Company management tips pls

[xX| 1S_C4 |Xx]

What are the best tips to min-max your company?

Any addition, suggestion or improvement will be greatly appreciated. My company has 80+ great drivers but is sort of all over the place, mostly organised based on intuition and guesswork. Some mild roleplay just for fun too (my garage in Salt Lake City has only hot redheads driving bright-red Volvos). And even tho I'm making fat stacks every week (almost 4M), I'm not so sure I'm earning as much as I could.

So far, here's how I run things:

For garage locations, I usually buy the ones in the biggest cities first. I assume there's no shortage of jobs for them there. Is it right that when a driver picks a job FROM the garage's city, it will also attempt to pick a job TO the garage's city on its way back? How does the employee AI picks jobs anyway?

In each garage, when the money starts to stockpile, I start from the most productive ones and buy a small fleet of good trailers for them to use. A diverse collection, because I imagine it opens up more profitable job opportunities for them. Mostly maxxed-out lowboys, flatbeds, and reefers. I started buying food tanks too where they're allowed. Usually 3 of each at least. Since there's only 5 drivers per garage, I imagine this should be good enough so that when one of them returns, there's always one of each type in the garage for them to use. I also put at least two score 10 drivers in each garage to make sure there's a minimum productivity. Should I concentrate my best drivers, disperse them, or balance them out like I'm doing right now? Does it change anything?

I also buy garages in locations good for fast-travel when I'm between jobs. They generate $0 profits but they're there when I don't feel like actually driving from Seattle to Roswell. They also serve just as storage for the trucks I buy just for myself.

Every 3 or so popups about drivers levelling up, I stop and enter driver management and go through the entire list checking if any driver has maxxed a skill and/or needs to change their training policy. My priorities for them from start to finish are:
1) Long Distance until lvl 3
2) Just-In-Time twice
3) Fragile Cargo once
4) High-Value Cargo once
5) Just-In-Time until maxxed
6) Fragile Cargo until maxxed
7) High-Value Cargo until maxxed
8) Hazardous Cargo until maxxed
9) Fuel Economy until maxxed
My reasoning is that they'll level the basics first to unlock most job types as soon as possible and from then on just keep improving to earn more money from each job. I'm not entirely sure their levelling affects their jobs exactly how it affects the player's. That's how I levelled myself, and thought of applying the same training to the employees.

I think that's about what most important stuff I can remember from the on top of my head right now. Ask away if you want to know how I manage other company aspects. I'm not using any mods, just the base game + all DLCs.

Please help me make more money!

[Wolfgang]

I think you are pretty good there. Money becomes something that isn't really important as you progress.

As to the AI picking jobs: Yes, the return job is back to their home garage. But the game has a hardcoded 10% chance of them not finding a job to their home garage and returning empty.

As for trailers: You can use them but you have to keep in mind that some trailers drastically limit the available jobs for your hired drivers. Logging trailers are a prime example for that. Finding jobs for them is really hard and as your drivers have to return home with these the chance that they won't find a job home is pretty high.

[Timberwolf]

Looks like you don't enough money though to buy vowels for the word "please" 😏😄

[Trucker_71]

It's not that complicated.

[Sandhill]

Just have fun, there is no right or wrong way to do things, I just let my drivers manage their own skills, there is minimal advantage and maximal work involved in micro managing them.

[headbunt]

okay! finally someone thinking like myself. If your happy with doing it your way, keep doing it. I have my way and here it is . I worked for a trucking company ( look at avatar ) It is the only mod I have. I picked a peterbuilt because of mirrors and speedometer I can see. after I got a little experience in game I bought my own truck with a day cab, I picked san francisco for first garage. I learned that albequrque would have been better there are 4 to 7 pages of jobs available most of the time. so when I got enough money to buy a sleeper truck , I turned my day cab to a new driver and achievement on long distance driving, PAYDAY is on my saturday . If a driver gets 2 --1000 mile trips he gets a bare assed small motor 500 hp motor and NOT a hi rise sleeper. when this driver gets the new truck his rating is about 5 and gets put on balanced achievements. I then hire a new driver looking for a block in long distance miles and if none the first 4 drivers are usually the best but you hire anyone if you like redheads or weird looking or someone that looks like you, it really does not matter. So advance to garages I only buy a garage when I drive in the yard of it, 3 or 5 doors don't matter depends on money. so repeat as often as money allows. when a driver in a standup truck gets a rating of 10, that gives him a brand new fully loaded high rise chromed out truck, every truck in the fleet is company colors . the micro management can be carried to drivers producing or not . in drivers menu far right side is money earned . the bottom 5 drivers are they making enough for you? If not punish them by demoting to a day cab and they start over again. or move them to a garage that is not very productive or has no trucks, this you can choose. I have almost 200 trucks 100 trailers all garages except colorado still need 3 garages there. I started when money allowed 5 day cabs in one terminal ( garage ) and keeps it easier to keep track of. and get promoted and new driver gets day cab. when trucks get to hi miles on them I trade them in and that for me is 150 thousand miles. as for trailers, I tried using one and did not care for it but you do you. For the beginning I did the sleep cycle in one of my garages as I got my truck with a sleeper I use any sleep area. hope the next dlc is a staff for the garages like a secretary in each garage to send all paperwork collected to my home terminal so I can pay on saturday. also would like a handy/man in every garage . his job to clean the drivers lounge and replenish the food vending machines sweep the floors and clean outside. I don't like tires and pallets laying around. the drivers Lounge is when your inside garage use mouse to look at left wall, there is a stairway and a door upstairs so I figure that is office and lounge. So that is mine with 280 million, money don't matter and I do stop at scales unless I am in hammer lane then I don't bother, I do not speed but do get caught occasionally. So that is my company, hope it gives you ideas.

