Through an investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office, the organization found that 20 motor coach companies and 1,073 trucking companies that had been fined and ordered out of service were actually driving
, using deceptive information to register.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration asked the GAO to conduct the investigation into new FMCSA entrants in fiscal years 2007 and 2008 to find out if suspended carriers had reincarnated. These companies used bogus information to identify themselves, including company name, owner/officer name, address, phone number, cell phone number, fax number, vehicle identification number, and driver names.

The study was also prompted by safety concerns, posed by the fact that about 300 fatalities and bus crashes occurred in the U.S. during 2008. A bus crash that occurred on August 8, 2008, killed 17 people and injured 15 others. The carrier that operated the bus was one of these reincarnated companies that had been deemed unsafe.

According to FMCSA data, five out of 20 of those motor coach companies were still in operation as of May 2009, while 500 trucking companies were still on the road as of June 2009. These active truck carriers were referred to the FMCSA for further investigation.

The GAO pointed to violations in at least nine states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, New York and Washington.

The Department of Transportation responded by saying that there are legitimate reasons for motor coach carriers to transfer ownership or reincorporate, or both, such as divorce, death, relocation, or new business opportunities. On June 24, 2009, the Highways and Transit Subcommittee of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives passed legislation that would authorize FMCSA to deny or revoke operating authority from a carrier who failed to disclose a relationship with a prior carrier.