A trucking fraud expert says that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is not doing enough to combat the fake addresses being used to hide companies. 

Dale Prax, owner of Freight Validate, a company that tracks fraud and identity theft in the trucking industry, says that many alleged trucking companies are using fraudulent addresses to conduct their businesses, which can help to shield them from federal inspectors. 

Prax says carriers that wish to keep themselves hidden may use virtual addresses or PO boxes to make it harder for regulators to track them. Some examples include an office building in Signal Hill, California listed as an address for almost 700 trucking companies. 500 of those companies list the same phone number, and also the same email address – WTFFMCSA@aol.

Prax says he reported the location frequently used as fake addresses for trucking companies to the FMCSA two years ago, but nothing has changed, reported ABC 8.

The FMCSA responded that it was “familiar with complaints related to the Signal Hill… address,” and that “the Agency has confirmed that the address is a legitimate business address for a motor carrier consultant who represents many small motor carriers based in California.” 

However, in a warning letter sent to those companies, the FMCSA also stated that  “a P.O. Box, private mailbox, virtual work center or other location with no legal or functional relationship to the applicant’s business will not be accepted” as a valid address for a carrier. 

“If we all know about it, and we reported it, why is something not being done?” Prax said. 

Another building near Dallas, Texas serves as another example of these fraudulent addresses. 20 different trucking companies use an address on West Commerce Street on their federal forms. The address actually belongs to a virtual mailbox service known as PhysicalAddress.com

“We are a mail service, and that’s all that we do… is just handle mail,” said a worker at the West Commerce Street address. “They would not be working here physically.”

Prax says that his business has been tracking a surge in carriers registering with PO boxes and virtual addresses since 2023. 

“It’s a red flag,” he said.