🚚 Rhineland Haulage — guide

First steps: from €0 to your first trip

The till is empty at the start. You fetch your money from the bank account on the start page — by transfer or with a bank loan (see the bank guide at /hilfe.php?thema=bank). Everything runs in real euros, 1:1 — what you deposit is exactly what lands in the company till.

• 1. Get money: Transfer from the bank account on the start page or apply for a small loan. €300–500 is plenty to begin with (founding the firm itself costs €300).
• 2. Register the business (€150): Business registration + road haulage licence. Without them you get no orders — the freight exchange stays empty.
• 3. Take over the van (€150): Re-registration, insurance, roadworthiness test and a first tank of diesel for the inherited “Rheinbote 316” (used, condition 68 %, 214,000 km on the clock). Without the take-over no trip runs.
• 4. Pick your first load: In the Freight tab choose an offer from Leverkusen — before accepting you always see what will be left over (the contribution margin).
• 5. Drive yourself: At the start you only hold a class B licence — so it is the van for now. The bigger licences (C1, C, CE) come later at the driving school.

The founding (€300 in total) pays for itself quickly: the first local run earns about €33 contribution, and played actively the early game yields roughly €149 per real hour.

Planning trips: freight, revenue, punctuality

Offers keep arriving at the freight exchange — even while you are away. Every offer states origin, destination, pallets and weight; both must fit your vehicle (the van takes 3 pallets / 1.2 t). Small part loads pay more per pallet — at least 35 % of the full price.

Revenue is roughly: base amount + rate × kilometres, multiplied by the freight-type factor and your regular-customer bonus. For the van that is €49 + €0.84/km, for the artic €110 + €1.69/km. The base amount covers loading time at the ramp — which is why short trips pay better per kilometre.

• On time = +5 %: Meet the deadline and you get a 5 % bonus. Miss it and only the bonus is lost — except for courier and frozen freight: there being late costs a real contract penalty (25 % of that consignment’s revenue).
• Return loads are everything: Driving home empty costs full price and earns nothing. Example artic Leverkusen–Hamburg (380 km): with a return load +€268 — without one −€347. Check where a trip ends before accepting (“ends at your own depot ⭐”).
• Empty-kilometre share: The industry average is 23 %. Below 15 % is good, below 10 % very good.

Driving and rest periods — the heart of the game

The real EU rules apply here (Regulation 561/2006) — to your drivers and to you. A breach is simply impossible: the driver takes the break himself, and the game tells you why the truck is standing still.

• Mandatory break: After 4.5 hours of driving, a 45-minute break is due — on the empty approach run too.
• Daily driving time: At most 9 hours a day; twice a week it may be 10.
• Daily rest: Then 11 hours of rest (may be shortened to 9 hours three times a week).
• Week: At most 56 hours of weekly driving time, then 45 hours of weekly rest. Every 28 days each driver must return to the depot once (EU mobility package).

Thanks to the twelvefold game speed this stays playable: 4.5 hours of driving are 22.5 real minutes, the 45-minute break takes just under 4 minutes, the daily rest 55 minutes. The display always shows both.

The counter-move: a second driver on the same vehicle (from level 10). When one has to rest, the other takes over at once — the vehicle keeps rolling. From level 17 three drivers allow round-the-clock operation.

Costs: settled per trip

There is no payment up front: diesel, AdBlue, toll, wear, fixed costs, wages and allowances are settled against the revenue at the end of each trip — you see the full maths of every run. Before accepting, the exchange shows the expected contribution margin.

• Diesel: Starts at €1.25/l (net, commercial); from level 8 the price wanders between €1.10 and €1.60.
• AdBlue: about 4 % of the diesel volume, €0.80/l.
• Toll: on about 70 % of the route — but only from 7.5 t upwards. The van drives toll-free.
• Owner’s pay: If you drive yourself, the business charges €22 per duty hour as a cost. Your own time is not free — and from level 4 this makes hiring a driver a genuine trade-off.
• Allowances: €28 per game day on the road, €9 per night in the sleeper cab.

Refuelling & service stations

Refuelling happens by itself: when fuel runs low on the road, the driver makes a fuel stop at a service station (12 minutes of game time, wages keep running) — at the current road price. Whenever a vehicle returns to the depot it is filled up at the depot price.

• Fuel card (€300, from level 4): −3 ct/l at other people’s fuel stations.
• Own fuel station at the depot (€14,000, from level 9): −9 ct/l; upgraded (€22,000, from level 18): −14 ct/l.
• Timing: From level 8 the diesel price fluctuates — use the cheap spells, sit out the expensive weeks.

