Escrow & Company Drivers

Several months ago I began as a company driver, driving for a small company. I know they are a little shady, but I get my miles, and, for the most part, they've done right by me.

Until my wife came on the road with me, I hadn't realized they were deducting $100 per week for Escrow. When I asked about this, he told me that the total amount to be deducted would be $1000, and this was just in case I quit and abandoned the truck somewhere, and he had to hire someone to go pick it up. I said I thought that was fair, and went on my merry way.

My wife noticed that after 10 weeks, they were still deducting the $100 per week for escrow. I asked about this, and was told that they had increased the escrow amount to $2100. I was not told about this previously, and felt that it was a bit excessive. Don't I have to be notified BEFORE the fact?

I started to ask around with other drivers, and I have heard that it's not legal to charge company drivers escrow. Anyone know if that's true?

Also, another driver for the same company I knew a little bit, got fired, but did bring his truck back to the yard. He thought he should get the escrow money he had paid in back, since he returned the truck. The company accused him of stealing the mudflaps off the truck (WHAT??), and said that would come out of his escrow. He said he wished he'd taken pictures of his truck at the beginning and at the end, to prove he didn't mistreat the truck in any way.

I've been in the same truck for over 3 months now, and I know that if I were to quit, they could say anything, and keep my whole escrow.

My last thing is that when I asked the boss about returning the escrow to me, he could take 30-60 days to return the money to me. Is this true? It would also give him up to 2 months to decide I damamged the truck somehow, and keep it.

Anyone know the answers to any of these questions, or had experience dealing with this stuff? Please help! I don't really want to get scr.. well, you know what I mean.

Thanks in advance.