Is using your own trailer more profitable?

[Zeabolos]

I'm having trouble coming to a clear conclusion based just on the numbers given in-game. Am I better off driving around with a trailer of my own to access the cargo market, or do you make more money taking ready-packed loads from the freight market?

[Sylverone]

Take this with a grain of salt since I haven't played in a while and there are others more experienced and calculating than me, but I seem to recall that it can be a toss up, and that having your own trailer can b good because then you potentially get access to more choices as to what to haul. More choices means more chance to find a good load.

Now someone else chime in and remind me whether I've really forgotten how things work! ;P

[Briannospam]

As far as I know, you earn a little more on a job with your own trailer than with a borrowed trailer, although in return you have to pay maintenance on your own trailer.

But in terms of what pays best, I still think that you make the most money by driving with borrowed trailers because:
The jobs that are best paid per. km / miles is what provides the best income.
If you use your own trailer and only have one model, it may well be that there are jobs in the area where you are, with borrowed trailers that are paid better than jobs with your own trailer.
- If you then park your own trailer and take a job with a borrowed trailer, you will have to pick up your own trailer again in its home garage if you want to drive it again.

As I see it, the only advantage of your own trailer is that you have the opportunity to decide for yourself what it looks like with paint jobs, where it is even possible to choose the same paint job for both truck and trailer.

[maxcry]

The same cargo from A to B with your own trailer has a little higher EUR/km ratio than without an own trailer.
So in theory it is more profitable.

On the other hand it restricts you to a specific kind of cargo.
If you use a curtainsider i.e. there might be only empty pallets in one place and you can't pick up more profitable pressure tanks, machinery, etc... that might be available there.
But of course you can always send the trailer back to the garage when this happens.

It might take some time until it pays off.

There are very versatile trailers like the flatbed, curtainsider or the reefer.
The chance you don't get any good cargo with them is pretty low, but it can happen.

At the end it is for the show more or less (a nice painted combo) and not really needed to make good profit.
It is also nice to drive with the same trailer for some time and get more and more used to it.

[Zeabolos]

Thanks guys! So it does come down to about what I suspected - slightly more profitable and looking good, at the cost of more limited contracts. And I suppose the increase in profits are even slimmer if you take into account the time cost of loading and unloading at both ends of each journey. Though once you're done with loans more timeskips are the opposite of a problem...

Thanks again!