Equipment: small things that work right away

The Equipment tab offers one-off purchases with a permanent effect. The first three prevent real losses:

• Ratchet strap set (€60): halves cargo damage.
• Hi-vis vests & first aid (€75): mandatory kit — without it a roadside check costs a €180 fine.
• Tyre pressure monitoring (€90): −2 % consumption, real money over time.

Later on, the pallet truck (−15 % loading time), truck navigation (−4 % distance) and the tool box (€250) pay off: with the tool box the driver often fixes minor breakdowns himself instead of waiting hours for recovery.

Dispatching: from order book to automation

At first you dispatch every trip by hand. Every trip you plan yourself unlocks dispatching levels that take work off your hands — your business then runs even while you are away:

• Order book & telephone (€100, after 3 hand-dispatched trips): handles 10 % of the trips.
• Freight exchange access (€250, from level 3, 12 hand trips): 20 %.
• Part-time dispatcher (€800, from level 6, 30 hand trips): 30 % — for the first time brings standing freight home from the road (search ~10 h of game time).
• Full-time dispatcher (€2,500, from level 9, 60 hand trips): 40 % — finds proper return loads (~5 h).
• Route planning software (€12,000, from level 14, 150 hand trips): 60 % — full return-load automation with no search time. From here the firm largely runs itself.
• Second dispatcher (€45,000, from level 20) and telematics fine dispatching (€150,000, from level 28): 85 % and 100 %.

Up to level 6 the automation reaches about 85 % of what careful manual work achieves — dispatching yourself still pays, but is never required.

Trip chain & dispatcher

From the first dispatching level you can plan follow-up trips in advance per truck: after picking a trip (or via the “📋 Chain” button on the vehicle) you chain up further orders. Offered first is whatever is waiting at the destination of the last chain entry (“📍 straight from …, no empty run”), then the nearest loads with their approach shown — plus always “🏠 Then empty run home”. When a trip ends, the next wish starts by itself.

The running trip counts — “order book 5” therefore means 1 running plus 4 chained. Chain trips count as hand-dispatched trips for the dispatching progress.

• Rest period → the chain waits. If the driver has to take a break or rest, nothing is cancelled — the next trip starts as soon as he may drive again. Driving and rest rules stay hard.
• Order gone → the chain is cancelled COMPLETELY. Chained orders are not reserved: if someone else takes them (your own dispatcher for another truck included) or the exchange clears them out, the whole chain is dissolved, the truck stays put and you get a message. After that the automation may take over again.
• The automation never touches a chained truck: as long as a chain is planned, the office does not dispatch that vehicle elsewhere — “Dispatch all” skips it too.
• Deadlines stay hard: a chained trip only starts once the truck is free — whether the deadline can still be met is your planning risk (with a contract penalty on courier/frozen freight!).

What the dispatcher does on his own (many players do not know this): from the first level the office dispatches part of your trips from the depot by itself. From the 🧑‍💼 part-time dispatcher (level 3) it also looks for return loads on the road: at first only standing freight home (search ~10 game hours), from full time any freight (~5 h), from the route planning software with no search time. If your truck is standing away from home and drives home “by itself” — that was the dispatcher, not a bug.

Empty runs cost real money

Every kilometre without cargo costs full price and earns nothing — about €0.60 per empty kilometre for the self-driven van (diesel, wear, fixed costs plus your owner’s pay), around €1.30 for the artic. That is why the game now shows the approach run openly everywhere:

• On the exchange every offer states where your best idle truck is and what the empty run to the pick-up costs — offers “📍 from your location” are listed on top. There is also the switch “🚚 only from where my idle trucks are”.
• In the planning dialog the approach is its own line (km + estimated cost). The displayed contribution margin has always included it — it just was not visible.
• On every arrival the game reports how many loads are waiting from the arrival city (“📍 … loads available from …”) — take one of those instead of leaving empty, standing freight (60 %) if need be.
• From dispatching level 3 the dispatcher looks for return loads on the road by himself (see “Trip chain & dispatcher”).

The till never drops below zero — but an empty run eats the profit of the outbound leg. The preview shows negative contribution margins in red: if it is red, better leave it.

Hiring drivers

From level 4 you may hire staff. The applicant list refreshes every 20 minutes — good drivers are scarce. The hiring fee is 12 duty hours of pay (so €228 for a casual driver).

