dad and saying, ‘Where are they? Where are they?” Amy Ross said.
“And we were watching on TV that the highway in Ohio was closed and it turned out to be seven hours,” Dave Hahn said. “We were watching it and I said, oh my God, what if that’s our kids?”
Finally, their worst fears were confirmed. “The police said, they’re all gone,” Amy Ross recalled. “And there was nowhere to go. There was no hospitals to go visit them at. They were just gone.”
“We went from planning baby showers to funerals,” Hahn said.
Amy Ross, whose sisters and mother were killed, said the magnitude of the devastation began to sink in when she went to pick up the luggage recovered by authorities – and the Christmas presents that Jeremy and Karen had wrapped.
We went from planning baby showers to funerals
-Dave Hahn, family of victims killed in Christmas Eve 2022 crash.
“My daughter got a doll and we had to pick the glass out of the doll’s hair and the motor oil and the smell was terrible,” Ross said. “And that’s kind of when I realized this is bigger than I thought. This is more than just a little car accident. This was destruction.”
“Open up another one”
The family caravan shared the road that morning with a semi-truck driven by Dayren Rocubert, who had dropped off a load of flowers at an Ohio Walmart and was on his way to pick up another load in Indiana.
Both shipments were contracted to BLF Truck Transportation through C.H. Robinson, the nation’s largest freight broker, a Fortune 500 company. A toxicology report would later show cocaine and methamphetamines in Rocubert’s system.
Dayren Rocubert’s toxicology report showed elevated levels of cocaine and methamphetamines in his system. Ohio State Highway Patrol Crime Laboratory
In a videotaped deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by the Boehne and Hahn families, Alexander Delgado of BLF claimed his contact at C.H. Robinson advised him to create the new company after the federal government shut down its predecessor, JAJ Trucking, over safety concerns.
“I knew the company was going to be shut down, and I told him it was going to be closed,” Delgado testified. “And he just said, ‘Open up another one.'”
The new company he created – BLF – received operating authority from the FMCSA in August 2022. Soon after, the company began hauling loads arranged by C.H. Robinson again. Sometimes, BLF subcontracted loads to other haulers, like the Christmas Eve shipment.
In a statement, C.H. Robinson said BLF “deceived C.H. Robinson by double brokering a load, which is a violation of federal law and our carrier agreements.”
In response to Delgado’s testimony that he was said he was coached to open a new company when his previous company had safety concerns, C.H. Robinson said the allegation “comes from a carrier owner whose credibility is in question.”
“We are taking all necessary steps to investigate,” the company told CBS News. “Any employee who encourages a carrier to obscure or circumvent federal safety regulations is in clear and direct violation of our policies and principles and would be immediately terminated for violating company policy.”
An internal C.H. Robinson performance review of its representative who worked with Delgado indicates the broker pushed to increase shipments.
“It seems as though our volume goes in waves where we see an increase and then we see a dip,” the document states. “We need to get into a spot where we are seeing consistent growth quarter over quarter.”
In written response to CBS News, C.H. Robinson said employees “are compensated across multiple metrics, including volume of shipments. Any suggestion that employees are only evaluated based on the volume of loads brokered is patently false.”
In a court filing, lawyers for the victims’ families agreed to voluntarily dismiss Walmart from the lawsuit and any claims related to the crash.
The aftermath of the 2022 Christmas Eve crash. The semi-truck (left) crossed the median of I-75 in Ohio and slammed into an SUV (right) and a pickup (far left) killing five members of the same family, including an unborn child. Ohio State Highway Patrol
CH Robinson: Feds should police safety
In the past decade C.H. Robinson worked with thousands of trucking companies that had a history of documented safety issues, according to CBS News’ review of inspection and other records the Transportation Department publishes online and updates daily. Dozens of the carriers exhibit indicators of being chameleon carriers.
