B
backwardecho
Guest
- Jurisdiction
- Georgia
I think this would fall to a small business lawyer but not necessarily a contract lawyer. I do operate via contract but there are no provisions in contract about my current situation. I am a small business and am the owner and operator but I am incorporated. My corporation has a contract with fedex that is renewed annually on May 31st.. These contracts are standard and renewed unless there are major performance issues. I have been a contractor since 2003. In july 2016 I decided to retire. I listed my route for sale with a broker. Routes are bought and sold all the time, proprietary rights are in the contract, nothing unusual there lots of guys run a route for years then sale it and retire etc. The problem is about Feb 4th 2016 fedex announced a new model that will require everyone to own about 5 routes. Then at the end of Feb they announced a tentative timeline of june - dec 2017 transition will begin. It is tentative. Since this announcement I have had 2 verified cash buyers back out. Once I explain they will have to expand rapidly or merge with other routes to make scale they lose interest. I originally listed my sale price at 115k and have dropped it to 89k in feb. Basically I can't even give it away now. At end of transition fedex is offering about 5k for accepting a limited contract during transition and then when they dump me another 5k for signing a waiver saying I won't sue over this. My dilemma or position is as follows:The sale of my route should not be hindered. All other conditions of my contract will still have to be complied with, performance, vehicle specs, safety specs, operational requirements , etc. Also to meet requirements as the business grows I may have to hire more employees and rent more trucks. I hired a temporary employee for december 2015 which is typical but I have had to keep him on due to growth. Generally we don"t make a profit off temporary employees but try to break even as it can be necessary to meet performance goals. If the temporary area has enough business fedex will contract the area and you can then make a profit, But now that they know change is coming they tend to not contract new areas leaving the contractor to deal with it. I am at best now held hostage for about 2 years. At worse a slave for two years because if I keep my temporary employee on and also likely add another soon at no profit i will be taking all the risk and effort of expanding a business without realizing a profit from the growth and all my effort just to be thrown out like trash in about 2 years. Seems to me fedex can't hold me too all the contract requirements except the one allowing me proprietary rights if in reality I can no longer find a buyer.They can't have it both ways.
