EVE General Discussion

Couriers are quite nice and can be ok passive fun, but also you run the risk of getting ganked so beware of those high-collateral ones unless you are willing to risk it (or run several decoys for the fun of it).

/c

Considering age of your character I would put dreams about freighters aside for now and fly in cheap t1 hauler. You could join one of few well known hauling corps like Frog or PushX and take small jobs just to see if you really like it. As a miner having your own freighter can be useful so you can train towards it anyway but for now I would settle for something that you can fit and fly and afford to lose.

Of course if this is only forum alt and your plans are for another character with proper skills and you have experience and know what to do go ahead and buy a freighter. If you won't like hauling for other people you can always just haul your own ore in it.

Seconding that you should not autopilot. It used to be ok if you were empty, but now even empty freighters run the risk of being ganked.

As for how much you'll make, it really depends on how much time you put in and how organized you are.

Avoid Madirmilire

..also consider smaller and faster hauling options. It's easier (financially) to lose a small load than a big one.

join red frog freight if you want to make a living as a hauler.
Their rate is something like 750k isk per jump

BUT - its not much money and toons that do it are alts on autopilot.

Go for Charon, even with only Caldari Freighter 4 it has larger cargo than other freighters with X Freighter 5.

Imo, 1% reward based on the collateral isn´t uncommon.

Rewards can be even lower depending on the size of the package and the distance and should probably be higher if a Freighter is needed and if the route starts and/or ends in a sh!thole System
I guess the amount of collateral might be a factor too, of course, but still, I am sure such a contract as you mention out of Jita for say 5 Jumps would get picked up fairly quickly.

Hi. Trucker here. Look at a Jita-posted haul contract. First thing, "set destination". If the route runs you through a single low sec system, that's where the ambush will be. Their buddies kill you. You default on the contract. The contractor keeps your deposit. Knowing that, now take a look at ALL those hauling contracts you see...what do you see?

My suggestion is develop your own trucker. Haul your own stuff. Keep it in the family. I use a Charon. I like it very much. I use other ships, too, but that's the business end of hauling; jump freighters, blockade runners, (as Chribba so ably points-out) decoy ships as well. You really may not want to go to this extreme.

You're going to be quite a while training up to be an effective hauler. A good idea is to look at Red Frog's employment requirements, then load them into EVE Mon. You won't be seeing any significant money hauling any time soon.

After you've spent copious hours honing your ability to roam cat-like in hostile regions undetected (or undamaged) then you may want to revisit this as a "moneymaker." For now? You save money hauling it yourself.

There are people that are highly specialized into courier services and get paid quite nicely. I tend to pay 500k or more per jump if I can, but sometimes I cut back on that pay rate. If the courier is helping me by hauling my stuff so I can make a nice profit I don't mind paying them well.

If you can tie up several contracts into one run, plan your route effectively along the way, and managed to avoid gank squads then you are good to go (several contracts in one haul = more then a level 4 payout or perhaps level 5 even). One thing that 'might' help to some degree is fitting stabs on your low slots, at least 2. In addition boost your agility as much as possible, as well as speed, and an AB also that might help you kick into warp even faster. If the group is highly determined to follow you, which most don't seem to be, then you might want to set up a safe for a second and try to wait them out. Keep up your Dscan and watch for sisters combat probes at all times...takes 30 seconds or so to scan you down. Also, if you can scout the route ahead of time and set up a FastDOCK at 0, and a fastUndock at several hundred km out from various stations that will likely help a lot as well. Undocking, hitting control+space to check outbound gate traffic (potential bumps with BIG ships), and then redocking and undocking again hoping for no bumps and a very quick warp out.

Jump Freighters themselves will allow you to bypass gate camps, but the cyno generator is also quite visible to others. Having a PoS (obviously with defenses in place) where the cyno can operate, or a base where all your players are to protect it, can help keep you safe while you transport.