C.H. Robinson says its critics – among them lawyers suing the firm on behalf of those injured or killed in truck crashes – fundamentally misunderstand its role in the nation’s shipping regime. As a freight broker, the company says it acts only as an intermediary between shippers wishing to transport cargo and licensed motor carriers willing to accept the engagements. C.H. Robinson says the company does not supervise carriers or employ drivers.
The company says the federal government is responsible for identifying which carriers are safe and cracking down on those that are not.
“Only the FMCSA has the authority, data, expertise and access to confidential driver records to determine whether the hundreds of thousands of independent trucking companies in this country are fit to operate,” C.H. Robinson spokesman Duncan Burns said in an email.
The company added in a statement that it “selects carriers only from this government-approved list, which is updated daily in our system.”
After our report was published, C.H. Robinson released an additional statement on their website saying safety was “foundational” to how the company operates.
Burns would not say what the company does internally to check carriers’ safety records. Last month, an employee at the C.H. Robinson booth at the nation’s largest trucking show in Louisville, Kentucky spoke about the requirements to haul for the company.
The company representative said all that’s necessary to start hauling for them is federal authorization, which requires proof of minimal insurance and paying a $300 fee online. The company also requires drivers to verify their identity through a third-party app.
After that, the representative said, “You’re good to go.” He said the company does not require any additional safety review and rewards drivers for on-time deliveries by assigning them more loads.
“For us, it’s not just about safety score. It’s about on-time delivery,” the representative said. “That’s where you start getting more loads.”
C.H. Robinson has been named a defendant in at least two dozen lawsuits over the past decade alleging it bears liability for injuries involving loads it brokered. Some claims have been dismissed or settled out of court, while others are ongoing.
Among the cases is a lawsuit filed by the family of Dalilah Coleman, a 7-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain damage after being struck by a tractor-trailer in California in 2024.
7-year-old Dalilah Coleman, who suffered permanent brain damage after she was struck by a semi-truck in California in 2024, is held by her father Marcus Coleman as they are recognized by President Trump during the State of the Union address in Washington, DC, in February. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
In his 2026 State of the Union address, President Trump featured Coleman and a bill named after her – Dalilah’s Law – that would prevent undocumented immigrants from driving commercial trucks.
The government says an undocumented immigrant from India was behind the wheel of the truck that struck the Colemans. But the lawsuit filed by Coleman’s family alleges a broader set of issues was at play, including what they allege was C.H. Robinson’s “fail[ure] to perform an in-depth safety review.”
Excerpts from the lawsuit by the Colemans against C.H. Robinson, alleging the broker “failed to perform an in-depth safety review.” Coleman v. State of California, Superior Court of San Bernardino
“They’re the ones that are liable at the end of the day,” said Marcus Coleman, Dalilah’s father. “Trust me, I’m upset with the driver. I’m upset with the carrier, but if we don’t go after the broker, this is gonna continue happening.”
C.H. Robinson is fighting the Colemans’ lawsuit. The company said the circumstances were similar to the Ohio case, where a load was subcontracted to another operator without the company’s knowledge.
“What we want to be very clear about is that we did not engage the carrier involved in the crash that hurt Dalilah,” the company said in a statement. “The vast majority of shipments we arrange move safely,” the company added. “But even one accident is one too many.”
“Our deepest sympathies go out to all the families affected by these accidents,” the company said.
I’m upset with the driver. I’m upset with the carrier, but if we don’t go after the broker, this is gonna continue happening.
-Marcus Coleman, Dalilah’s father.
Last month, lawyers for C.H Robinson were at the Supreme Court arguing another case. It could determine whether the company should be immune from liability in truck accidents. A ruling is expected to come down later this spring.
During oral arguments, a lawyer for the Trump administration told the justices they were “aligned” with C.H. Robinson, putting them at odds with the family of the girl who inspired the President’s truck safety initiative. Should the justices rule in the company’s favor, it would be protected against claims like those made by the Colemans.
“We’d get absolutely nothing for Dalilah,” said Marcus Coleman. “She doesn’t gain anything at all.”
