"Ghosting” Your US DOT Number: What it Means

“Ghosting” is a term the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assigned to a form of national security vulnerability in the days after 9-11. It involved drug cartels badging up trucks and trailers to mimic those of large national trucking companies in order to move their product throughout the U.S. DHS’s concern was always how this vulnerability could be used by terrorist organizations to move freely about the U.S. interior.

DHS’s fear wasn’t irrational, in training for officers at the Transportation Security Operation Center originally located near Washington Dulles International Airport, the January 2001 suicide truck attack on the Capitol building in Sacramento causing $19 million in damage weighed heavy on the minds of security officials in Washington. The damage caused at the Sacramento Capitol from a tractor-trailer exemplified why trucks were banned from using U.S. 93 and crossing right on top of Hoover Dam as many of us used to do when running between Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The reason I bring this “old news” up now is because in the past two months I’ve had to assist two members who had their DOT numbers “ghosted.” They only became aware of this when they were notified by their insurance companies of getting cancelled because of horrible roadside inspections associated with their U.S. DOT numbers that were not theirs.

“Ghosted” Motor Carriers

One carrier had a single inspection where it looked like every violation possible was written up, including having no company identifier on the vehicle (legal name and U.S. DOT number). The other was a single truck company based in Phoenix that only transports exotic cars, but had over 100 inspections get tagged to his DOT number over the course of a couple of months.

In viewing the inspections, out-of-service violations noted on all the inspections were two times (on vehicle) to four times (on driver) worse than the national averages. In the case of the single bogus inspection, I assisted our member with a DATA Q challenge that went back to Texas DPS to try and get the inspection removed. I have had little luck in the past getting these inspections removed because the lead agency always asks for proof the truck was never leased or owned by the company, which is hard to do. It’s like being asked to prove a negative. In this particular instance I included his insurance declaration page showing just one truck insured and his ELD records for the time surrounding the inspection showing he was not ever in Texas.

Texas DPS did the right thing and removed the inspection, saving our member at the time of his insurance renewal. The other case was a nightmare. As quickly as an inspection was DATA Q’d and got removed, 10 more new ones popped up!

Temporary Resolution of Issue

The week of September 8-12, 2024 I attended the annual conference of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) where law enforcement officials from throughout North America are present including feds from U.S. DOT.

I tried discussing the issue with various state law enforcement agencies, especially in Region IV (western U.S.) and was taken aback by the stubbornness in refusing to recognize there is a problem at roadside and inspectors are not (in my view) doing enough to validate a truck is actually running legit under the correct U.S. DOT number. This can be done with the vehicle registration.

As I am seeing in California, especially with owner-operators that converted from a sole-proprietorship to an entity (LLC or Corp.), they often leave their truck in their personal name (to avoid sales tax issues or because there is a loan on the vehicle), but neglect to include a rental/lease agreement between themselves and their own motor carrier identity. This is the only way to show the motor carrier has legal possession of the vehicle being operated. It’s identical to getting a Penske truck for short- or long-term use, you’ll have paperwork giving you legal possession of the vehicle. CHP has been dinging people for not having documentation showing the motor carrier has legal possession.

Yes, all documents can be fraudulently created by photo shopping them, but I strongly suspect too many of those “ghosting” a carrier’s identity are not savvy enough to cover all their bases. At any rate, many officers agreed this was a crime but didn’t seem willing to take a proactive stand. While dealing with two instances on my part may not indicate a growing national problem, I was not the only motor carrier representative at the conference discussing this issue. It’s clearly a budding new issue for the industry that has seen more than its share of problems to deal with.

My final attempt was to meet with the top federal official from FMCSA who is the Director of the Office of Registration. When I showed him the carrier profile in their data system, he agreed with me that more can be done at roadside in identifying this fraud. That said, he immediately emailed others in Washington D.C. and they contacted the company owner. The only way they could see in resolving this issue immediately was to issue a new DOT number and federal MC number by-passing the 10-day protest period for new operating authorities. This was the only viable solution since they could not stop all the adverse inspections getting reported under the DOT number. They needed to shut down the DOT number so officers at roadside could place vehicles operating under the DOT number minimally out-of-service or even impound the vehicles.

How is this Happening?

While a lot is not known at this time, I suspect there is linkage between this issue and both broker fraud and the incessant “dispatch service” phone calls many get. As part of a motor carrier getting qualified to haul for a broker, or contract with a dispatch service, they require all sorts of documentation, from operating authority certificates, insurance, etc., all documents needed to facilitate this type of fraud. However, I have seen in simply California only operations the same type of fraud. Phony motor carrier permits and CARB certificates, it’s quite easy to do these days.

Both motor carriers have used load boards to get work and as part of getting qualified to haul for any broker, even if they actually never haul a single shipment, the broker has base documentation from them.

While attending the CVSA conference I did have some officers acknowledge privately to me, they are seeing this issue predominately in the “hot-shot” segment of the industry. That is people with pick-up trucks and gooseneck trailers who apparently at random note a carrier’s legal name and DOT number and place it on their own vehicle in order to haul loads. One of the members I assisted does operate as a “hot-shot,” the one with over 100 bogus inspections operates a tractor-trailer.

There is also the possibility that “human trafficking” plays a role in what is happening. The drivers themselves quite possibly are being forced to operate in this manor to “pay back” the cost of getting them into the U.S. by multi-national cartels (DHS are you listening?). This speculation was stated to me by an ex-CHP inspector, and if accurate, without some major federal intervention this problem for motor carriers isn’t going away anytime soon.

Be Proactive

Monitor your U.S. DOT number, it’s easy to do. Just Google on “FMCSA SAFER” and you’ll be able to enter your DOT number and have your public profile pop up. Scroll down to “Inspections/Crashes.” 24 months’ worth of roadside inspection data will show (in the case of California based motor carrier, terminal inspections on your vehicles are uploaded).

You can go to the upper right of the page and click on “SMS Results” to perform a deeper dive into any inspections showing up. However, because of all the fraud happening inside DOT data system, you can no longer just simply enter your U.S. DOT PIN to see the most detailed information on each inspection which will also identify the driver. You must access through your FMCSA portal account which also requires a multi-step authentication process to access.

Should you see an inspection or inspections that are not yours, you’ll need to attempt the DATA Q process to get them eliminated. That also involves being able to access your FMCSA portal account.