Science & Industry

Building dedicated jump hauler from scratch, which race/ship and why?

It's important to keep up appearances all the way through.

Does the Orca have any merit for "versatility"?

Also don't forget about the Bowhead (I often do).

Much smaller cargo than an Orca, but can move more ships than an Orca (Orca max is one battlecruiser).

The Bowhead is good for moving between mission hubs, or incursion systems.

It can be. Just fit for max tank rather than max cargo, it's just not worth it and makes you an attractive gank target instead.

The reason for my OP here is that I am now firmly at a decision point as a manufacturer. To haul myself or outsource?

Up until now, I've been able to get by with an Iteron and Kryos and with an acceptable amount of time ATK to move my inputs and outputs. I'm now teetering on the edge of acceptable time.

Either I work an alt up to, say, a Charon, or I learn how to further manage and optimize my supply chain such that is smarter to outsource it.

Rhea because it is the best. Cargo Hold > Everything else. Literally nothing else matters. You will only get ganked if you are dumb and auto pilot your JF, never auto pilot your JF.

EDIT: In the OP you reference jump haulers, I assume you meant a hauler with a jump drive.

100,000'ish M3 daily (but gradually increasing)....3 to 5 Iteron loads depending on tank.

That is a lot of hauling. In fact, it makes me wonder what you are hauling (you don't need to say for security reasons). If you are hauling ore, minerals, PI there are specialized haulers that are cheap and easy trains that will give you a lot more capacity.

The big industry players all swear by contracting the hauling, but I like to haul my own freight because I enjoy being in space and an industry career can have you in the station looking at spreadsheets for a lot of your time.

When I was pursuing industry for profit I would make a weekly run to Jita to buy moon materials and sell the T2 goods that I had manufactured. I have a minimally trained alt in Jita to monitor buy and sell orders.

While I have a couple of freighters I've become a big fan of blockade runners. A blockade runner is faster, much safer, and give the ability to travel in low-sec. It also automatically gives you access to deep space transports which are also much safer to move than freighters.

One last comment, you're familiar with locator agents, right? By posting with your main people can know where you operate and setup to intercept your freight.

p.s. Ugh, one more last comment, make sure you create insta-dock and undock bookmarks at any hubs you regularly visit.

Shiloh,

Good points, all, and thanks much as usual!

I have been hauling maximum tanked, most of the time. As of this week, I using couriers and will soon enough have an alt to fully restore "KenFlorian" to station vermin, only.

I do have the requisite set of insta-marks but at least some seem a bit "off"....IOW, for my undocks most of my ships still repoint a fraction before making the beeline out.

Some of my docks also seem to require a bit of a shift when arriving. They are very fast but I don't understand if they are working like a professionals marks would.