The drivers window contains a list of all drivers you have made contact with. You may want to hire some of them when the situation is ripe. Over time, you may also fire some lower rating drivers and replace them with better drivers who will deliver loads with better performance and make your company more money.
You will meet new drivers as your game progresses at freight yards for the various companies that you will work for. To hire a driver, select the driver you wish to hire then click on the hire button. If the driver is available, you will be taken to a negotiating dialog where you will work out the percent take that you and the driver keep. Note that you can only hire drivers that are at your driving rating or lower. If you try to contact a driver with a higher rating than you, he will not answer his phone. And if you unsuccessfully negotiate with a driver too many times, he will not return your calls for several days.
When you do hire a driver, you will have to buy that driver a truck with which to haul the cargo. A truck window will be displayed allowing you to pick which model of truck you wish to buy your new employee. Cheaper trucks will obviously be slower and less reliable than newer trucks.
The list of drivers can be sorted by various criteria by clicking on the column headings (the drivers employed by your company appear at the top of the list). When you select a driver, you will see his details.
List of drivers screen functions:
- HIRE - Hire a driver is only possible if you have enough money to buy your new employee at least the worst type of truck.Driver Contract Bargaining: as the company owner, you pay your hired drivers by having them share a percentage of profit on the loads. The amount is dependant on the rating of the driver if a driver doesn't like your offer, he will decline if the driver declines three offers in a row, he will refuse to negotiate any more, and you will only get in contact with him over the phone in a couple of days again. If you successfully hire a driver, a new windows will appear where you will be able to buy and assign a truck to your new employee. The better trucks you assign to your driver, the more likely they are to deliver the loads on time and with less damage, and thus the payoff will be better.
- UPGRADE - buy a better truck for your driver, this may improve his performance and bring you more money in the long run. You can also "downgrade" a truck, if your company gets into financial trouble, you may need to sell a truck and replace it with a lower quality, cheaper one, using the money from the difference to finance other part of your business.
- FIRE - fire a driver you are not satisfied with.
Driver Details:
- NAME - driver's name
- SHARE - the share on profits that your company splits with this employee.
- SKILL - how good the driver is. A driver should be hired for recurring jobs not exceeding his skill, otherwise you risk that he will deliver them late or damaged too often, and will not make you much money. Buying a driver better truck can make up for this deficiency a bit, but overall it's a good idea to hire as good drivers as you can to make sure your company operates as smooth as possible.
- LOCATION - current place where the driver is. He is either in a city, or somewhere on the road between two cities.
- EXPECTED GAIN - estimated payoff of the jobs that your hired drivers has assigned, computed based on the current week jobs.
- REAL GAIN - real payoff from the delivered jobs, probably lower than "expected gain" due to the hired drivers sometimes delivering jobs a bit late or a bit damaged.
- PAY-OFF - the ration between real gain and expected gain, basically a measure on how profitable your drivers is under the conditions of the jobs you have assigned him. If the number is too low, you may need to hire a better driver in his place, or give this one less demanding jobs.
- WORK LOG - the log of events involving this driver. It displays the last couple of jobs he delivered, and in what conditions - this will let you to see how good a driver he really is.
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