Trukz, the trucking sim

[vex]

The following details the available member positions and titles in the game:

CEO - Company CEOs are the guys at the top and have the option to specify member titles, wages, and specific percentages on collections, repair assistant, refuel assistance, and ticket assistance for every member of their company. This allows CEOs to fine tune their operations and provide specific allocations to specific members as deemed necessary. When a CEO provides a member with custom member specific collections, repair assistant, refuel assistance, and ticket assistance these allocations will overide the default allocations of collections, repair assistant, refuel assistance, and ticket assistance that are set for the entire company.

Vice President - This is the #2 position in the company behind the company CEO. The one member set as the Vice President of a company can be handed the CEO position if the company CEO decides to step down. This is a manual process that only the company CEO can peform. If the CEO retires, resets their account, or is deleted for inactivity the Vice President WILL NOT be handed the CEO position and the company will be liquidated as usual. Vice Presidents are given all the same acess as the company CEO.

Finance Manager - Any member with this title will work in the finance department for your company and will be provided access to view the full company ledgers as well as company ledger search functions. Multiple members can be set as Finance Managers.

Communications Manager - Any member with this title will work in the communications department for your company and will be provided with access to create and manage company bulletins. Multiple members can be set as Communication Managers.

HR Manager - Any member with this title will work in human resources for your company will be provided with access to hire and fire drivers as well as provide company members with specific member percentages, wages, and titles. Multiple members can be set as HR Managers.


Members with access (CEOs, VPs, & HR Managers) may also provide up to 8 members with paid company positions called waged positions. Wages allow companies to pay specific members in the company extra wages for whatever function deemed necessary. The position wage is based on a percentage of the company's end route collection percentage. (ie. A company with an end route collection percentage of 50% will give a member position that pays 10% wages a total collection of 5% of every end route collection earned by the company.) Company members with access can also specify an unlimited number of company titles for members within their company. The default title is "None" for every driver but the company is free to create any kind of company organizational structure by setting individual member titles as deemed necessary.

[RPI-Fan]

There is a lot of stuff that appears to be "random" (according to the admin) -- namely tickets/breakdowns.

Might be worth trying to get a sense of just how risky these things are by informally logging them here. So, if you drive over 10 fatigue, make a note of whether or not you get a ticket and we might be able to get a sense of whether or not it's worthwhile.

[MrBigglesworth]

FYI, I bought fuel injectors the other day, and I just did a quick calculation. They should save me about $1000 a month in gas costs for three months. With a cost of $1600, I'd have to say that they are a good deal, much better than the air filter or fuel filter.

[Brillig]

Regarding company funds, I think the #1 way to pour money into the FOFC coffers is for us to buy stock in the company. Unless I'm reading that wrong, that money goes right into the company funds.

[MrBigglesworth]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I will be delivering a cardboard ($500 bonus) from Monterrey all the way to Vancouver starting tomorrow. On top of the distance and the top5 bonus, Vancouver is a terminal city of my company, so I should cash in big on that one. Hopefully I won't break down too often...

FM

edit, hrm Vancouver has no demand for Cardboard actually. Of the cities with terminal, Billings, Atlanta, and Los Angeles all have a demand for it though. I'll find a way to make this work

I am in Monterrey right now, and I think I will take cardboard to Denver, even though I have a terminal in LA. Not only is Denver more $/mi, but I figure I will arrive in Denver at around the time the top five cargoes switch over, and Denver is in a central location where I can easily get to wherever the next best city is.

EDIT: I think I changed my mind, I'm going to try and go to Houston from Monterrey then get back to Monterrey before the top cargoes switch. If I don't think I will make it, I'll just take books to Montgomery and go from there.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

More on companies...

It costs $50,000 (+ some active member multiplier) to set up the 10% fuel discounts, etc. (each discount costs $50k and lasts for 60 days).

