Logistics - Trucking 101

So you’re wanting to make it to the big leagues and run the roads with 1000 trucks all making you money around the clock eh? Or maybe you just had a truck dropped in your lap and you don’t know what the heck to do. Either way, this guide will be aimed at ensuring you know the basic ins and outs of running a Trucking operation.

Step 1: Buying a Truck

The first step in any great endeavor is to start with something. For Meta Trucking that’s a Semi. Semi’s can be attained from the Global Market, located in Market > Global Market > Vehicles - Land menu.

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Once you have navigated here, you will see a list of available trucks for purchase. These trucks will all be brand new, and so you will be paying a premium for them. The truck will charge you from your account, as will anything related to Logistics Trucking. To purchase the truck, just find the one you are happy with (Right now, it’s all cosmetic. In a later update, trucks will have varying stats and it may be better or worse to pick a certain truck based on your company needs.). Once you have found it, select the city you want the truck delivered to, and hit purchase. (Note: In a future update shipping will take real time, so you may be better off buying a new or used truck closer to where you want to start your operations to save on shipping.).

Have a Voucher? Great! That entitles you to a free truck of your choice. Simply purchase the truck in the manner above, and the voucher will be used from your inventory and you will not be charged for the purchase.

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A Semi Voucher

 

Step 2: Hiring A Driver

A truck isn’t much good without someone to drive it for you! Don’t worry. It’s pretty darn easy to get someone hired. Simply Navigate to Interactions > Logistics > Staffing. This will open a new tab and it will list all of your currently hired workers (If you have any.).

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Simply select “Semi Driver” from the drop down menu and hit the “Hire New Worker” Button. This will automatically hire a semi driver for you. Again, as with Semis, hired workers will show up wherever you need them for their initial assignment. Now that you have your driver, and you have your truck, it’s time we get them together!

Step 3: Truck & Trucker Meetup
You can now close the staffing page tab, and look again at the Logistics Tab. On this screen you will by default see your Fleet Overview, which will look similar to this picture (But with your truck, not mine!). We will talk more about this screen later. For now, let’s get the driver in the truck! 

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To the right side of the screen there should be a drop-down. Here you should see your newly hired driver listed. Make sure they are selected, and then hit the blue “Assign Driver” button. That’s it! No, really, that’s all it takes. Now you have a truck and a driver, now let’s get a load so we can put that mother trucker to work for you! Gotta make them earn their paycheck!

Step 4: Finding Work

At the current iteration of Logistics Trucking, all loads are “Adhoc”. This means that the trailer is already provided for you, which makes things really easy for when you are just getting started. From your Fleet Overview Page, look to the left and you will see the city name and country flag of where your truck and driver are. This is where you will need to pick up their first load. To head to see the list of available loads in that city, simply click the city name / flag.

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Now you are on what is known as the “Job Board” for that city. Here you will see a list of all loads that are available to be taken. The following information is displayed on the job board:

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Type = The type of trailer for this load.

TP-R = Does the load come with a trailer? If it does, it will be a green check mark. If you need your own trailer, it will have a red X. Furthermore, are there any certifications required? If so, they will be listed here, and can include things like Flat Bed, Heavy Haul, etc. We won’t worry about those now, just know that you *Can’t* take those loads, yet.

Destination = Where this load needs to be delivered to, along with the approximate distance.

Payment = How much you will get paid for on-time, successful delivery of this load.

Details = Shows the deadline of when the load must be delivered by. This is important! Look at the helpful tips at the end of this guide to give you an idea of how to make assumptions based on the data here.

Options = This is where you will see the button to take a load. IMPORTANT: Since you are just starting out, and your driver is new, they will NOT have certifications, so do NOT take a load that has a RED button. Only take a load with a BLUE button. These loads require no certifications. 

Once you have found a load you’d like to haul, simply click the “Take Job” button. This will reserve the load to your company so no one can snatch it from you. 

Step 5: Sendin’ That Load!

You’ve got your truck. You’ve got your driver. You’ve told them you will take the cargo to it’s destination. Now it’s time to hook it up and get haulin! Don’t worry, you’ve got this! If you accepted the job, you will still be on the job board. Click the “Fleet” button up top to return to your “Fleet Overview” page. This is where you’ll find your truck, driver, and cargo!

