Trucking Digest

It’s been a very busy week. Following on from the last post, I have started that new profile in Euro Truck v1.35 Beta. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t as the profiles will remain available for use in the deployed version of the game and at this stage I’m not using any unofficial mods. So lets go through the start of the new ‘Martin Transport et Logistique’ – though not in too much depth as my ‘Build a Truck Company’ series covers how to start your career in Euro Truck to a good level of detail and the sebsequent changes such as trailer ownership have been mentioned in subsequent ‘Trucking Digest’ posts.

One thing I did differently this time was to get into my first hire job with a clear goal in mind regards my first truck. Instead of aiming to buy a truck at the first opportunity, I was going to work as a driver for hire until I could afford to get the actual truck I wanted which in this case was a DAF XF Euro6 with a 6×2/4 chassis, 460HP engine and a 12 speed gearbox with retarder. I also wanted one of the ‘exclusive’ interiors – That’s quite a high spec truck! And that in turn requires getting to level 12 in the profile to allow access to everything I wanted in my first truck.

The other different ‘policy’ I pursued was in the way that I allocated the skill points as they became available. Initially I added 2 each to Long Distance, High Value Cargo and Fragile Cargo. The next 4 levels went on High Value and Fragile. The effect of not adding to the Long Distance was to limit my jobs to tasks that could be completed in a single driving shift, whilst the other categories added to the available rewards when at cities where machinery or tech equipment loads were available. So here we are descending the Lahn valley near Koblenz with a wind turbine nascelle……and hauling a helicopter out of Turin……and a load of potted flowers from Bourges to Rennes……Yes, plant pots are fragile 😉

It took me 28 loads to reach the magical level 12, by which time I also had the money I needed to buy the truck I had spec’d out mentally at the start. It’s quite interesting to look at the map of the cities visited as a driver for hire, bearing in mind that each job was taken from the place where the last one ended. They’re marked on the map in yellow (ignoring Bordeaux which gets marked as the closest DAF dealer to Montpellier). Only Lille, Cologne and Montpellier were visited more than once…

The total cost of my new DAF was €221320. I didn’t have to take out a loan although buying the truck outright did carry an element of risk as it left me with only €6k in the bank – which a major collision could totally wipe out! Anyway, here is the interior of our 1st truck for the new iteration of the company……and here she is in daylight showing off the company’s revised Royal Blue metallic paint scheme……I hope you like it 🙂 The only special items not supplied as standard when you buy a truck are the more expensive Michelin X-Line boots and a Monsieur Bibendum hanging in the cab – Pretty’ing up will have to wait!