So with only 50 members, it's possible we would have a very tough time getting a lot of the benefits of companies right away. Then again, when a new company with 50-100 people shows up out of nowhere we might generate a lot of buzz and get a lot of members.

I don't think even the big companies have those yet(I was reading some of the chat in the Canadian Freightways CB Channel and one of their top employees mentioned that now that they have so many people and so many more terminals than anyone else they are looking into buying items for the first time)

If I'm understanding things right, the big benefit we'd be aiming to provide non FOFC players to try to get people to join us early on would be terminals scattered throughout the country so that there were as many options as possible for the delivery bonuses that come with delivering to one of your company's terminals(you get a 10% bonus on anything going into a terminal of a company you work for if I understand things correctly). We can also do something like charge FOFC members a higher collect %(nothing absurd, just more) and do some bulletins and message board posts indicating that our core group is willing to pay more so that we can have a lower collect % for everyone else just to encourage growth and to try to become the biggest company in the game.

[vex]

And discounts are seperate from company assistance, correct?


Just throwing numbers out here, but yeah, we could charge outsiders 5% while we charge FOFCers(or at least the ones who will go along with it) 15-30%. That would make us VERY attractive and I'm sure we could even poach quite a few employees.

[cmp]

I've been regularly going to 13 fatigue with no tickets as of yet.

[vex]

Driver ID:		NoMyths
Number of Routes:		2
Driver Route History
Dates	Cities	Cargo	COD On Time	Completed
7/14/2007 4:50:02 PM 7/16/2007 3:07:37 PM	Richmond Salt Lake City	Electronics 40,000 lbs	$1,720	In Route 2,072 Miles To Go

You had better hurry, those people want their copies of NCAA '08!

[MrBigglesworth]

Originally Posted by gold101

I've been regularly going to 13 fatigue with no tickets as of yet.

I only see two reasons to go over ten:

- You won't be at the computer for a while, so you will lose the turns if you don't go over

- You need to get to a destination before a certain deadline, and going over will get you there on that turn.

Otherwise, I don't see any advantages to it. Am I missing something?

[hawk4669]

I got a HOS ticket earlier....put me into negative money. I'm almost to my destination though. Tough getting started so far....but I might stick with this one for a bit.

Cheers!

[cmp]

Originally Posted by MrBigglesworth

I only see two reasons to go over ten:

- You won't be at the computer for a while, so you will lose the turns if you don't go over

- You need to get to a destination before a certain deadline, and going over will get you there on that turn.

Otherwise, I don't see any advantages to it. Am I missing something?

That's probably about right, I've been pushing it to 13 because I won't always have time to be at the computer.

[vex]

Ok, here's the data I have collected on tickets.


Driving beyond allowed HOS at a fatigue level of 11. - $125.00
Driving beyond allowed HOS at a fatigue level of 12. - $150.00
Driving beyond allowed HOS at a fatigue level of 13. - $175.00
Driving beyond allowed HOS at a fatigue level of 14. - $200.00
Driving beyond allowed HOS at a fatigue level of 15. - $225.00



Speeding at 61 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $125.00
Speeding at 62 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $125.00
Speeding at 63 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $125.00
Speeding at 63 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $137.50

Speeding at 65 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $150.00
Speeding at 75 MPH in a 65 MPH zone. - $150.00
Speeding at 72 MPH in a 60 MPH zone. - $150.00
Speeding at 65 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $165.00

Speeding at 71 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $175.00
Speeding at 75 MPH in a 60 MPH zone. - $192.50
Speeding at 71 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $192.50

Speeding at 75 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $200.00
Speeding at 76 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $220.00
Speeding at 82 MPH in a 60 MPH zone. - $220.00
Speeding at 80 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. - $247.50





Overweight cargo of 41,000 pounds. - $50.00
Overweight cargo of 42,000 pounds. - $50.00
Overweight cargo of 43,000 pounds. - $75.00
Overweight cargo of 44,000 pounds. - $75.00
Overweight cargo of 45,000 pounds. - $100.00
Overweight cargo of 46,000 pounds. - $100.00
Overweight cargo of 47,000 pounds. - $150.00
Overweight cargo of 48,000 pounds. - $200.00

Overweight cargo of 50,000 pounds. - $300.00

A few notes. As far as HOS goes, I've noticed a bug, maybe? I didn't find a single person with "Driving beyond allowed HOS at a fatigue level of 14" with the exception of "admin". So if you happen to make to 14, stop there!

