Routes and trips
A route is the list of stops a vehicle drives. You set it once, and the vehicle repeats it until you change it, also while you are away. A trip is one drive from a stop to the next.
Stops
Section titled StopsA stop is one place and one action.
| Action | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Load | one of your sites | The vehicle takes the good on until it is full. |
| Unload | one of your sites | The cargo moves into the storage of the site. What does not fit stays on the vehicle. |
| Sell | a market | The market buys the whole cargo of the good at its price of that moment. |
| Buy | a harbor | The vehicle loads an imported good, as much as fits and as your cash pays for. |
| Collect, deliver | a town | The vehicle takes on or hands over the freight of a job. |
A route needs two places. Two stops in a row may share a place, so a vehicle can sell at a market and then load from your store there.
Loading until full
Section titled Loading until fullA vehicle at a load stop waits until it is full. That is the main rule of the game: fewer, fuller trips.
- After 4 h the vehicle leaves with what it has, so a site that stopped never blocks a route.
- A load stop may carry a minimum load. The vehicle then leaves as soon as the site covers that much, with all that is there.
- Any stop may carry a wait of up to 12 hours after its handling.
How long a trip takes
Section titled How long a trip takesThe game runs in real time. A trip takes the drive time of a car on the real road, stretched by the vehicle type, plus the handling at each stop.
Hamburg to Munich is 777 km of road. A 
pickup needs 7 h 26 min, a 
truck 9 h 40 min. Long hauls are plays for the night.
A short loop looks like this: a pickup needs 5 min at each stop, so a market 9 minutes from the farm makes a round trip of about half an hour, in which a 
farm grows the 2.0 t the pickup carries.
The map shows each vehicle on its road with its arrival time. The position is computed from the trip, so it is right after a reload and after a week away.
Selling
Section titled SellingA sell stop sells at the price of the moment the vehicle arrives, not the price you saw when you set the route. Each kg you sell lowers the price a little, so a large load is paid the price at the halfway point of its delivery. See Markets and prices.
A full town market takes only what fits. The rest stays on the vehicle, and the game tells you three times: the sale notice names the kg that were not sold, an alert names the vehicle, and the history of the stop keeps the number.
Changing a route
Section titled Changing a routeYou can set a route on a vehicle whatever it does. When it starts depends on where the vehicle is.
| The vehicle | The new route starts |
|---|---|
| is parked | at once, from where it stands |
| stands at a stop | from that stop, when the vehicle would have left |
| is on the road | after the trip and the stop it drives to. Until then "Discard new route" takes it back. |
A vehicle that changes its route at a stop takes nothing on there that the new route never sells or unloads, so a change of plan strands no cargo. Cargo that is already on board stays on board.
Sending a vehicle once
Section titled Sending a vehicle onceA vehicle that stands still can be sent to one of your sites or to a market without a route. It drives there, pays the operating cost of the trip, parks and keeps its cargo. A vehicle that is driving is paused first.
The route editor
Section titled The route editorThe route editor names what a route is worth before you start it. Each market in its list shows what it pays you now for the good of the stop and the road from the stop before. One line under the stops estimates a round trip: its road, the least time it takes and what a full vehicle earns after its operating cost.
When a route stops
Section titled When a route stops- Paused. You paused the vehicle. A new route ends the pause.
- Waiting for cash. Your cash is at its floor and the route sells nothing. See Money and the day.
- Stopped. The route failed, for example because one of its sites was demolished. An alert names the vehicle.
- Dormant. You were away for 14 days. See Time and being away.
History
Section titled HistoryEvery arrival at a stop writes a line into the history: the vehicle, the place, the good, the kg, the money of the action and the operating cost of the trip. You read it per vehicle, per site, per market and for the whole company. The game keeps 30 days.