• Wages per duty hour: casual driver €19 (B only) · local driver €23 (B, C1) · long-haul driver €27 (up to CE) · experienced long-haul driver €31 · specialist €38 (with ADR).
• The whole duty time is paid — loading, waiting and fuel stops included, not just the driving.
• Shift work: From level 10 two drivers per vehicle (alternating shifts), from level 17 three — the truck then runs around the clock while the drivers take turns resting. A second driver for a vehicle you already own is almost always the best investment: it doubles the running time without a new parking space.
• Training: Drivers (and you) earn licences at the driving school — C1 €2,500 (3 days), C €4,500 (5 days), CE €6,500 (7 days), ADR €3,200 (2 days). While in training the person does not drive.
• Look after satisfaction (driver lounge, coffee machine, weekly rest at home instead of a lay-by) — unhappy drivers are the industry’s most expensive problem.

Vehicles & licences

Five classes, each with its own licence. Everything from 7.5 t upwards pays toll. Prices: new / used.

The tractor unit needs a trailer (curtainsider €35,000, box €38,000, reefer €65,000, tipper €54,000) — and that is where the real progress lies: access to better-paying freight. Every vehicle and every trailer takes one parking space at the depot.

Leasing is available from level 5: 20 % down payment, then 60 monthly payments (one game month = 60 real hours). If you cannot pay an instalment nothing bad happens — the vehicle pauses until there is money again. New vehicles are CO₂ class 4 and pay about a quarter less toll — almost €9,500 a year on an artic.

Freight classes

The factor acts directly on the revenue. Better freight — not a bigger truck — is the real lever of the game.

Refrigerated freight from level 15: The reefer trailer costs €65,000 and its cooling unit burns 2.4 l of diesel per hour — in return frozen freight pays 42 % more. Regular customers (from level 8): repeated trips for the same customer earn up to 5 levels of +5 % revenue each. Standing freight pays only 60 % — but beats driving empty.

Servicing, inspections & breakdowns

• Condition: Every kilometre wears the vehicle down. Below 70 % the breakdown risk doubles, below 40 % it quadruples. A breakdown costs 1–3 hours of standing time plus the repair.
• Servicing: at the press of a button, or automatically below 60 % condition. Your own workshop at the depot cuts the cost by 30/50/65 %.
• Roadworthiness test: due every 12 game months, €380 per vehicle.
• Major services by mileage: belt drive at 400,000 km (€4,500), DPF service at 500,000 km (€6,800), clutch at 800,000 km (€9,500). The inherited van already starts with 214,000 km!

The map: from Leverkusen to Europe

At the start you deliver in the Rhineland: Leverkusen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Wuppertal. Each level adds cities — Bonn (2), Essen (3), Duisburg (4), Dortmund (5), then Frankfurt (9), Hanover (11), Hamburg (13), Berlin (15), Munich (19) … The distances are real motorway kilometres.

Europe opens up from level 23 with Rotterdam and Antwerp, followed by Prague (25), Zurich (27), Vienna (28), Milan (29) and finally Warsaw (30). From level 30 there is a permanent +10 % on all revenue (Europe bonus).

Tips for the start

• Local first: Short trips in the Rhineland (Cologne is only 15 km away) pay best per kilometre and fit easily into one driving period. Build a routine first, then grow.
• Never drive home empty: Always look for a return load at the destination — standing freight (60 %) if need be. That is the lesson of the whole game.
• The first big goal (~€30,500): licence C1 (€2,500) plus a used 7.5-tonner (€28,000) — more than double the capacity and noticeably better trips.
• Buy the small dispatching levels early (€100/€250): they turn absence into income.
• A second driver beats a second vehicle — it doubles the running time with no parking space and no purchase.
• Plan for punctuality: The +5 % can be lost — do not accept courier freight when driving time is running short.

Market freight & weekly event

📦 Market freight is a named delivery from the arcade’s supply contracts (farm → clinic/apartments): “200× eggs from farm X to clinic Y”. The goods have always already arrived at the recipient — you drive the bonus run with a name tag on it. It sits at the top of the Freight tab and is entirely optional: ignore it and the game plays exactly as before.

• Taking it turns it into a perfectly normal general-cargo order Leverkusen → Cologne (15 km, from level 1) with the usual trip earnings. Conversion: 1 pallet = 10 farm storage slots (300 eggs or 120 litres of milk per pallet) — most market freight is 1–2 pallets and fits the panel van.
• Refund: When the trip arrives, the game reports the delivery — whoever delivers first (the railway plays too!) additionally receives about 1–2 % of the goods value. The money comes from the market hall’s fee pot; if that is empty there is nothing this time — the normal trip earnings always remain.
• Deadline: Market freight is valid for 48 real hours, then it expires without penalty.

📣 Weekly event: Every now and then the arcade calls a shared event (trade fair in Cologne, rail strike …) — a banner above the view shows the text and remaining days, and trip revenue is multiplied by a factor between ×0.5 and ×2.0 (at the same spot as the freight rate index). After the end date everything returns to normal automatically.