Gauging Interest For A Shipping Company On Freedom

[Guest Docterchese]

Hey all,

 

I've been considering starting up a shipping company (for those who remember it'd be in a similar style to Issle's.) I think there's probably a lot of demand for sailors across freedom, whether it's transporting bulk supplies or moving non-mailable or impractical to mail items (including people!) Travelling isn't always fun or easy and it requires you to get all the gear like a boat and rafts.

 

I'd like to know how many people would be interested in using such a service, and also how many would consider being employed by it as paid sailors. It would be a very profitable job, would only really require time and navigation. Easy enough to do on an alt.

 

Also interesting would be forming contracts with bulk suppliers/crafters etc, could do reliable deliveries specifically for suppliers so they can focus on making not moving.

 

- Docterchese

[fatboy 448]

not this idea again, What happened last time on exodus when ya tried this?  Are ya being serious and really gonna do it this time?

[Guest Docterchese]

I did go for setting up a market over a year ago, this is something totally different. :-/

[Shrimpiie 3,665]

Depending on pricing I might look at using the service.

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

Seen this idea start up dozens of times, and die dozens of times too. Good luck.

[Suntan 83]

The idea is valid and will work. However, from experience the only detrimental factor is the customers' reluctance to pricing. So, In a way the customer base is rather low and only applicable to the upper class Wurmians who rather pay then spend time moving bulk goods around (specially through cave canals). There is a possibility that i am wrong. 

[Klaa 4,872]

Mmm could work... not everyone can get their hands on a knar. Assuming the fee is less than just buying one yourself; however, I have no clue what knars sell for on Freedom.

[Shrimpiie 3,665]

Knarr price is about 17-18s.

[Klaa 4,872]

I always did prefer the five-finger discount.

[Emane 158]

Good luck...seen many try and fail...issue is always trust. 

 

How do you propose it to work....pay seller yourself on pickup, then collect from the purchaser?

[Klaa 4,872]

half first then rest on delivery, or the shipper seizes the cargo as collateral.

[Guest Docterchese]

Probably pay seller/collect from purchaser. On big orders that would mean having quite a bit of ash handy, though it could be worked out quite easily.

[Samool 2,004]

Maybe good idea would be to make a notice board, and then, if someone is passing by or traveling in this direction, he/she could take the job and do some delivery. It could make traveling a bit more interesting.

[KaiH 1,126]

As Emane already said it comes down to trust.

will my goods be delivered or just be sold to someone else?

will i find the customer to deliver the goods to when i am actually in my game time or do i have to go way out and stay up to 7am to deliver?

[Hordern 2,177]

An alternative way to work it, would be to run a bulk product merchant service. Essentially have a massive warehouse to store a large amount of materials. You could have set pricing (relatively low) to buy standard materials (bricks, mortar etc. etc.) from anyone who supplies them and set pricing to sell. That way, sellers and buyers could come to you (or you go to them - for an appropriate fee of course). This would get around any concerns about who pays whom and owns what because there would be two trades rather than just the one with a third party doing delivery.

 

Issues: Sellers won't get top price for what they're selling and buyers won't get the lowest they could find, but both would know it's a guaranteed trade and if neither had the means to transport in bulk, they would know you could do it.

Why is Issle labelled in the thread tags?

[Guest Docterchese]

Not sold to somebody else, so yes there's an element of trust. And one idea of getting more people employed with the sailing is that it'd give you a range of timezones, jobs would be given preferentially to people with the timezones that suit it best/people who've said they can be online when the clients will be.

 

I wouldn't expect the goods to get sold on, because the sailor is paying the seller and then getting cash back from the buyer, so the sailor is losing money unless they do get to the buyer. And people would be properly vetted etc too.

 

 

An alternative way to work it, would be to run a bulk product merchant service. Essentially have a massive warehouse to store a large amount of materials. You could have set pricing (relatively low) to buy standard materials (bricks, mortar etc. etc.) from anyone who supplies them and set pricing to sell. That way, sellers and buyers could come to you (or you go to them - for an appropriate fee of course). This would get around any concerns about who pays whom and owns what because there would be two trades rather than just the one with a third party doing delivery.

 

Issues: Sellers won't get top price for what they're selling and buyers won't get the lowest they could find, but both would know it's a guaranteed trade and if neither had the means to transport in bulk, they would know you could do it.

Why is Issle labelled in the thread tags?

 

Issle is in the tags because I mentioned his company and this one would be based on his concepts

 

I thought about that Hordern, but the problem then is that you need the storage and that you're having to deal with lots of items to keep. You could potentially lose a lot of money from bulk bin decay too. Effectively, by being only the deliverer, your storage depots are the sellers, not your own deeds that you have to worry about maintaining. The sellers can kepp charging full price too which helps them out.

[silakka 2,360]

trust?

you dont need trust, you need proof if you cannot trust

just screenshot the deals and make sure you have the evidence if ** goes down.

[Samool 2,004]

trust?

you dont need trust, you need proof if you cannot trust

just screenshot the deals and make sure you have the evidence if ** goes down.

Someone could lose reputation, but the items may be lost.

[Elwood2 352]

storage building needs to be build? ;p

[Lolabelle 597]

Pre pay via mail to the seller.  Using papyrus form?? Then the seller pays said courier his fee and he agrees to deliver.  Yes Screenshot your agreements. 

 

log files are not a valid form of proof as they can be altered. But Screenshots cannot.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Lolabelle

[rosedragon 2,282]

Used to do deliveries and people were fine on trusting me, once delivering 30s worth of gems to felt, another time delivering 3s worth of dirt, or a pair of huge axe enchanted with LTs.. on my own merchant ads I got my system of how I calculate travel cost.. it basically 2c per map block if it is below 5s purchase, 1c per map block for 5s-9.99s purchase, and free for 10s+.

 

Honestly, 1-2s from traveling for 6 hours alone ain't worth, so I don't pursue these further than certain friends. Not that I'm doing this anymore either, considering that I don't have both my prem accounts on single server now.