How much a trucker makes per km in real life ? Going to make a MOD.

[MOMO & YUNA]

Hello truckers, I feel that the vanilla economy is too good to be true or too easy. For example i can make 100,000 Euro out of a 1,000+ km long trip and can use the money to buy a new truck right away. That way i can have one new truck for each day or nearly. Which is insane. There is no sense of achievement when you earn your new truck so easily. It feels like arcade economy. Not to mention when you have 5 - 10 AI drivers in your team and you can buy new garages in matter of a few days. That is crazy !

I know that in real life truckers use their best effort to save the fuel while driving because the hirer usually includes the fuel cost in the wage already, for example the hirer gives at the rate 2.5 L / km, but if the driver manages to drive at 2.1 L / km then he can keep what he saves as extra income and that means a lot to every driver. But in this game (vanilla) the fuel cost is nothing compared to what you earn per trip. I don't even pay attention to the fuel. For example i can earn 100,000 Euro with a full tank of 1,000 L which costs only around 1,500 Euro, so why would i care for 1,500 Euro when i can make 100,000 out of it.

I am going to make a economy mod based on real life truck driver's earning. So i need all of you to help supply me with real life information i need: (all of the questions refer to Europe)

1. How much is the wage per km ? (both own and company truck) it can be an average rate or a specific type of cargoes.

2. Does it include the fuel cost ?

3. How much is the wage per delivery for an owned truck or monthly salary for a company truck ? (if any and whichever is the case)

4. Anything else that i need to take into consideration or any other suggestion ?

However, I know in real life it would take years for a truck driver to save enough money to buy his first truck (if without loaning money from a bank). So my mod will not take that long. In the vanilla it takes a few game days but i think it should take no less than 2 game weeks and no more than a game month to buy a new truck.

[pilotjj1]

I don't know how much a real trucker actually makes, but there are real economy mods out there already. Do check them out to see if they meet your needs before trying to reinvent the wheel.

[MOMO & YUNA]

@ Pilotjj1: I have looked at all existing economy mods in the Workshop. Most of them aim to make money faster and easier. Which i think the vanilla is already too fast. Only one of them seems to be reasonable and close to what i want but it messes up the traffic fines and garage prices like the rest. So none of them is what i want it to be. I think the truck and garage prices in the vanilla are quite realistic and reasonable already, so i dont want to change that part.

[Klaas]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=679982430

Not sure if you tested this, but it also has a gas prices mod.

[XR6FA]

Originally posted by MOMO:

@ Pilotjj1: I have looked at all existing economy mods in the Workshop. Most of them aim to make money faster and easier. Which i think the vanilla is already too fast. Only one of them seems to be reasonable and close to what i want but it messes up the traffic fines and garage prices like the rest. So none of them is what i want it to be. I think the truck and garage prices in the vanilla are quite realistic and reasonable already, so i dont want to change that part.

I agree,money is far too easy too make,i have only one driver helping me
and i allready over $150.000 and 5 trucks

[Ruff Leif]

When I drove truck a while back, I'd get about 134 Euros per day, regardless of distance. It was hourly wage for me, with a cap on daily salary. Cargo had no effect on wage for regular driving, but I did some removals and that was better paid (also more sweat).

Wage did not include fuel costs back then, but there were starting to be schemes of rewarding drivers who were fuel savvy.

When it comes to prices for various cargo, the game misrepresents the economy somewhat. Obviously some cargo pay better, but that is usually because that cargo has higher costs of equipment and handling. If they managed to get trailer ownership into the game, this could be reflected, but I understand it's not easy.

Generally in business you give prices based on your costs and add a standard 10-20% profit margin on top, more if possible, less if not. I think in the trucking business this is a low as 2-4%. It's more about finding your niche, than anybody getting rich on this.

I was not a truck owner, however, so my experience compares to the quick jobs, although I had "my" regular truck and didn't switch trucks all the time like in the game.

The Klaas Economy mod gives a pretty realistic picture and it also extends the gameplay significantly, though perhaps a little too much for a gaming enviroment, like you said. I'm exploring it in a brand new Youtube series, along with the promods map and talking about real trucking in ETS2 surroundings. I'd be happy to test yours if you want.

https://youtu.be/rklryu6Kvk4

[Nhopper]

I've driven trucks as well for a couple of years, but always worked for a company. Though I did some research back then to see if I can ever have my own truck and work on my own. The wages for regular cargo (food & non food products) depended a lot on the companies offering the jobs and how often these jobs were offered. The price range was somewhere between €0.75 to €1.25 per km. This included all the costs you would make. So it was your own responsibility to make as much profit out of it as possible. Taking care of your own truck (and trailer) and planning your route were essential to earn the most.

Like said before, there are one or two mods that come pretty close to reality. Included insurance for the bought trucks, lower prices per km etc.

You can make a new mod but I don't think you will be far apart from the others. Anyway good luck with it, curious to see what you come up with.

[MOMO & YUNA]

I have finished making my economy mod. Right now i am testing it. So far it seems to be the way i wanted. I will continue to test it until i am sure there are no mistakes before i release it to the Workshop.

[Ruff Leif]

If you want beta testing by peers...? All yours!

[MOMO & YUNA]

@ Ruff Leif: Thanks for your support. Yes, i will release a beta version for beta testers soon.

[play3r_93]

Sounds good looking forward to it. Hopefully you can make it so the mod can be used on existing profiles.

[Silverbiker]

I use this one:
http://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8740
Works in 1.27

[play3r_93]

Originally posted by Silverbiker:

I use this one:
http://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8740
Works in 1.27

This is a great mod and doesn't affect XP. Just needs increased fines and it would be perfect.

[MOMO & YUNA]

My beta mod
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=929027903&tscn=1495277279

[Stormmaster]

Since I got interested in realistic economy I tried a few mods and then started using my own custom modifications (at first, just editing other mods for personal use), borrowing ideas from here and there and looking for more and more info on various aspects.

Recently I found some interesting paper about truckers' wages. "Comparative study of employment and pay conditions of international lorry drivers in Europe." In regard to pay per km, they determined it relying on average pay and average millage (because apparently, according to other sources I went through while looking for this info, it's illegal to base payment for truckers working for an employer on kms driven). So in this paper average pay per km was calculated and in 2016 it ranged from 11 cents (in Bulgaria) to 48 cents per km (in Belgium).

While we can't make it different for every country in-game, I suppose quickjobs should be somewhere within these values. Also it looks like we can't currently achieve realism in player quickjob pays and hired drivers at the same time, because they are governed by the same parameters with the following difference: for quickjobs it means how much the player gets payed (while all expenses are covered by employer), but for hired drivers it's the revenue that drivers bring to the player company (while drivers get payed salary based on their skill). At least that's how I understand it. I could be wrong on this one. But as I prefer to play without hired drivers (and naming my company Ascetic Hauler), it's not much of an issue for me anyway: I just try to set it up to be most realistic for quickjobs.

Currently I am trying to find some paper regarding owner operators' prices in Europe.

[Sandhill]

There as a recent report on TV here in USA saying that drivers are making as much as 10000 USD/week. I expect that to be an exaggeration, but in today's market they say that demand far outstrips supply.