Escrow (Beta)

Escrow is held under your lease. Your lease sets the amount, what it can be used for and how it is returned.

Escrow is in beta until our attorney review is done. Check the figures against your lease. Tovarlo doesn’t give legal advice; ask your attorney about your lease.

Open it from Driver pay with the "Escrow" button. Only people with the "Driver pay and payroll" permission can open it, and only an owner or accountant can change anything here.

Escrow is off for a new company. Only the owner can turn it on: in Settings, under "Escrow", click "Turn escrow on (beta)". Turning it off with "Turn escrow off" stops escrow on new statements and keeps every past record.

With escrow on, set a driver’s "Weekly escrow ($)" in their "Pay setup" on the Driver pay screen. It’s taken on each pay statement. See /help/driver-pay.

Escrow counts as held only once the statement that took it is paid. Until then the screen shows it as "more once its statement is paid".

"By driver" lists each driver’s escrow "Taken", "Interest", "Applied", "Released" and "Held". "Held now" at the top is the total for all drivers.

Click "History" to see every entry with the running balance. From there click "PDF" for a one-page escrow history, or "Email to driver" to send it (the driver needs an email on the Drivers page). Drivers can also see their escrow history in the driver app.

Each pay statement lists every change to escrow since the driver’s last one: escrow applied, released or voided, and interest (49 CFR 376.12(k)(3)). On the first business day of each month, Tovarlo also emails each driver with escrow activity that month, or a balance, their escrow accounting as a PDF. The driver’s row shows "Monthly escrow accounting for … sent", or that it couldn’t go out because there’s no email on file: then give the driver a copy.

Nothing is deleted.

At the start of each quarter, pick the quarter under "Quarterly interest", type the "Yearly rate" (%) and the "Auction date", and click "Save rate". Enter the investment rate (coupon equivalent) of the most recent 13-week Treasury bill auction held on or before the quarter’s first day (TreasuryDirect auction results). The rate is fixed for the whole quarter. A reminder appears when this quarter’s rate hasn’t been entered.

Interest = average daily balance × yearly rate × days ÷ 365, rounded to the cent. When the quarter is over, click "Add" with the quarter’s interest. It’s added to each driver’s escrow as "Interest" for that quarter (for example "Interest Q4 2026") and shows on their next pay statement.

When an owner-operator with escrow is deactivated or changed to a company driver, the lease ended. A lease that ended earlier, for example on written notice, can be dated by an owner or accountant: open the driver’s "History" and click "Enter the date the lease ended" (each change is logged). The 45 days count from the earliest of these dates. Under "Reminders" you see "Return … escrow by" with the date: escrow goes back within 45 days after the lease ends, with a final escrow accounting.

Click "Return escrow" on the driver’s row. Tovarlo adds the interest from the quarter’s first day to the day you pay (at that quarter’s rate) and pays back everything held in one step. Then open "History" (it’s titled "Final escrow accounting") and send the PDF or click "Email to driver". The reminder stays until the escrow and that interest are both paid.