Past Trucking Company Owner and dispatcher.

[Toucan]

My Son is into video Games, and Gave me ATS for 2016 Christmas, I thought he had lost sence in who his Dad realy was, Me Playing Video Games????????? what is this world coming to? but I got into the Game and was amased, amused and awed at the realness of it, I now own all 12 Garages, 60 Trucks, and have 60 hired drivers, and missed a bunch of sleep because of it.


I am semi retired, from owning operating and dispatch a small Trucking Company, and plan to be one of the first hired drivers for the near futer remote operated Trucks


MORE REALISTIG SENCE OF INTERACTION WITH HIRED DRIVERS.

I changed all my ui driver pictures, to my past real life hired drivers, but I have found no way yet to get the NAMES changed aswell?

I would like to be able to video call my drivers, and see there picture, and hear an audible responce with info where they are and what they'r doing?

I would like to have a GPS, showing locations of all my trucks, and also would like to be able to have them all pull into one parking lot, and see them lined up?

I also would be very impresed if I could do dispatching for my drivers, again it could be finding them a job, than video call them with the schedual, and get an audible responce even if its just a pick of 5 set responses?

I also hope to see more other brand trucks like International and Mack on steam, I have tried a few mods from outside steam but they seem to not work good on my iMac.

[J4CKI3]

The whole "interacting with your drivers" thing probably can't happen, but SCS is trying to get companies such as Volvo and International into the game.

[Wille Wilse]

Welcome to the world of gaming :)

[J4CKI3]

Originally posted by Wille Wilse:

Welcome to the world of gaming :)

One of us! One of us! One of us!...

[Capt Fuzzy]

I have to say that this is similar to other requests for more driver interactivity, in many ways.
I don't know of any mod that works like this, nor do I know if SCS will ever implement something like this in the future, but I think parts of it, at least, might be possible...

[Hypertext Eye]

Most of what you're asking for is pretty often requested. Unfortunately it will probably never be implemented because SCS is pretty heavily focused on the truck driving side and not on the business management side. Aside from that, everyone wants more trucks, and SCS already has some ready and waiting, but it's up to the truck makers whether or not they will ever make it into the game. For some reason they don't want to give the license...

[Hylton Trucking]

The older 18 WOS games had the option of dispatching your hired drivers. Simply click on the driver, then town, & select load for them. If you weren't quick enough, they would do something on their own but you could preplan them at least two loads out if I remember correctly.

[Capt Fuzzy]

I can definitely see what the OP is talking about, and I do agree that a little more 'driver interactivity' would be nice, since you are 'running a business' as well as driving for said business.
Sometimes it's nice to take a break from driving and just 'run the show' for a bit, but ultimately, it's up to SCS on whether they will implement this type of thing in the future or not.
They do seem to be more focused on completing the US and getting more trucks into the game, so for now, I'm content to sit back and see what they do with it all...

[room217au]

Originally posted by prudentinnovator:

I am semi retired, from owning operating and dispatch a small Trucking Company, and plan to be one of the first hired drivers for the near futer remote operated Trucks

I drive heavy for a living and when I get home and showered I fire up ATS or ETS2.
You aren't alone :)

In reference to your post, the hired drivers are only a script. Without knowing your level of knowledge in this area, that means the drivers, trucks, upgrades, etc only exist in a file.
Related to this is also the AI. The other traffic around you is only 'where you are'. Even flying around with the dev cam, looking at cities from high above, there is very little traffic. We can only guess that this restriction was put in place to reduce CPU time.
What I'm saying here is that the focus of this - and ETS2 - is about the driving. As it should be.

After a while, you'll find you have SO much money it's just a figure and running the business becomes too easy. At one point I had 240 trucks and drivers and over $2M a week was pouring into my company. I could repaint each and every truck, put new tyres, new engines/trans every day and still not miss the money.
I ended up selling all trucks, firing all drivers, keeping 'some' money in the bank, changing the economy so jobs didn't pay THAT much anymore and going from there. To me, it seems more life-like.
As much life-like as a game can get :)

[Fury6]

Originally posted by room217au:

[...]After a while, you'll find you have SO much money it's just a figure and running the business becomes too easy. At one point I had 240 trucks and drivers and over $2M a week was pouring into my company. I could repaint each and every truck, put new tyres, new engines/trans every day and still not miss the money.
I ended up selling all trucks, firing all drivers, keeping 'some' money in the bank, changing the economy so jobs didn't pay THAT much anymore and going from there. To me, it seems more life-like.
As much life-like as a game can get :)

(Just as an aside): I run a 0.18 payout on my 'normal' profile - that gets me about $500-$600 or so on the highest paying loads/routes. At that rate, when I hire new drivers they generally *lose* me money until they skill-up to around a 6.0 driver rating =D.

Taking out loans becomes an actually serious proposition with respect to making the daily repayments. Any fine will generally exceed whatever profit I will make on a single run, repairs hurt like a ♥♥♥♥♥ (even with my 2%/$200 co-insurance cap). I think I enjoy the game more this way.

[jnol8]

Unfortunately, seeing the interactivity you want may never happen at least with this game. The trucks wish though has a good chance of being included further down the road, it just requires patience on our part. As for being new, welcome to the world of gaming. It's always nice to see someone discover the joys of gaming be it a simulator or something more complex like Street Fighter 5. Age is just a number anyway. My own mother is 62 and she still plays her NES from time to time, mostly Tetris.

[room217au]

Originally posted by Fury6:

(Just as an aside): I run a 0.18 payout on my 'normal' profile - that gets me about $500-$600 or so on the highest paying loads/routes. At that rate, when I hire new drivers they generally *lose* me money until they skill-up to around a 6.0 driver rating =D.

Taking out loans becomes an actually serious proposition with respect to making the daily repayments. Any fine will generally exceed whatever profit I will make on a single run, repairs hurt like a ♥♥♥♥♥ (even with my 2%/$200 co-insurance cap). I think I enjoy the game more this way.

Yep. That's it. Nobody makes $40,000 on a 7 hour drive :D
[edit]
Wondering .. Can we stop the fuel bowser before a full tank? I mean can we 'splash' $100 in the tanks if we're close to destination? Never tried it but with your economy modification diesel prices would also be a consideration in terms of profit/trip.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by room217au:

Wondering .. Can we stop the fuel bowser before a full tank? I mean can we 'splash' $100 in the tanks if we're close to destination? Never tried it but with your economy modification diesel prices would also be a consideration in terms of profit/trip.

Yes, simply let go of the Enter key before the tank is full...