Transport questions

Short answers to what players often ask about transport. For the whole story, see Vehicles and cargo.

No. Goods bought on the market reach the buyer's warehouse whether or not anyone carries them, so your company works without a single vehicle. Transport is a side line: deliveries earn extra Company Value, but not much money, and vehicles cost fuel and a driver's wage.

Press Buy a vehicle on the Transport page. Every round has trucks, trailers and airplanes, and depending on the round ships or trains, each with its own price, load, speed and fuel use. Only trucks also take trades within one city. Each extra vehicle of a type costs 1.5 times as much as the last, and the page shows what your next one costs. A new vehicle waits in your home city with an empty tank and no driver.

Open the profile of someone on your staff with a driving licence and place them in the vehicle. The vehicle's page lists staff who could drive it, and the hiring lists show who has a licence (Hiring staff). A Driver brings their production points, anyone else their attribute points. Without a driver at work, a vehicle neither loads nor moves.

Its driver. Skill is the driver's points divided by 2, as a percentage, and speed is half the vehicle's top speed plus half again times that skill, so only a perfect driver reaches top speed. Depending on the round, a vehicle covers its speed once an hour or at every update. Drivers grow their skills on the job like other staff, so a vehicle gets a little faster over time.

From the market. When a company buys goods that were sold in another city, a cargo appears on that route, from the seller's city to the buyer's, and trucks can also take trades within one city. Cargo nobody loads within 48 hours is gone. The Transport page shows the cargo waiting in the cities where your vehicles are.

£1 per unit, whatever the good or the distance, paid into your savings when the vehicle arrives. On top of that it earns 1 Company Value for every 300 km travelled, counting each unit carried. A vehicle sent somewhere empty earns nothing. A vehicle's Trips list shows the pay, fuel and Company Value of each trip.

Not with cargo: a waiting vehicle claims the route of the oldest cargo in its city that no other vehicle is loading for, and after the delivery it waits in the city it arrived in. You can move it yourself with Send it there on its page: after its current task it drives empty to the city you chose, using fuel and earning nothing. For a truck, Takes chooses Any trade, Same city only or Other cities only. The Map tool tab colours each city from blue (good) to red (poor) by its cargo and waiting vehicles, to help you pick.

Distances are measured in a straight line from city to city, in kilometres or miles depending on the round, and a trip within one city counts as 80 km. A vehicle's page shows how far it still has to go, about when it arrives, and its Range when full. Distance changes the Company Value a delivery earns and the fuel it uses, but not the pay per unit.

Your vehicles pay for fuel from the gasoline account, at the market price of gasoline; gasoline in your warehouse is not used. Founding your company puts part of the registration fee into it. Top it up with Deposit money to your gasoline account on the Gasoline expenditure tab: the money leaves your savings now, arrives at the next update and cannot be taken back out. With the account empty, vehicles stop where they are.

Its status on the Transport page says why:

• Needs a driver: place someone with a driving licence in it.
• Driver away or Stopped: driver away: its driver is absent, and it waits until they are back.
• Tanking up: a new vehicle fills its tank at the next update and takes no cargo until then.
• No fuel or Out of fuel: the gasoline account is empty.
• Waiting for cargo: it is in the city's queue, first come first served, but no free route has cargo it will take. Its page shows its place in the queue.

A loading vehicle leaves when it is full or has its minimum load, set as Leave with at least (units) on its page; a new vehicle waits for 50% of its load. Until it leaves, it stays on that route and no other vehicle can load there. Lower the minimum, or press Send it now to leave with what is on board. In some rounds you can also choose full loads only (FTL), which skips routes with less cargo waiting than the minimum load.

Vehicles do not wear out or break down, and there is no upkeep to pay. What they cost is the fuel for the distance they drive, from the gasoline account, and their driver's wage, worked out like other staff's with a fixed price of £25 (Staff costs and absences). A vehicle standing still uses no fuel.

Yes, once it has arrived: a vehicle on the road cannot be sold. It fetches 20% of what your newest one of that type would cost today, and you lose some Company Value. The fuel in its tank is lost, and its driver goes back to head office.