What Trailers should I buy for where

[Shafty]

Okay, so which Trailers should I be buying for which garages? and how many of each for each garage? Any tips would be great! Thanks :)

[Calisthra]

What I would really like to see happen is code the game to allow for active dispatch of the company drivers. It would serve to more realistically simulate the industry and give the player a bit more game to boot :)

Dispose of the rng, let the player reap the reward [or penalty] of decisions made.

[Capt. Carrot]

Originally posted by GIGGLES (Robin):

Originally posted by Crazyeights08:

Your the owner. Buy them based of what freight your company hauls. May i suggest the Reefer. It can be used as all three box trailers in one. Reefer,Insultes and Dryvan. Your drivers will never return without a load.

your last sentance has me puzzled "Your drivers will never return without a load." .. how do we give the hired drivers a trailer that we buy for the company???

When you buy trailers just leave them set as public trailers in your garages. Hired drivers can use any trailer that is set to public. If you want to ensure that any trailers you buy are solely for your use, set them to private.

[Verfallen]

Originally posted by Catratio:

It really doesn't matter what trailers you buy. There's really only two basic times, van and flatbed, so it just depends on what you're in the mood for hauling. Get one of each, but as said, reefer is the ultimate value since it will let you transport any kind of van load even if it's not refrigerated. Flatbed's for heavier cargo but I don't think it matters what specifics your flatbed has.

In terms of single, double unit, wheel configuration, etc. just get whatever you think looks good and are comfortable driving. I took my 53' trailer down to a 45' because turning was too hard, and moved the wheels up a bit from the rear. Now it's a lot more fun to drive .There is no "right" or "wrong" trailer to get since no matter what town you're in you can find some kind of cargo, it's not really region specific yet.

There sure are some drop off where you swear at the peterbilt 389 with a bed, and a 53' (one caterpillar drop off, I have to back up from the street when I get it, no way to turn that thing around in the yard, unless its totally empty of trailers. Getting off the San Francisco port is also done the same way you got in :P

As for reefer, I disagree. I don't know how it works for hired driver, but the main reefer advantage currently is it can take any van load. Since hired drivers seem to have a fixed % and not an actual changing chance depending on equipment/skills/area etc etc (to return empty from the LA/San francisco area, you REALLY have to want to, yet driver at my LA garage pull it every now and then). As for the reefer load itself, you'll typically find yourself handling the better paying hazmat deliveries, as the temperature load pay less than dry freight, and the dry freight load pay less for a reefer than they'd do for a drybox on the same job, since you load less weight every time vs the same load in a drybox.

Mind you, only the extreme change. I did a small excel file to get stats of my jobs when hauling my reefer, and when hauling my drybox.

In average, I was getting 10-15$ less per mile, and hauling approx 38500 lbs in average, vs a drybox average load being in the 39300 lbs range for me. This means I have higher gross weight (trailer is 3000 pounds heavier, roughly) and less pay. But I can take that frozen load that pays under the drybox average...

Until frozen load gets a special status that increases reward (note that there isn't any "type" that indicate frozen, just name, common sense, and realizing you didnt see that type of cargo before while hauling with a drybox) or that some dry load do not get such a high penalty to reward (not all mind you, some should not pay as much (like empty pallets, roughly 140 less pallets in a reefer than a drybox (400ish vs 540ish), dont bother paying the extra 100k for a trailer tha will overall make you less money.

[Calisthra]

This whole thing may be the result of devs not knowing the American industry as well as they do the European market. On average, reefers will make considerably more than a dryvan. Albeit they do cost more to operate and maintain, the added revenues more than account for the extra cost factors.

Flatbeds are much different depending on how they're used. If hauling commodity materials (drywall, most lumber, etc) they will average about what a dryvan gets, maybe slightly more. Toss on machinery or other specialized goods and the rates will go much higher. Go to over dimentional and then you start seeing the rate go up exponentially.

Exceptions apply to all the above. Tradeshows, specialized carriers, expidite services are the leaders in exceptions.

[Verfallen]

Originally posted by Calisthra:

This whole thing may be the result of devs not knowing the American industry as well as they do the European market. On average, reefers will make considerably more than a dryvan. Albeit they do cost more to operate and maintain, the added revenues more than account for the extra cost factors.

Flatbeds are much different depending on how they're used. If hauling commodity materials (drywall, most lumber, etc) they will average about what a dryvan gets, maybe slightly more. Toss on machinery or other specialized goods and the rates will go much higher. Go to over dimentional and then you start seeing the rate go up exponentially.

Exceptions apply to all the above. Tradeshows, specialized carriers, expidite services are the leaders in exceptions.

typically, they make more regardless. The training required for the driver to operate and tie down the load safely, the trailer itself is also more expensive contrary to what you see in game. A drybox is a bit like a suspended bridge, the bridge platform is actually not what holds the weight, and is fairly flimsy, the wall and ceiling all work together to spread the weight. A flatbed has a massively reinforced floor that has to hold the weight by itself.

We often see shippers that do not want to pay flatbed rate, and try to ship ridiculously shaped/weighted items in drybox thinking because it fits in the door, its obviously doable.

As for reefers, obviously its a high risk high reward scenario. If you forget a load in a drybox in a yard, you get a pissed off customer that was waiting for his goods 3 days ago.

If you forget a reefer, it runs out of fuel, and you have to pay for a load that is entirely lost, and most likely pay a trailer cleanup. Would be kinda nice to see frozen load get such a mechanic, you have to fuel your reefer at gas station, if you forget and it runs out, cargo starts getting damaged fast, but you have much higher pay per mile. You would also need some setting control and on/off for when you haul dry goods to not spend fuel for nothing.

[Calisthra]

Originally posted by Verfallen:

<snip>

If you forget a reefer, it runs out of fuel, and you have to pay for a load that is entirely lost, and most likely pay a trailer cleanup. Would be kinda nice to see frozen load get such a mechanic, you have to fuel your reefer at gas station, if you forget and it runs out, cargo starts getting damaged fast, but you have much higher pay per mile. You would also need some setting control and on/off for when you haul dry goods to not spend fuel for nothing.

Because I make my living running LTL reefer now, I would welcome this but sadly I believe it is outside the scope of this game and not likely to ever see implimentation. Just like securement for open-deck loads would also fit into this category. Few folks outside the industry understand that a driving career is far more than holding a steering wheel.

[Verfallen]

Originally posted by Calisthra:

Originally posted by Verfallen:

<snip>

If you forget a reefer, it runs out of fuel, and you have to pay for a load that is entirely lost, and most likely pay a trailer cleanup. Would be kinda nice to see frozen load get such a mechanic, you have to fuel your reefer at gas station, if you forget and it runs out, cargo starts getting damaged fast, but you have much higher pay per mile. You would also need some setting control and on/off for when you haul dry goods to not spend fuel for nothing.

Because I make my living running LTL reefer now, I would welcome this but sadly I believe it is outside the scope of this game and not likely to ever see implimentation. Just like securement for open-deck loads would also fit into this category. Few folks outside the industry understand that a driving career is far more than holding a steering wheel.

Yeh I get you. I mean obviously tie-downs and such may be too complex to implement, and outside the general public audience target of the game. The reefer usage tough, is relatively simple to understand, and would be a very welcome addition. At least a reefer on/off option, even if temperature itself isnt implemented.

[Calisthra]

Everyone loves frozen tomatos :p