Does the Craters & Freighters franchise agreement prevent a franchisee from being employed as an executive of a Competitive Business during the term of the agreement?

According to the 2025 Craters & Freighters Franchise Disclosure Document, the franchise agreement addresses in-term restrictive covenants. During the term of the agreement, a franchisee and the franchisee's owner(s) cannot perform services for, consult for, engage in, acquire, lend money to, extend credit to, have any interest in, or be employed as an officer, director, executive, or principal of any business that offers similar services to Craters & Freighters without prior written consent from Craters & Freighters. These services include shipping, packaging, crating, receiving and delivery, storage, transportation, moving, logistics, blanket wrap, or freight forwarding services. This restriction applies to actions taken directly or indirectly, for themselves or through others.

This restriction means that as a Craters & Freighters franchisee, you are significantly limited in your ability to be involved with any competing business during the term of your franchise agreement. Even indirect involvement is prohibited without Craters & Freighters's explicit permission. This is a standard practice in franchising to protect the brand and prevent franchisees from using the franchisor's knowledge and resources to benefit a competitor.

However, the agreement does allow a franchisee to own securities in a Competitive Business if such securities are listed on a stock exchange or traded on the over-the-counter market and represent five percent (5%) or less of that class of securities. This exception provides some flexibility for franchisees to invest in publicly traded companies that may be considered competitors, as long as the investment remains below a specified threshold and does not represent a controlling interest.