Swift Truck Driving Academy

Nana and Murdock,

I get it completely. Originally, I thought this was an automatic deduction and apparently it's not. I understand how the company pays back the other half of the loan to the driver beginning in the second year or so. The idea that the company is paying half of the loan upfront and paying the other half later sounds strange to me. That sounds like the driver is paying close to 2K during the first year and then the company starts reimbursing it back during the second year. The total of 4K doesn't even exist in real time.

What I don't get is how a company would overlook that no payment has been made on the loan after the person has been driving OTR for over a year.

 

Sounds like someone in HR forgot to hit some button somewhere, and no one has caught it yet.

Happens in payroll all the time in large companies. Eventually, someone will figure it out and send you the bill. If not, consider yourself very lucky, maybe you should play the lottery.

 

Close. The records were confiscated in the raid on Memphis last year. No one from that class (who has left the company) has been acted on by a collection agency. If the company wanted to take action, they don't have the records to act on it. That is to say, the contract they had on file has been confiscated.

Whatcha think? Is the guy free and clear or not?

 

No one who was from that class who stayed with the company has had loan payments deducted from their pay. I'm wondering if the forms that generated the deductions are in the confiscated files. How would a company miss that for over a year?

 

Yeppers I am.

 

Ahhhhh I see that you do indeed "get it" and that information isn't what you actually wanted. Have a wonderful life.

 

Nana,

The information I asked for originally was stated on this thread as follows:

"Murdock, If the Swift contract states that the cost of tuition will be deducted from payroll for a year and Swift never took it out, the driver drove OTR for the year, what are the financial pitfalls of him quitting now that his year OTR is complete?

What do you know about this?"

Murdock then stated that the driver is responsible for seeing to it that it was deducted. Other discussion took place regarding loan agreements. I understand how the tuition works so far as the driver pays for one year, then Swift starts paying it back. That wasn't my question.

I was looking to find out if the driver in question is safe quitting right now since no deductions were ever taken from his pay for over a year now. I stated so in the first question that I posted above to Murdock.

I appreciate your help.

 

I think that's pretty much what she said?

Anywho... I am not sure if anyone here can really answer that question honestly. I would be careful with what you choose to do. Since they may possibly have made it a wash, I would go to HR with a written statement saying that they have no intentions of pursuing you for the academy cost and have it signed and dated.

Either one of two things will happen:

1. They will say it's a wash and sign the paper stating that they will not pursue you for any costs related to the academy
- or -
2. They will tell you no, and say you have to start paying for it.


In either case, it's not like someone could quit quietly and nothing happen, because I can almost guarantee you that whoever gets assigned to investigate them would easily see this (and you better believe that all paperwork gets reviewed after an employee quits or is terminated to see if they owe money on a student loan). This is, after all, a business, and they've been doing this stuff for quite a while.

Just my thoughts though, do with them as you will.

 

Thanks, Darkscheidr,

It's a tough call and confusing since the payroll deductions were never taken out and the driver doesn't recall a separate loan agreement of any kind. He's trying to determine if it's a wash or not. He doesn't want to do the wrong thing and paying the loan back isn't a big problem if it's not a wash. The annual income has been more than disappointing and the prospect of locking himself into another year of low income is what he's wanting to avoid. At this point, paying 2K would be worth it to be able to move on. Thanks for your feedback.

 

Having thought about this for more hours than I care to say, I think the only conclusion to be reached is that if one is unhappy with their first year income total of 15K and wants out, they need to be prepared to pay for the 2K tuition loan. That will finish the year of OTR, accident free driving with a whopping 13K annual income. Not even close to a living wage.

Lesson learned the hard way, I guess.