With tickets, I just posted some random data I found. However, the one's with $xxx.50 , I believe that is a result of them having a radar detector, since that makes tickets 10% more expensive.

And for the cargo weight. Either it's just plain lack of data, or a bug, but I couldn't find a single person who had "Overweight cargo of 49,000 pounds".

[MrBigglesworth]

Hmmmm...good work vex. Based off of this, it looks like optimum cargo weight might be 46k. I wonder what the odds are of getting an overweight ticket.

[Alan T]

Got my shipment of mobile homes from Richmond to El paso about 30 minutes before my deadline and collected about $1200 or so (after company expenses). Was a somewhat expensive trip as I broke down 3 times and refueled twice during it. I still ended up making some money though. Reached about $4700 or so and decided to sell my truck for $2500 and bought myself the Volvo WIA64T for $6000.00

I now am in El paso with about $1000.00 left and am going to try to fit in a small route today before the cargo changes on Monday.

(Also remember put all of your money in the bank before monday so you can get interest on it)

[ozias]

You got me hooked. I'm in as Ozias.

I started in Miami and I'm on the way to Monterrey with some rocks. Will pickup some cardboard to get the bonus, but haven't as of yet decided where I will haul it to. I've got 728 mile to go before I reach Monterrey, and I need to be there before the 12am best cargo change over. I will have 8 FP in a little while, but I think I will wait until I have all 10 FP back before continuing on with the next leg. I will use the "rest" feature to gain back 2 FP some time during this leg, and that should get me 600 miles closer, then I will need to wait until later tonight to finish the run, or take a chance on finishing it by going over HOS.

I am tempted to just use all of the FP I have right now, along with the "rest", and then check back in 8 hours.

Since I drive for a living and have put some thought into it, it seems like the best thing is to do everything in 12 hour intervals. When you get up in the morning, drive for your 10 FP, then either repair your rig, or fuel it so you have 11 FP used. Then when you get home from work, wait a few hours for the 12 to be up, and then repeat, except do the opposite for your 11th FP here. If you fueled the first time, then repair here, and vice versa. This way you always use 11 FP, and since you'll be away for 12 hours, you'll always be able to complete another 10 FP driving. You could even do repairs and get fuel after every trip, especially if the fuel is really cheap.

I got it for $1.85 at the end of one trip. You don't need to get fuel every day, most rigs will go 1,000-1,200 miles, so you can always wait a day or two for fuel.

[Brillig]

Couple of things:

First of all, it does look like stocks are a decent way to fund a company *if* they ever implement the change that allows only a company's employees to buy stock. The reason being that the stock price is completely absurd. The major component of stock price is cash on hand/100. In other words, any company with more than 100 shares outstanding is basically broke as soon as someone redeems their shares.

This is technically untrue, because there's a $500/day limit on transactions, so the price will come down. However, it highlights the problem that whenever a company tries to build up money for a big purchase, say an eighth terminal or a discount, there will be huge pressure on stockholders to sell. For example, if Canadian Freightways were to shell out $50,000 for a gas discount, their stock price would go from $789 to $289. Presumably they're actually saving for their ninth terminal, which will run them about $80-odd thousand. Anyone not selling CF right now is an idiot...

