Complaint Review: NFI National Freight - Vineland New Jersey

The reason they take out escrow is quite simple. They told you they would in orientation, you signed the permission slip. They take the escrow out until you build up $500. Then it stops. This is so when some pig driver trashes the truck, or leaves it on the side of the road  (which happens all the time) they can re-coup at least a little bit of the money. And $500 doesn't pay for much. You probably started in NJ.  The first thing they do is send you home to get your stuff after orientation. I don't believe they sent you out from NJ with just your suitcase for 21 days! Sorry, not buying it.  Why would they spend the money to bring you there, house you and train you just to outright screw you immediately?  (Not saying they might not later, like most companies) but right off the bat? Not buying it.  Even if they did, you should have realized that this wasn't going to continue, that it could be worked out as you went along. No one would work there if this was routine. You should've known  that.  I worked at NFI for four years, I made a LOT of money, I was never abused, with few exceptions the people were great. After a while you learn which people to avoid talking to and there's no problem. Now it's true some terminals are better than others, but I recommend NFI to anyone. Especially NFI dedicated divisions. I made $71,000 my last year there. I kept the escrow deduction going(my choice) . when I left they cut me a check for $2100. They didn't take anything. Hope you are doing well, but you have to have some patience, talk to some veteran drivers, learn how the company really runs, learn how to communicate with them. All companies are different. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a company man. I have had my shouting and cursing moments with them, I've been stranded high and dry, I've been shafted out of detention pay, I've had many a time where I wanted to strangle operations staff. But that's trucking. That's what it is.

n. f. i. [ national freight industries] has an escrow account set up for all drivers in all states except california. [ california does not allow this type of escrow account.]... this escrow account is X amount of monies taken from your weekly pay, placed into an escrow account, up to usually $400.00. this money is used to recover your abandoned equipment, should you decide to do this. most companies will refund this money to you after one year of service. this is true of all companies outside of california. have a nice day x n.f.i. employee

Why are they deducting this money? Did you ask them? Didn't they explain this to you in advance of hire?

Robert, It is illegal to deduct anything from an employees pay that was not disclosed, and agreed upon in writing at time of hire. Did you get that money back when you quit? If not, I would file a wage claim against them. This is more on principle than the 20 or 30 bucks. Just gets them in the spotlight with the USDOL.