Contracts are special jobs that a company CEO can bid on and have all members of their company work to complete. Here’s how contracts work:

1) Dallas Texas opens a contract to have 1,000 tons of Fruit hauled to the city within 7 days of the contract start date. Dallas has set a $2,000 reward if the contract is completed on time to be awarded to the company and a $4,000 penalty if the contract is not completed on time.
2) Bidding will be open to all companies eligible to bid on the contract for 24 hours. After 24 hours the bidding will close and the company with the lowest PPM bid will be awarded the contract.
3) The company that is rewarded the contract will have 7 days to haul 1,000 tons of Fruit to Dallas. All company drivers who participate in hauling Fruit to Dallas will receive the PPM rate that was bid on the contract.
4) If 1,000 tons of Fruit are delivered to Dallas before the 7 days are up the company will receive the $2,000 reward to be used anyway the company managers so choose (increased wages for a week, decreased collection percentages, funds towards a new terminal, whatever). If 1,000 tons of Fruit are not delivered to Dallas by 7 days then the company will be fined $4,000 based on the details of the contract.

That’s a pretty good overview of how contracts work in the game. Contract city and cargo selection as well as tonnage required will be randomly generated every 24 hours. Companies can only bid on two contracts at a time but can activley be working on any number of contracts that they think they can handle. Bidding closes 5 minutes before the contract is awarded at midnight update in order to prevent update lag issues. A company must have at least 50 active members to participate in company contracts. If the cargo for a contract becomes inaccessible or unavailable during mid-contract due to the game randomizing cities that is a chance you are taking by bidding on contracts and it is not something that game administration will resolve for you.

Nice, we kicked this idea around a month or two ago, I'm glad we're going to implement it. I think it's a huge bonus to all companies, big and small alike. Gives more competition between companies, and also makes another way to grab extra cash.

Should probably set a maximum bid, so that we don't get any kind of anti-trust stuff going on where companies agree not to bid so one can take it for not only the bonus but a huge PPM.

Other thoughts:

1. Maybe have bidding start at the standard PPM or slightly above.
2. Have contracts expire after a certain if the minimum bid isn't reached or no one has bid
3. Min and max bids sound good.
4. If there are enough company terminals out there, you could have it require a company terminal or HQ in the source/destination city or something.

Will this be a closed bid or an auction?

Will the winning bidder, and their bid, be anounced?

If two bidders have the same PPM bid, will it go to the first Company with that bid?

Will independent truckers (those not in a Company) be allowed to bid on smaller tonage contracts?

Will the cargo/city be randomly generated or set my Admin?

If random, what if the cargo supply + location makes it impossible to fill the contract? Example: the contract is for 100 tons of X to be delivered to Panama City and the only supply is in Prudhoe Bay.

Since supply/demand is now changing twice per week, will the bid be offered before the supply/demand update? In other words, will we be bidding blind as far as supply locations?

Will the standard calculation apply for Driver compensation, other than the PPM number?

I know that I have posted a lot of questions (please don't "fire" me :P ) but I fully support anything that adds depth and interest to the game. I am just throwing out some things to hopefully help make this new addition a home run.

Also, how about more than one contract per week? Maybe 2 large and 2 small and a company can only bid on one. That way, Companies need to put the pencil to the paper to decide which contract would be the best for them to bid on and more Companies / Drivers will have a chance to take part in this.

Sorry for the Wall o' Text!

The TX Hammer!

Wow, so many questions! I'll try to answer a few of them.

The bidding will be open and everyone will see who currently has the lowest bid. You can only bid less than the previous bidder. The starting PPM for all contracts is $1.00 and it can only go down from there. If no one wants the contract (or doesn't think they can accomplish it) and doesn't bid on it then it will be discarded after 24 hours. One new contract will be created daily. The PPM that the company is bidding on is the same thing as the default PPM for cargo types BEFORE bonuses. Drivers will still get the terminal and demand bonuses that are normally in the game on top of the PPM contract bid. This feature is for company CEOs only, non company drivers will not be able to bid. At this time companies can bid on an unlimited number of contracts. (this may need to change if it looks like one company is dominating the bidding wars somehow)

If there's going to be 1 contract a day, 1 per week should be a massive contract, if most of them are going to be small, there needs to be something with a more long-term effect. 100 tons can be hauled in 1 day by 5 drivers.

So, there should be contracts ranging all the way up to 10,000 tons, or at least 5,000 to start out.

This all sounds great . When might all this begin ? :D

I've released the feature now. Everything should be working properly but if you run across a bug please report it in the bugs section of the forums.

Wow, very nice. :) This might be kinda fun, meeting deadlines and stuff. Thanks, Kevin!


......Now, about that donation link... :ph43r: Help a Ninja!

will the company get an update of how many loads are needed after they started, such as say 43 loads are required and the company has startes the quest but doesn't no how many loads are left

It would seem to me that only companys with 100 active members
will get the best contracts . Maybe that should be looked into ? Or is it just a plot to keep the little guy down (lol) . :huh:

The restriction is in place to ensure that small companies do not try to take on contracts that they cannot complete. There is no way less than 100 member company can complete 5,000 tons of a specific cargo to a specific city in 7 days.

Thats a good reason :D

Just a thought, you might want to coordinate when contracts are posted to coincide with right before bonus resources change. That way people won't know if they're going to bid on something with a good bonus or not until after they take the bid.