Because of this, while you can raise cash through stock sales, anyone who's actually interested in profiting will be working counter to your company's interest. So the only effective way to use stock to finance company expansion is to sell to a group of investors who aren't looking for monetary gain. Like a core group. Unfortunately, 'company only' sales are being worked on - i.e., not available yet. Also unfortunately, it would be inadvisable to throw open our doors as well as our stock - we would be better off running with just the FOFC crowd until we're done with stock contributions and move on from there.

I also disagree with the idea of using high contributions from the FOFC crowd as a draw to get more drivers in the door. Fundamentally, outside drivers are going to care about how much we ask them to contribute, what we give back in terms of assistance, and how many terminals we have. If we have 40 people on 50% contribution, so what? They'll say 'that's nice, call me when you have eight terminals and we'll talk.' And even if we could bring people in under those terms, would we want to? Remember, by cranking up contribution on FOFC members to subsidize others, we're hindering our own progress to advance people who can and will change companies at the drop of a hat.

I think we're better off just being a FOFC only company, using stock to fund our expansion, then throw open our doors later. Remember that contracts are coming, and I expect that FOFC can do a better job competing than a random company of strangers.

[NoMyths]

Originally Posted by vex

You had better hurry, those people want their copies of NCAA '08!

Hehe...good time to mention I've decided to toss my truck into the ring as well. This load to Salt Lake City is supposed to bring in 1.7k, give or take, before expenses.

[vex]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Couple of things:

First of all, it does look like stocks are a decent way to fund a company *if* they ever implement the change that allows only a company's employees to buy stock.

Are you saying that the feature they have now isn't working? Because you can set your company stock to private, public, or none.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by vex

Are you saying that the feature they have now isn't working? Because you can set your company stock to private, public, or none.

I was gonna say that...

FM

[Alan T]

I actually have been looking at the stocks too, but can't buy any until I've played for 2 weeks. What I was thinking of doing was buying up the Canadian company stocks and then at the right time cash them in to use that money to help fund a FOFC company.

My rating is 0.65 which feels like its pretty good for only like 2 days of this, but I don't see a huge benefit to rushing out and buying a company. I feel if i hadn't bought a new truck I could have had the cash to purchase a fofc company by Tuesday easily, but I think going this route and building up a bit more cash and a bit more standing is a better path for now. (That and I'm only at like 2500 of the 10000 miles needed to start it).

It seems pretty easy to make money in this game at least, even with all of the repair costs, so I think its just a matter of time to get the cash we need for one.

[Brillig]

Originally Posted by vex

Are you saying that the feature they have now isn't working? Because you can set your company stock to private, public, or none.

I'm just going by this:

http://z6.invisionfree.com/Trukz/ind...?showtopic=552

3rd post where admin says that private means that no one can buy your stock, but he's working on the company only option. That was July 11th, haven't seen anything more recent.

[SnDvls]

another tip....if you are tired beyond 9 or so don't pick a new route right away as you probally won't make it on time to your next stop and cost yourself money as in a penalty.

so far (knock on wood) my overload hasn't gotten me into trouble...I've been driving in the rain too and pushed it to 11 each time I log in.

I'm hauling 45,000 lbs of rock from Vancouver to Monterey


Also we should track the gas on each leg from city to city to help with refuling too.

So for example I'm on leg 26 of 44 between Vancouver, Canada to Monterrey, Mexico and gas is $2.05 a gallon.

[jackyl]

Jackyl was taken, so I'm in as DoucheDaddy. Going from Corpus Christi to Veracruz with a big load of lumber.

[Brillig]

Right now buying stock in another company is pretty insane, considering that the instant they invest in some infrastructure, all your stock value goes away...

[Crim]

Originally Posted by MrBigglesworth

Communist!

Umm, to everyone according to their need, from everyone according to their ability? Or something like that...

[Brillig]

Hmm, just thought of a scam to start a company early.

Sell your truck.

Start company.

Get loans.

Buy new truck.

[Brillig]

Dola.

Or the kamikaze tactic:

Sell truck.

