Going behind broker's back?

As long as the shipper contacts you, and you do not solicit him, I believe you are on solid ground legally, but definitely do some research or ask someone smarter than me first.

If that does happen though, regardless of who contacts who, you are going to burn a bridge with that broker, unless he is a stand up guy and can take a loss etc.

Sidebar,where at in Ontario are you?

 

Do you think you will get an honest answer? It's such a fine line, and it becomes tougher when you don't want to burn a bridge with a broker you are going to consider a go-to broker.....

LandstarAgentOZ would probably have some great advice on this...

 

Cool, depending on how far west, I am probably 2-3 hours from you, north of Toronto.

 

Does your broker represent the shipper or the reciever ? If he represents the reciever and arranges the shipments through the reciever maybe you'd be alright. But if it's your go to broker as you said then you'd still be better off just calling him/her and discussing the situation. Hey, maybe the broker will say go ahead, that they have too much on their plate to deal with the MD loads ?

 

LOL tough but good situation to be in.

Keep in mind, and I believe BigBadBill has stated this for a long time now, be careful with direct shippers, meaning, yea, you have a direct shipper and a contract, but how much is that contract costing you to get back to that shipper, you have to DH, or take $1 freight, do something to get back to the next contracted load, or you lose that contract....

I still think your best bet is to call the broker and be frank with him. Two things will immediately happen, he will be or should be let's say, thankful to you and your reputation will grow with him, and you can't understate how big your reputation is in the industry. Also, you should be able to cement yourself as a go-to driver with him, which is important if you are dedicating him as a go-to broker.

 

Be careful with that, I guess it depends on how well you know the broker and if you could afford to lose his business. What I mean by that is, yes, you bring this to him and talk to him about it, it's possible to plant a seed of doubt with him, and you might not get the good loads from him or from his good customers etc because he has that seed of doubt planted about you talking to shippers etc,

Like I said before, very tough situation...