[xX| 1S_C4 |Xx]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

I think you are pretty good there. Money becomes something that isn't really important as you progress.

As to the AI picking jobs: Yes, the return job is back to their home garage. But the game has a hardcoded 10% chance of them not finding a job to their home garage and returning empty.

As for trailers: You can use them but you have to keep in mind that some trailers drastically limit the available jobs for your hired drivers. Logging trailers are a prime example for that. Finding jobs for them is really hard and as your drivers have to return home with these the chance that they won't find a job home is pretty high.

Most of my drivers really like reefers. I guess it's because you can use them for all sorts of goods, not only the ones that need freezing. It's really funny to see it in the driver manager someone using a refrigerated container to transport furniture. Must be a shipment of cool gaming chairs.

The lowboy trailers also seem to have a very decent list of what you can load onto them.

By the way, does the AI pick jobs based on highest final payout or based on price per distance? Or some other calculations?

[xX| 1S_C4 |Xx]

Originally posted by headbunt:

okay! finally someone thinking like myself. If your happy with doing it your way, keep doing it. I have my way and here it is . I worked for a trucking company ( look at avatar ) It is the only mod I have. I picked a peterbuilt because of mirrors and speedometer I can see. after I got a little experience in game I bought my own truck with a day cab, I picked san francisco for first garage. I learned that albequrque would have been better there are 4 to 7 pages of jobs available most of the time. so when I got enough money to buy a sleeper truck , I turned my day cab to a new driver and achievement on long distance driving, PAYDAY is on my saturday . If a driver gets 2 --1000 mile trips he gets a bare assed small motor 500 hp motor and NOT a hi rise sleeper. when this driver gets the new truck his rating is about 5 and gets put on balanced achievements. I then hire a new driver looking for a block in long distance miles and if none the first 4 drivers are usually the best but you hire anyone if you like redheads or weird looking or someone that looks like you, it really does not matter. So advance to garages I only buy a garage when I drive in the yard of it, 3 or 5 doors don't matter depends on money. so repeat as often as money allows. when a driver in a standup truck gets a rating of 10, that gives him a brand new fully loaded high rise chromed out truck, every truck in the fleet is company colors . the micro management can be carried to drivers producing or not . in drivers menu far right side is money earned . the bottom 5 drivers are they making enough for you? If not punish them by demoting to a day cab and they start over again. or move them to a garage that is not very productive or has no trucks, this you can choose. I have almost 200 trucks 100 trailers all garages except colorado still need 3 garages there. I started when money allowed 5 day cabs in one terminal ( garage ) and keeps it easier to keep track of. and get promoted and new driver gets day cab. when trucks get to hi miles on them I trade them in and that for me is 150 thousand miles. as for trailers, I tried using one and did not care for it but you do you. For the beginning I did the sleep cycle in one of my garages as I got my truck with a sleeper I use any sleep area. hope the next dlc is a staff for the garages like a secretary in each garage to send all paperwork collected to my home terminal so I can pay on saturday. also would like a handy/man in every garage . his job to clean the drivers lounge and replenish the food vending machines sweep the floors and clean outside. I don't like tires and pallets laying around. the drivers Lounge is when your inside garage use mouse to look at left wall, there is a stairway and a door upstairs so I figure that is office and lounge. So that is mine with 280 million, money don't matter and I do stop at scales unless I am in hammer lane then I don't bother, I do not speed but do get caught occasionally. So that is my company, hope it gives you ideas.

