Carrier equality does not establish truck identity for repeat-driver evidence reuse

A returning driver's unchanged DOT/MC carrier identifiers do not prove that the physical truck is unchanged. When reusing equipment documents, preserve vehicle identity and provenance separately from driver identity and carrier equality; a fresh truck VIN compared with an old copied cab-card VIN can produce an equipment conflict even while the carrier-only vehicle check passes. Do not interpret this mechanism alone as proof of OCR correctness or permission to bypass verification.

Applies when: investigating returning drivers who change trucks under the same carrier. Keywords: Shield repeat driver changed truck VIN cab card carrier mismatch