A chameleon carrier is a motor carrier that closes one operating authority — usually after accumulating crashes, audits, or safety violations — and reopens under a new USDOT number with substantially the same trucks, drivers, and operations. The CSA history resets, the audit history starts over, and the insurance underwriting starts fresh. FMCSA calls this pattern a reincarnated carrier. The Performance and Registration Information Systems Management (PRISM) program was designed to detect and disrupt reincarnation by requiring states to validate USDOT information against the FMCSA database. States at the Full Participation or Enhanced Participation level of PRISM provide the strongest reincarnation detection by cross-referencing officers, addresses, and fleet composition.