More trucks, fewer regulators
The phrase “chameleon carriers” entered the public consciousness after a 2008 church bus crash in Sherman, Texas, killed 17 people. The owner of the bus had been shut down by regulators in June 2008, but registered the new company in July – just before the crash in August.
Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate, leading to a 2012 audit concluding federal regulators could catch chameleon carriers by better screening its own data.
Through multiple presidential administrations, agency leaders heralded reforms they said would prevent dangerous truck and bus companies from reincarnating.
In 2014, the FMCSA finalized a rule “to shut down carriers based on patterns of safety violations.” In 2016, it touted a new algorithm to “begin screening all new applications…for reincarnated/chameleon behavior beginning in 2nd Quarter of FY2016.”
When news broke in December of 2025 that an agency official drafted a memo suggesting a new “data-driven severity matrix” to detect chameleons, it was greeted with a shrug by the trucking trade publication FreightWaves.
“More than a decade later, we’re reading memos that suggest federal regulators are still at the drawing board,” FreightWaves wrote.
While federal regulations require carriers to register at a real physical address, CBS News identified more than 30,000 carriers that gave the government fake or undeliverable addresses such as “NOMORE, GONE, GA.” Thousands listed invalid emails or phone numbers.
“We’ve got investigators that are going to be boots on the ground. We’re going to be addressing these issues,” FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs told CBS News.
The agency will be doing so with fewer people – even as the industry grows. Federal payroll data shows FMCSA has 1,020 workers, down 10% from 2015. Meanwhile, the number of active interstate carriers has increased 31% since 2015.
Deadly crashes involving chameleon carriers have continued. Last June, five people were killed when a tractor-trailer struck a family vehicle on I-20 outside Dallas. Public records reviewed by CBS News shows the company, Hope Trans LLC, bears signs it was a chameleon carrier.
In another case, prosecutors allege operator Shaquan Jelks of Houston started a new company – 4 Life Transportation – just months after a crash killed one of his drivers in February 2022.
“We got the new dot number 🤗,” an associate texted Jelks as they formed the new company, according to court records.
Jelks pleaded not guilty. His case is ongoing. Jelks’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The explosion of online shopping and a growing appetite for fast delivery has put more trucks on America’s highways than ever before – parcel shipments doubled from 2018 to 2021.The number of people killed in crashes with big rigs has also risen markedly since hitting a low about two decades ago.
“No accountability”
The families of the victims of the 2022 Christmas Eve crash in Ohio say their lives have been forever altered.
“There’s times I think he’s still gonna walk in the door,” Mary Boehne said.
“I hear a truck, a pickup truck going down the street and I think maybe it’s Jeremy,” David Boehne said.
But in the trucking industry, there are few signs of concrete change.
Delgado, of BLF Truck Transportation, said in his January deposition that he is now operating another trucking company, called NES Line Trucking Corp. An attorney for Delgado declined to make his client available for an interview.
Federal records show NES Line Trucking has been cited for more than 60 violations in inspections over the last two years – including a finding in a Pennsylvania inspection last October that a driver faked logs tracking how long he’d been driving. Inspectors ordered the vehicle off the road.
NES trucks have been spotted in at least 19 states, according to photographs and data provided to CBS News by GenLogs, a logistics intelligence company. According to federal inspection data and Delgado’s deposition NES continued to haul loads for C.H. Robinson throughout 2025.
NES Line Trucking Corp trucks were on the road in Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina Alabama this week, according to photos provided to CBS News by the logistics firm GenLogs. NES Line Trucking is a reincarnation of BLF Truck Transportation. GenLogs
At a C.H. Robinson distribution facility in Miami in February – where the truck involved in the Christmas Eve crash departed – CBS News spotted another carrier that bore signs of being a chameleon operator.
The truck had markings from a small company with a record of two recent crashes and more than 50 inspection violations since 2022. It shares an officer and a Weslaco, Texas, location with another safety-troubled operation. On a Wednesday morning at rush hour, the truck eased out of a loading dock and headed for the Interstate.