Start company.

Appoint successor.

Restart driver.

[vex]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Hmm, just thought of a scam to start a company early.

Sell your truck.

Start company.

Get loans.

Buy new truck.

I believe you have to have a truck to start a company.

[Brillig]

Possibly. Doesn't say so in the game guide though.

[Poli]

Calm down, killer.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Hmm, just thought of a scam to start a company early.

Sell your truck.

Start company.

Get loans.

Buy new truck.

You have to have 10k miles logged, otherwise I would likely have been able to start a company by tommorrow or the next day.

[Brillig]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Calm down, killer.

I'm in ur hedge fundz, steeling ur marginz.

[Lathum]

can someone remind me again how many miles are needed to start a company

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

another tip....if you are tired beyond 9 or so don't pick a new route right away as you probally won't make it on time to your next stop and cost yourself money as in a penalty.

so far (knock on wood) my overload hasn't gotten me into trouble...I've been driving in the rain too and pushed it to 11 each time I log in.

I'm hauling 45,000 lbs of rock from Vancouver to Monterey


Also we should track the gas on each leg from city to city to help with refuling too.

So for example I'm on leg 26 of 44 between Vancouver, Canada to Monterrey, Mexico and gas is $2.05 a gallon.

This is what I have been doing and its worked great for me so far. Get completely to 0 fatigue before picking up a new route. Push your truck to 10 fatigue and stop, you can go additional legs as your fatigue falls below 10 again to push it back to 10. Make sure you max at 10 before you go to sleep for the night.

I only use the extra 2 fatigue points for $100 if I'm at the end and it will help me make it before deadline where not using it would mean I got fined. If I am close to my destination and like under 100 miles to destination when I hit 10 fatigue, I have twice pushed myself to 12 fatigue without any penalty to finish the route, however that then means a longer recovery time to get back to 0 fatigue also I might have just been pushing my luck and got lucky I didnt get a ticket.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

More on companies...

It costs $50,000 (+ some active member multiplier) to set up the 10% fuel discounts, etc. (each discount costs $50k and lasts for 60 days).

So with only 50 members, it's possible we would have a very tough time getting a lot of the benefits of companies right away. Then again, when a new company with 50-100 people shows up out of nowhere we might generate a lot of buzz and get a lot of members.

I think one of the things we need to figure out is do we want to keep our company FOFC exclusive

[jaygr]

Just wanted to say that I joined the game under the name Jaygr. Time to haul some cargo.

[Celeval]

I finished my third route, and am at 12 fatigue right now - should be coming off just around the time of the overnight switch. I'm at close to 2k miles with a 0.6 rating, and waiting in Dallas, which has a good variety of nearby cities to deliver to.

[Brillig]

Company contracts are now on the menu!

Hmm, looks like they come in two sizes. Less than 100 drivers and more than 100 drivers.

Grain to Houston
Cargo Type: Destination: Tons Required: Contract Dates: Min Company Size: Current Low Bid: Current Low Bidder: Reward: Penalty:	Grain Houston - Texas - USA 4,836 (Approx. 242 Loads) 7/16/2007 - 7/23/2007 100 Active Members None None $4,836.00 $9,672.00
Construction Equipment to Atlanta
Cargo Type: Destination: Tons Required: Contract Dates: Min Company Size: Current Low Bid: Current Low Bidder: Reward: Penalty:	Construction Equipment Atlanta - Georgia - USA 4,687 (Approx. 234 Loads) 7/16/2007 - 7/23/2007 100 Active Members None None $4,687.00 $9,374.00
Books to Toronto
Cargo Type: Destination: Tons Required: Contract Dates: Max Company Size: Current Low Bid: Current Low Bidder: Reward: Penalty:	Books Toronto - Ontario - Canada 842 (Approx. 42 Loads) 7/16/2007 - 7/23/2007 100 Active Members None None $842.00 $1,684.00

[vex]

Looks like Coder and Ageofquarrel have joined up as well

[vex]

Got my Myspace link approved.

