STAFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA — Federal regulators ordered the permanent shutdown of Pandora Travel Inc. in 2017 after determining the company engaged in a pattern of avoiding or concealing regulatory noncompliance. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had accused the company of continuing serious violations and non-compliance with safety regulations in a 2014 statement.
Pandora Travel was cited in January 2014 following a rollover crash on Interstate 80 in New Jersey. Seven people sustained injuries in the incident, which occurred in heavy snow. Regulatory filings document that officials with the agency visited Pandora Travel's Lawrence, Massachusetts, headquarters in 2014, finding only an empty desk, a vacuum cleaner, and no staff or business paperwork.
The company's drivers demonstrated patterns of unsafe driving practices, according to regulatory records. One driver accumulated 23 speeding and moving violations. The agency's inspection records state that GPS data showed four Pandora Travel drivers exceeded posted speed limits by 10 mph or more on over 50 of 135 days reviewed. An inspector with the agency said, "Pandora Travel Inc failed to monitor drivers and take corrective action to deter unsafe driving practices."
Regulators reached a settlement agreement with Pandora Travel in 2014, which allowed the company to continue operating under specific conditions. Rob Carpenter, a safety consultant, said, "When a company gets to disappear and come back as a stranger, every bad brake and unqualified driver disappears right along with it until a wreck on the interstate drags it all back into the daylight." He added, "It is about hiding who you are."
In the transportation industry, carriers that evade federal safety scrutiny by forming new companies at the same locations with the same personnel and equipment are known as chameleon carriers. Federal records indicate that Super Bus, a separate entity, holds a satisfactory safety rating from the agency and lists 15 violations over a two-year period, including speeding.