Looking for some tips with loaning money in the game

[Meow]

I'm considering taking up a 400k loan in ETS2.

I got my own truck (new), and about 150K saved up after done a bunch of quick and freight jobs. Also only got the starter garage without any upgrades.

What I have in mind, is expanding/buying garages, buy cheap new trucks and hiring workers, to create some passive income.

Got any tips related to this?
Should I wait till I got more money?

[91%]

New drivers will take a while to make a profit. If you're buying them a 100k truck (Or a 2nd hand one they repair) They're going to have to do a lot of jobs before they can even start to make a profit.

[Wolfgang]

Don't give your hired drivers used trucks. They will immediately restore it (or part replace it) when they finish their first contract costing you a lot of money.

[Meow]

I wrote new trucks though

[Briannospam]

In short: As others have already said (in other words) it will be bad business to borrow 400,000 to expand your company, because most new drivers at the beginning due to lack of skills cannot earn enough money to pay pay the installments to the bank.

If you want to build your business as quickly as possible, you can try to have a look at this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2709799677
Note: At the time I made that guide you couldn't buy used trucks, so no experiences or calculations for buying and using them are mentioned!

[Meow]

Thanks.

I drove till I had about 280K.

Then bought a garage in Rome - Italy.

Then borrowed 400K and bought 3 cheapest-ish trucks I could find, and hired 3 workers.

I got atm about 140K left after doing some upgrades on my truck for heavier loads.

Only been about one day in the game, and profit from that garage in Rome has slowly started.

Even though the daily fee from the bank is about 5.7K, I still alone have about 25K daily profit, so I think things are good enough, and will continue in right direction.

[Blaagh]

I see it like that: the earlier you hire drivers the faster they rank up and you get higher profits. might be a loss in the beginning but you can compensate with your own deliveries.

[🦊 Hermit]

Yeah, I too would disagree that it's a bad idea to take out a loan to hire drivers. Yes, they won't be able to maintain loan repayments on their own, but with the player still doing contracts too there shouldn't be anything to worry about, and the extra trickle of cash still helps. Not to mention, as stated above, the sooner you get them, the quicker they will level up and then they will start pulling in the bucks.

Get 3 or 4 small garages full of drivers (9-12 in all) and you'll be at the stage where they can indeed support you without you having to take another job, provided you don't write off your truck every time you go out. Whenever I start a new game, I speedrun getting to that point as quick as possible, using loans or whatever else is needed. Then from there on the game is much more relaxed and chill.

One important point to remember though - never upgrade your starting garage at the beginning, always buy a new one outright. It costs the same amount of money to upgrade as it does to buy, however if you upgrade, you only get two extra slots as you take up one of them yourself. But if you buy new, you get three driver slots for the same price, so it's much more efficient. Wait until you have money coming in regularly and can afford to burn some before beefing up your HQ.

[TransylScania V8]

Originally posted by Meow:

Thanks.

I drove till I had about 280K.

Then bought a garage in Rome - Italy.

Then borrowed 400K and bought 3 cheapest-ish trucks I could find, and hired 3 workers.

I got atm about 140K left after doing some upgrades on my truck for heavier loads.

Only been about one day in the game, and profit from that garage in Rome has slowly started.

Even though the daily fee from the bank is about 5.7K, I still alone have about 25K daily profit, so I think things are good enough, and will continue in right direction.

you're off to a good start. that's basically the way I played it using one bank loan. once the money built back up I would invest in new trucks, drivers and garages as needed. now I own about 20 garages with 70ish drivers and about four million in cash. best to leave the drivers leveling set to balanced and let them do what they do.

[MagnusA]

Make sure you are able to pay the daily repayment to the bank. When starting out you can't rely on the hired drivers to cover that. Maybe not you either if you still low on skill points/bonuses.

Maybe better to take 4 * 100k loans. That way you can repay a whole loan once in a while and thereby lower your daily repayment.

[BigT57]

I have started a number of profiles for various reasons in the past. I max out on the loans as soon as possible. I first get a truck for myself that is slightly more then the cheapest I could buy. With your own truck you can easily make the daily payments on the loans. Then buy a garage and two cheap trucks with two hired drivers. Level up your drivers to 3 or 4 in long distance skill right away. Add more trucks and drivers as can going forward. I usually max out with about 13 drivers as more just brings in too much money. As already mentioned buy your drivers new trucks or else they will kill you with repair costs.