Depreciation, well, sucks.

Truck Details
Truck Image:
Date Purchased:	7/15/2007
Year:	1989
Make:	Volvo
Model:	WIA64T
Purchase Cost:	$6,000.00
Current Value:	$4,980.00

[vex]

Ok, just found something out that I hadn't thought of. My old truck's fuel was at 50%. Well, when you buy a new truck the dealership is kind enough to fill up the tank. I saved $250. Not much, but hey.

[Coder]

Originally Posted by vex

Looks like Coder and Ageofquarrel have joined up as well

Yah.. As I told Bigs last night, I'm not sure how long I can stay motivated. I tried the rockstar thing a few years ago and was bored to tears.. maybe this will be more fun?

[vex]

Cargo Weight:

49,000 lbs

Going to test my theory here.

[tarcone]

If you have a crappy truck, dont go for a long haul. I will have spent almost $900 dollars in gas and a repair to make $1400.
Bad truck= short routes.
good truck= long routes.

Almost to Halifax. Sitting about 216 miles outside of Halifax. This route has been tough.
Should finish it today sometime then to NYC and a bunch of short routes.
I will have about 2500 miles and 4000 dollars after this trip

1st one to 10k and 7k gets to start the company?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Brillig

I also disagree with the idea of using high contributions from the FOFC crowd as a draw to get more drivers in the door. Fundamentally, outside drivers are going to care about how much we ask them to contribute, what we give back in terms of assistance, and how many terminals we have. If we have 40 people on 50% contribution, so what? They'll say 'that's nice, call me when you have eight terminals and we'll talk.' And even if we could bring people in under those terms, would we want to? Remember, by cranking up contribution on FOFC members to subsidize others, we're hindering our own progress to advance people who can and will change companies at the drop of a hat.

I don't think we should do something insanely high like a 50% contribution, I was thinking something more along the lines of having our core group of FOFC Members at say, 13%, but setting the actual %`for anyone else at 7 or 8%, enough to undercut most of the big companies while still being able to provide fuel/repair assistance.


As to the question of whether we make our company exclusively FOFC, my reason for thinking that's a bad idea is that I'm assuming this will play out like many FOFC Online Endeavors. We have a large number of people checking this out now, its new and a big thread that's getting updated a lot. But in the end I would expect a much smaller contingent of people to stick with it and play it consistantly over any sort of long term period. If we're down to 10-15 people in a couple weeks there won't be nearly as much that we can do.


I haven't researched stocks much at all. I do know that Canadian Freightways has requested that its company members do not buy stock in their company, but rather in other public companies. They also had a strategy outlined to buy at a certain time(probably right before updates) and to sell right after the price jumps up. From what other people have posted it sounds like we may want to stay private and not offer stock at all(I'm assuming that's an option if i'm reading things right?) as it can screw with things a lot more than it helps.

[FrogMan]

I'm 96 miles from Monterrey, should get there in a couple of hours. I'm anxious to be able to try out some calculations about roads hauling that cardboard around...

FM

[Alan T]

I ended up in Dallas and tired for the rest of the day. I'm going to stay put there until midnight when the supply routes are re-calculated. Up to 0.78 rating and almost 2700 miles driven now.

[vex]

admin

Posted: Jul 8 2007, 11:34 PM

Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 626 Member No.: 1 Joined: 4-March 07

The way other continents will work will be drivers will pay a fee to move their person to the new continent and city of their choice and they will then purchase a new truck once they reach their destination. They will only be able to travel if they do not have a truck so you'll have to not be in route, sell your truck, and have enough money to move and purchase another truck before moving. This will be a later addition to the game once more of the bugs are caught and corrected in the game.

[Poli]

Originally Posted by Brillig

I'm in ur hedge fundz, steeling ur marginz.

I read your email.