can you steal your company's customers?

if you signed it then it's 18 months. This happens all the time though. In the real world if you are making more and they are paying less then who's telling?

 

Yea, I have done it a few times with small shippers, never had a problem with the broker trying to enforce this.

That said.. What you have to be careful of is the shipping guy (Traffic Manager) are real tight....You ask about doing buisness with them direct and eliminating the broker...The shipping guy then calls his buddy (Broker) and tells him....May get a nasty phone call from Broker....I have had this happen a few times...My theory is it never hurts to ask. Those backstabbing brokers will get over it pretty fast.. LOL

Just Be Careful!!! And most of all HAVE FUN!!!

 

Pardon my ignorance, but how would a Brokering company know your are there doing business with their customer? I know that many shipping companies have more than one brokering company dealing with them.

 

It seems there are two separate issues being discussed here. From the original post the question appears to be - can you solicit customers of a carrier you are leased to, or employed by? There is no standard clause in a motor carrier lease contract prohibiting this, however an individual carrier may add it to their contract. How enforcible that would be is another question.

The discussion seems centered around brokers and relates to the standard clause in a brokers contract with a motor carrier. Since the original question mentioned leaving and getting your own authority, its unlikely they are a motor carrier and thus would not have entered into an agreement with a broker, so that excerpt from a contract would be irrelevant.

In general a company driver would have no prohibition on doing this unless he worked under a contract with a non-compete clause, which is rare. For a lease operator it depends whether there is the non-compete clause in the contract, typically there is not.

The ethics is pretty straightforward: if there is no part of a contract you signed that limits you solicitation of brokers or carriers customers, then there is no unethical behavior. If there you have signed such an agreement and go after their customers in violation of what you have agreed not to do, they yes, it would be unethical. Whether or not the brokers or carriers are backstabbing blood sucking leaches and maybe engaged in all sorts of unethical behavior themselves is completely irrelevant. Not or course, that I am suggestiong a broker or carrier would ever behave badly !

 

When you apply for authority change the name of your company, that should take care of any back solicitation issues

 

Those "non competition clauses" are very hard to enforce. Just because a company hauls something for a shipper one time means the company owns that shipper? Cut me a break. What about the shipper's right to do business with anyone they choose?????

Not to mention things like, The shipper needs a union driver and the carrier doesn't have one. Maybe the shipper makes a special product that requires special care and they don't trust just anybody the carrier sends to haul it without F ing it up. Or you happen to own a specialized piece of equipment that the carrier doesn't have.

 

Actually, this back solicitation clause would follow the person not the company depending on how it is worded. It's the same as a non-compete agreement and they are extremely hard to enforce.