So, he's a company driver. It would be foolish to work for them, then.

It is standard practice for a company to charge a driver about a buck a mile if indeed the driver does abandon the truck. But that is typically taken out of the last paycheck. To charge a driver an escrow and then indicate that it is for recovering the truck, damage to the truck, cargo claims, etc. should be illegal and probably is in a lot of states. Any driver that pays it will probably never see it. It gives the company way too many situations where they can "charge" the driver and keep the escrow.

How do I find out if it is a legal practice in Ohio?

I'm getting really tired of researching companies and then finding something major like this :( I guess the plus is that we find out and not just walk into a company blind. It's getting really frustrating though.

You can possibly speak to the Ohio Division Of Labor & Worker Safety
( http://198.234.41.198/w3/webwh.nsf?Opendatabase ). They are a division of the Ohio Department Of Commerce ( www.com.state.oh.us ).

The Ohio Labor Code can be found at http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/41 .

I have encountered companies that do withold such as you described. Various reasons were given verbally but not in writing nor was it in any of their policies I was able to view. Typically it was to pay for lost equipment, truck cleanout if the truck was turned in a mess. None of the ones I have seen ever mentioned it was for vehicle damages as a result of accident and certainly none for freight damages. That is what companies have insurance for. If a driver is a problem then they should be dealt with through termination if necessary. Also trucking companies have the money and abilities to collect damages from a driver if they want regardless if there was no agreement to do so. These companies also have access to the drivers DAC to further punish a driver.

As for whether it is legal or not there are no specifics in laws covering this. The general phrase of "It certainly is legal if you agree to it" most definitely applies here. As stated by others agreement can be in a blanket clause when you sign your employment paperwork.

It is legal in any state if you sign authorization form allowing them to deduct money from your pay. As far as the escrow thing as a whole
being legal, to my knowledge there is not any labor laws against this practice.

Let me state this again so that it is clear....no employer can deduct anything from you pay unless it is authorized in writing by the employee or is a court order.

Now for a funny story......trainee drives 2 weeks solo, quits and deadheads home from KY to MS. Company did not pay for miles and then charged the driver for out of route miles........he went to labor board...they ruled that the company could not deduct for out of route miles and had to pay him to drive the truck back to the home terminal, because that is where he started his work and the company was responsible to get him back to his starting point with pay.....regardless of the fact that he choose to deadhead instead of getting a load home......
The MS labor board is a friend of the driver.

As an offshoot of this topic, the practice of having a driver (employee) sign a document saying they authorize money to be taken out of a paycheck to cover recovery costs, clean up, etc may be illegal in the state the company is based in.

A while back, in an online debate, I did some research and found several states with the clause that basically says An employer may not withold pay for losses caused by the employee unless the employee agrees to the with holdings in writing at the time the deduction is made.

Where companies get away with this, even in states with the law, is that they count on a driver's ignorance of the labor laws of the state the company is based in and also to the added hassles of often dealing with another state.

Too often people sign a document and think that it must be legal since I did sign it.

In no way am I saying it is Ok to abandon a truck, tear it up, leave it a mess, etc, and in certain cases I think the driver should shoulder the costs, but too often companies will use every and any excuse to try to take a driver's last paycheck.

I totally agree that a driver should never abandon a truck and make a mess of it - I know that drivers do that and it is a disgrace to the profession.

The reason I am having a tough time with this is because it is the ONLY thing I have found that makes me even the slightest bit uncomfortable about this company. They have put everything in writing (a recruiter who actually e-mails things in writing, even after a phone converstaion!). I'm sure if we decide to go with the company but refuse to sign the authorization, that won't go over.

What is the name of this company...that might provide more insight??

MCS - Motor Carrier Services www.mcstrucks.com . They are a smaller trucking company (about 100 company trucks + O/O) and have been in business about 25 years.

Like I said - it is the ONLY negative I have about them. There is no perfect company out there. There is always going to be something that a driver doesn't agree with. I am just having a tough time figuring out if this is too big to over look. This one gets him home more then other companies and it isn't recruiter fluff - we talked to the drivers. That is just huge for us. I'm just really tired of searching for the best match only to have something like this come up. It's time for him to get back on the road again.

We had one trucking company we RAN from the recruiting booth because if you have a preventable accident in your first 90 days - you are TOTALLY responsible for paying for EVERYTHING! I can't imagine how that is legal.

Could not get the link to their web page to work. Is it correct ??

For me, something like this a deal breaker. It says alot about how they operate and what they think of drivers.

But, if it close to home and there are other big advantages for him to go to work there then give it a shot, worse case is it would be just another former employer on the resume and you know going in that you might loose the escrow.

Good Luck

Their site must be down because it is the right link. They were working on their new phone system this weekend so maybe that messed things up somehow.

My husband and I were talking about this last night and he had a little different perspective on it that has made me stop and think.

They pay their performance bonus weekly. If you have an incident you loose your bonus for the next 90 days. At my husband's last OTR job if he had an incident then he lost his bonus for the next year (bonuses were paid quaterly there). Keeping that in mind - we would actually make more money if he were to have an accident because yes he would lose the money in the escrow account but he would only lose his bonus for 90 days instead of the entire year.

I haven't seen a company yet that wouldn't keep your bonus if you have an incident/accident so in a way I guess we are always paying that deductible. At least these guys are upfront about it.