Chameleon Carriers Getting Away With It… Again
PaulChristenson
Reg. Jan 2007
Posted 2012-09-07 10:22 AM (#146888)
Subject: Chameleon Carriers Getting Away With It… Again


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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration makes it common practice to shut down unsafe carriers, keeping both drivers and the general public safe. Recently however, these same carriers have been re-opening their doors – sometimes in as little as a few weeks – under a new name and pulling all the same tricks. These “Chameleon Carriers” often run with the same drivers, the same dangerous equipment, and the same dubious business practices because there’s no system in place to stop them from doing so over and over again.

A mere two months after the FMCSA ordered the closure of Lebanon, TN based Three Angels Farms because of flagrant safety violations, the agency was issuing another notice to Terri’s Farm under charges that it was operating as a chameleon carrier.

The FMCSA issued a press release saying Terri’s Farm of Murfreesboro, TN, was ordered to shut down because the company was “operating the same vehicles, and maintaining the same operational and safety management structure as former horse transporter, Three Angels Farms.” Three Angels Farms was owned by Edwin Ayache and Dorian Ayache.
The horse transport company was originally shut down because of two separate accidents which caused the deaths of four horses. Upon further investigation of those accidents, the FMCSA stated that not a single one of the companies drivers were “qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle.”

Thankfully, Terri’s Farm was shut down before any other serious accidents could occur, but chameleon carriers can go for much longer without being caught, often with serious consequences. If the FMCSA is so concerned with safety, shouldn’t they be doing more to prevent this? Or does the fault lie elsewhere?

Source: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/news/news-releases/2012/Three-Angels...
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retento
Reg. Aug 2004
Posted 2012-09-07 11:46 AM (#146890 - in reply to #146888)
Subject: RE: Chameleon Carriers Getting Away With It… Again


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Location: Rocky Mount N.C.

They been in the news for a while.... I guess they were hauling all the cull TWH's to Mexico..

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -

A Channel 4 News investigation has found that the owner of a Lebanon company shut down for trucking violations is actively involved in a company that opened a few weeks later.

That new company, Terri's Farms, is driving the same equipment and hauling the same cargo - horses bound for slaughter in Mexico.

Three Angels Farms was shut down by the federal government on June 29 after two interstate mishaps involving trailers loaded with horses.

In January a driver, who said he'd fallen asleep, rolled a trailer full of horses in Williamson County. Six months later, another trucker from the same company was driving on Interstate 440 when his horse trailer collapsed in the middle.

The federal government closed Three Angels Farms, deeming the company an imminent threat to public safety.

Documents obtained by the Channel 4 I-Team show Three Angels owner, Dorian Ayache, was in the driver's seat of a livestock truck that was stopped for violations in Knoxville three weeks after Three Angels was closed. In that stop, Ayache was cited for equipment violations and given a warning for log book violations.

He was driving a truck under the company name Terri's Farms, a business in Murfreesboro, but Ayache was driving the same tractor and trailer that had been registered to Three Angels Farms.

Terri's Farms has only been in business since mid-July, yet its drivers have already been cited in four stops with a total of 22 violations. The violations include allegations of false log books, driving too many hours and operating defective equipment.

Paperwork from one of the stops further links Ayache to the new company. In one Arkansas stop, Ayache is listed as the shipper.

Officials with the Tennessee Department of Safety declined to comment specifically on its investigation into Ayache, but they spoke in general terms about "chameleon carriers" - the name for companies that are shut down for bad acts and then reopen under a new name.

Trooper Allen England said that state and federal officials work together to identify "chameleon carriers" and shut them down. Investigators track vehicle VIN numbers, owner and employee names and equipment, as they try to determine if an owner is merely trying to disguise his bad history by closing and reopening under a new name.

England said there are valid cases where a new owner buys out an old company, upgrades the equipment and implements a good safety program. In that case, the company is not a chameleon.

But public safety is jeopardized, he said, when an owner shuts down one bad company then starts another bad company.

Channel 4 News attempted to contact Ayache, but he has not returned our messages.

 

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