Does the bonus just go straight into the company pot?

Seems like it does from what Kev has said.

The payoffs are too far off what we're currently making running preferred cargo routes.

Currently, at the highest rate of $1.00 per mile, after 242 loads, the $4,836 bonus rounds out to roughly $20 bonus per load.

Compared to the $400-$500 bonuses we'll be getting by simply running preferred cargo routes.

My suggest to fix this is to change how the contracts work. After winning a bid, a company then allocates drivers to the task of filling the order.


240 loads/7 days = Rounded up to 35 loads per day

So let's say minimum of 30 drivers allocated, maximum of 70, on this contract.

If 30 drivers go in, they earn $160 dollars each for their company, in a week, but take a massive hit to their own income.
If 60 drivers go in, they earn $80 dollars each for their company, in 3-4 days, but again, take a massive hit to their own income.

Since all the bonus money is going straight to the company, I believe it should be raised a good deal to compensate. Running a standard preferred cargo route will allow a company to grow in more ways, and faster, because the income gained by each individual driver not only adds to the company's pool of funds, but it also allows them to pay for upgrades and new trucks. With the $1.00 or less flat rate, this is not the case. The drivers are barely getting by.

I suggest at least a doubling of the income going to the company, or even a tripling to compensate for the loss of individual income, which can be attributed to a sacrifice by the drivers to make their company stronger. This will give companies a viable alternative route for growth.

If a company bids and fails, does the contract go back on the market?

Cool stuff but the current bids seem too low to make a profit.

Thanks for the breakdown x tela x. The default starting PPM bid on contracts has been updated to $2.00 instead of $1.00. I think $2.00 is more than anyone can currently make in the game on any route right now.

can companies have more then 1 contract to complete

i believe so, but ill find out officially in 5-6 days, when i create my company, but, if its not, then well its not, and im wrong :D

but great addition, horrible penalty will definetley encourage people to complete their contracts on time

Maximum for contracts dropped to $1.50/mile?

I went to bid on a contract earlier before 12:00 and it closed at like 11:55ish, why and what happened. I still wanted to bid before 12:00.

^^This happened, I guess

Our company currently has a contract to deliver X amount of GM to NYC. It's highly likely that the contract will be completed in full within the next 1.5 days. I am about 3 driving days total from getting to my current destination, and then back to NYC to drop off the GM cargo. If I get to NYC, and we've completed the contract, will I also get the contract rate for GM(1.88/ton) if I head out before the contract is completed or will I get a standard rate(.60/ton).

I'm guessing that it'd be the 1.88 rate, if that's what the contract rate is paying when I leave for NYC, even if the contract is completed in transit, but would like some clarification.

Ohh. I missed that, I'll remember it for next time.

For everything else (including demand resets) the payoff at delivery is set when you leave, so I would expect this to be the same.

I am trying to understand why my company cannot bid on this contract. My company has 33 drivers, 24 active. I have to assume it is because of < 25 active drivers.

Current book producing cities are Detroit (too close...), Trenton (403 miles) and New Orleans (1338 miles)

@ average of 55mph, and using the closest city. (403 miles), 7.3 hours one way (lets call it 8 for easier math). Let's also say you only make 1 round trip a day (even though 1.5 is possible).

Taking all this into account, you need 52 driver days for this contract to be accomplished (giving a lot of cushion). The contract is for 7 days (take away 1 day to get drivers into position) leaves 6 days to accomplish contract.

I need 9 drivers to accomplish this.

Why can my company not bid on this contract?

Admin set an arbitrary min cutoff of 25 drivers after a 2 man company made a $0.10 bid on a contract.
I think it should be variable with size, say 30% of number of loads - but that is for the suggestion box.

Yeah, that is what I thought, but I could not find it... I am sure it is mixed in a thread that I couldnt find...

Too bad it isnt in the thread for the topic about contracts...

If they are going to make minimum 25 deals, then there ought to be <25 contracts or <50 contracts that <25 can bid on...

Admin's decision is noted in this thread

Why are there 8 full days in a 7 day contract cycle?

Okay, if you look at the new contracts posted tonight at midnight, they go into effect on 8/11 at midnight(12:00 AM). Apparently penalization doesn't kick in until 8/18 is completed, when 11:59 passes and it's now 8/19. I get this by judging from the following contract that is not penalized.

Plastic
Washington - District of Columbia - USA
2,822 (Approx. 141 Loads)
2,139 (Approx. 34 Loads Left)
8/3/2007 - 8/10/2007
100 Active Members
$1.99
South East Express
$7,055.00
$14,110.00

If this contract runs under the format of the other contracts, where it started on 8/3/7 at midnight, and runs through 8/10/7 at 11:59pm , this is an 8 day contract. And all contracts are 8 days, not 7.

Exactly how many active drivers do you have to have before you can bid on even the smallest contract?

25

do u have to be in that company to do that contract or take that route

I am not sure of what your question is. If you are not in a company, you cannot drive routes with a contract bonus. You can still drive that route, however the amount you make will be less than a driver doing the same route with a contract bonus.

What happens if I am in route delivering cargo for a contract and the contract is completed before I get to my destination? Do I still get the contract bonus?

Payoff is set at pickup, so the contract rate applies to all cargo picked up (ie you clicked "Drive this route") before the contract was completed.

What is the least # of drivers you need to have to be able to bid? <_<

25

on both of the companys i work for it was only a couple of minutes and seconds
:D