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Once you are on the fleet overview screen, you will now see a bit different view from what you saw before. You will now see that your driver is assigned to the truck, likely with 0 points. We’ll talk about those in a bit. Right now, let’s get that load going so you aren’t wasting time and money! Starting an adhoc load on it’s way couldn’t be simpler. As long as the cargo is in the same city as an available truck and driver, there will be an “Attach Trailer” option on the right, which will show the shipment ID and where it’s going, along with if it requires certs. Select the load you accepted from the job board, and hit the blue “Attach/Detach” button. That’s it! It’s on the road on it’s way to it’s destination. While it’s doing that, let’s learn some more!

Know Your Pages

Fleet Overview - This is the page where you can easily manage the majority of your fleet. By default, this page will show up to 35 trucks at once. You can use the filters to show all trucks, trucks waiting for loads, or trucks that are being shipped, and secondarily, you can search by all countries, or in a specific country. These filters can be useful for finding the truck you are looking for as your fleet grows. Below, I’ve included a image of the truck I sent on the road in this tutorial, I’ve Circled areas and I’ll tell the info below, so you know what it means!

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Red: This area shows the image of your truck, it’s Unique ID, and it’s current location.

Green: This shows the year, make and model of your truck, it’s current mileage, and it’s fuel remaining/capacity. Below, if your driver has certifications, they will display here. Lastly on the bottom right, it shows that this truck is enroute to Kandahar.

Orange: This area shows your Driver, their current skill points, what action is currently happening, the estimated arrival time if they are enroute/loading/unloading, and how many km until the destination.

Truck Details

To get to the truck details page, jut click the blue “Year/Make/Model” of the truck. It will bring you to the page shown below. I’ve again highlighted areas and given you descriptions of what everything means!

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Red: This has your trucks Year/Make/Model/Unique ID, the image of your truck with current paintjob, and the current city, as well as destination city if enroute.

Green: This is your truck statistics area. Here you can see the wear on individual parts of your truck, as well as fuel and total mileage. Right now, only tires accrue wear, so you will want to change them at regular intervals to avoid blowouts that can cause costly delays.

Orange: This area will show how long before the truck should complete it’s current load.

Below I’ve included an image of the details page for a truck that is *NOT* hauling a load. The first image is without a driver. As you can see you have the options to “Refuel”, “Replace Tires”, and “Relocate” (This is shipping the truck to another place in the globe, without driving it. It is the cargo. The further away, the more time and money it will cost to relocate!)

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The second image is for a truck that has a driver, you’ll notice slight differences. You now have a “Bobtail” option, which is where the driver drives the truck to a new location without a trailer. This can be useful to relocate a truck somewhere it can drive without having to ship, or to go pick up a high value load you snagged in a nearby city. You’ll also notice the “Relocate” option is gone… because you can’t ship a person in a box like you can a truck! If you want to ship a truck, remove the driver on the fleet overview page using the red “Unassign” driver button.

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Ground Grunt Board
This page currently is a simple leaderboard. See where the top 10 trucking companies are, as well as your current stats!

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Fleet Changes

This area is still under heavy construction. It will be used to change paintjobs, modifications, insurance, and various policies on your fleet. Currently the only functionality is for paintjobs if you own a custom livery or have activated a rare paint job and have an appropriate truck to apply it to. You can do so by clicking the Paint Jobs button.

Country Rundown
This page is reached by selecting a country in the dropdown, and hitting submit. It will show all the cities in that country, the hubs, and the number of loads currently available. You can visit any city hub by clicking it’s name.

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Current Jobs
This page will show any jobs that you have accepted but not yet delivered. They could be awaiting a truck or enroute to destination.

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Driver Overview

This page can be very important to your long term operations. This page is where you can use the skill points your driver accrues over time to invest in new skills, and certifications! Skills only cost points, but certifications cost points and money! Each new skill or certification will mean you have to pay your driver slightly more since they’re not a entry level worker anymore, so make sure you pick skills and certs that you will use!

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Left This is your skills area. Skills are shown with ½ star per level, up to 5 stars for a max level of 10. 

• Feather Tush = Fuel Efficiency Increase.

• Gentle Hands = Less Wear On Vehicle Components.

• Lead Foot = Faster Speed

• Operations = Quicker Loading/Unloading/Operations

• Luck = The X Factor. 

Center This area shows hire date, xp available, current location, and below, will show any certifications they have. If the driver is not in a truck, you will have a relocate option to ship the driver to another city/country. The further the distance, the more time and money to do so.

Right This area has two options.The first is “Boost Days”. If you have an XP Booster item and activate it, you’ll have boost days available. Applying 1 boost day to a driver will allow them to gain double XP for 24 hours. The clock always ticks so be sure to use your drivers while they have an active boost! The second area is the skill train/certify. It will show what level or what cert, and what the cost is in XP and Funds. If you have the funds and XP available, go for it!