The devs should really give the base game company sim more love.

You only really need to pay attention to it at the start. But once you have two garages far away from each other, some 5 or so drivers and no more loans to pay, it's an exponential growth from there. You can just fast-travel from here to there and keep purchasing new trucks, garages, and drivers. Very soon you'll be making fat stacks every week.

I try to standardize my driver's trucks on a garage by garage basis. All five in the same garage have the same specs and paintjobs.

[Verfallen]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

I think you are pretty good there. Money becomes something that isn't really important as you progress.

As to the AI picking jobs: Yes, the return job is back to their home garage. But the game has a hardcoded 10% chance of them not finding a job to their home garage and returning empty.

As for trailers: You can use them but you have to keep in mind that some trailers drastically limit the available jobs for your hired drivers. Logging trailers are a prime example for that. Finding jobs for them is really hard and as your drivers have to return home with these the chance that they won't find a job home is pretty high.

Doesnt really matter for AI. They can dismiss and "summon" another trailer from their garage.

So even though say driver A took a dry box from salt lake city to denver, he can magically come back with a flat bed, unless this was changed in recent months.

Now weither or not its worth it gameplay wise to buy more than say 5 drybox, or even any trailer at all is debatable.

[Supernovae]

Originally posted by xX| 1ECR:

Originally posted by headbunt:

okay! finally someone thinking like myself. If your happy with doing it your way, keep doing it. I have my way and here it is . I worked for a trucking company ( look at avatar ) It is the only mod I have. I picked a peterbuilt because of mirrors and speedometer I can see. after I got a little experience in game I bought my own truck with a day cab, I picked san francisco for first garage. I learned that albequrque would have been better there are 4 to 7 pages of jobs available most of the time. so when I got enough money to buy a sleeper truck , I turned my day cab to a new driver and achievement on long distance driving, PAYDAY is on my saturday . If a driver gets 2 --1000 mile trips he gets a bare assed small motor 500 hp motor and NOT a hi rise sleeper. when this driver gets the new truck his rating is about 5 and gets put on balanced achievements. I then hire a new driver looking for a block in long distance miles and if none the first 4 drivers are usually the best but you hire anyone if you like redheads or weird looking or someone that looks like you, it really does not matter. So advance to garages I only buy a garage when I drive in the yard of it, 3 or 5 doors don't matter depends on money. so repeat as often as money allows. when a driver in a standup truck gets a rating of 10, that gives him a brand new fully loaded high rise chromed out truck, every truck in the fleet is company colors . the micro management can be carried to drivers producing or not . in drivers menu far right side is money earned . the bottom 5 drivers are they making enough for you? If not punish them by demoting to a day cab and they start over again. or move them to a garage that is not very productive or has no trucks, this you can choose. I have almost 200 trucks 100 trailers all garages except colorado still need 3 garages there. I started when money allowed 5 day cabs in one terminal ( garage ) and keeps it easier to keep track of. and get promoted and new driver gets day cab. when trucks get to hi miles on them I trade them in and that for me is 150 thousand miles. as for trailers, I tried using one and did not care for it but you do you. For the beginning I did the sleep cycle in one of my garages as I got my truck with a sleeper I use any sleep area. hope the next dlc is a staff for the garages like a secretary in each garage to send all paperwork collected to my home terminal so I can pay on saturday. also would like a handy/man in every garage . his job to clean the drivers lounge and replenish the food vending machines sweep the floors and clean outside. I don't like tires and pallets laying around. the drivers Lounge is when your inside garage use mouse to look at left wall, there is a stairway and a door upstairs so I figure that is office and lounge. So that is mine with 280 million, money don't matter and I do stop at scales unless I am in hammer lane then I don't bother, I do not speed but do get caught occasionally. So that is my company, hope it gives you ideas.

The devs should really give the base game company sim more love.

You only really need to pay attention to it at the start. But once you have two garages far away from each other, some 5 or so drivers and no more loans to pay, it's an exponential growth from there. You can just fast-travel from here to there and keep purchasing new trucks, garages, and drivers. Very soon you'll be making fat stacks every week.

I try to standardize my driver's trucks on a garage by garage basis. All five in the same garage have the same specs and paintjobs.

That's what the Claas economy mod is for. I love having a profile where I make cents on the mile instead of dollars so I actually have to struggle to make enough money to buy a truck, nevermind afford staff early on. My profile with this mod has some mod trucks as well that can be purchased for around $50k which I see as "used" trucks, perfect for starting my own company. I do agree there should be a bit more depth in the default game, but it's set up for some good casual play with exponential growth once you hit a reasonable level.