Science & Industry

Since I first started playing EVE a long time ago, I've wanted to be a Hauler. See the galaxy, and be a "trucker" of the stars. And make ISK while doing it.

But I never see this in any discussions on the forums.

Right now I have a Bustard Transport ship, maximum amount of space that I can get out of her... but one day I want to get into a freighter.

BUT.... and this is a huge BUT....

This doesn't seem to be an easy profession to get in on. Contracts are full of scams and even if one isn't a scam, either a) It's too huge for me to carry, so I have to have a freighter which is a bit out of my reach yet (money wise), or b) the collateral costs are HORRIBLE...... just out of my reach... and/or they go into low-sec which is just asking for trouble by getting blown up and losing your collateral.

I guess I could use my blockade runner for low-sec deliveries, but I like hauling larger loads...... anyway, all this is an aside.

What I want to know, are there any people out there that just do hauling for ISKs? How did you get started? How does one build a client base for hauling stuff? How do you charge for transporting cargo? Is it a set ISK per jump? Where do you get the best hauling opportunities? If contracts are safe to take, where's the best place to look for them? Jita? Amarr?

Or should I just wait and grind out the ability to fly and then buy a freighter first, before I even bother looking into this.

Thanks all!

There are two corps that are well known for hauling that I know of. Red Frog Freight is probably the most popular and has a nice system setup that can be profitable. Requires a freighter to join. https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1P9GOhIvy3TgX3GluJIQvJ-zF1ldLnMZc3172PncR6yE

Push is another corp that also hauls successfully.

As far as isk'es, not really to pay for sub every month but can it pay for things sure, but don't expect too much early on until you have/make a good reputation then specialize like RED frog or the likes, and don't forget goonswarm is wiping out freighter in game so getting a freighter service started now ennh maybe not good for inexperienced pilots.

You do not have to join red frog on the main. It's preferred that you bring an alt inside and contract/trade over the items to the main who does the transport. However, a freighter and quite a bit of collateral is needed to join.

As someone said. You can make a killer profit by doing inter-regional trading (basically picking up goods for a low price in one place and selling in another place for big profit). The initial investment is not that huge that way but the more you have, the more profit you can make per run.

Your best bet, is to reverse search peoples completed contracts, also make sure to reverse search the completed corp contracts to, sometimes what looks like a scam can be a legitimate contract, particularly lowsec to highsec.

Use some common sense when accepting contracts, sometimes people pay well other times the pay is, unacceptable, the more you practice weening out the good eggs from the bad eggs the faster you become profitable.

Iv known a friend, who did this for ISK and his reports where, something like 150-300M per hour just hualing.

tbh a lot of contracts are just... odd..

enormous collateral and then they pay like 20000 isk per jump.. yeah if you can afford that collateral you can afford to pay me properly!

well a few points that might clear some things up for you.

-most players only contract out loads they can not move themselves. If it is less than 40,000m3 which can fit in a T1 itty 5, they will just haul it themselves.

- collateral - Any load you haul will have a collateral of at least the value of the cargo. The reason for this is any less and the hauler could accept the contract and just keep the cargo making a profit. This is a big risk with public contracts. In fact many times the collateral is 50% or more above the value of the cargo. If you can complete the contract without a problem, the collateral is not a big issue as you will get it back.
You do however need the isk for collateral to get things going. You may find that if you have the isk for collateral and a freighter you can make very good isk as the best payouts are also the highest collateral.

- Many long high sec trips with a freighter can be afk'd while you are active on another account. provided you load is not worth enough to be attractive to gankers you are safe. freighters cost to much to gank, so they generally only gank profitable targets. The isk per hour is far better when have the trip is done AFK. But manually piloting can get you there much much faster.

- you are wise to stay out of low/null sec. you can run small loads relatively risk free with a blockade runner, but it is a lot of hassle for the amount of isk. Also you never want to run a freighter into low sec for a courier contract. your chances of losing it are to high.
Most high volume loads into low sec or null are usually picked up by jump freighter pilots. There can be really good money in this, but you need to be very careful. Make sure you can dock at the station you are jumping to, and always scout the area first, and make sure nobody will jump your cyno as soon as you lite it.

As long as somebody else is, I will keep the rewards as low as they can be. Supply/demand.

(Oh look it's this argument again.)

no its not.The time you invest in it could be used to make more money elsewhere.

Hauling is a fine profession...it won't bring in the same isk as mission running, trading, or incursion running....but for the person who doesn't want to make eve into another job and just wants to keep things low-key..it's great...especially if you plan ahead and make multiple runs at once and can login regularly.

You can certainly make at least equivalent isk with a freighter and collateral as you would mining with an exhumer.

And, you have almost zero expenses once you've built up a few bil in collateral and assuming you fly safe and don't get ganked.

The key is finding a way to make it fun....for me, that comes down to competing for the larger public contracts....grabbing them before others...and making good contacts for repeat business. Avoid doing jita runs wherever possible.