Real Trucking Economy – Build Your Empire Mod
Start broke, earn your standing, manage your cashflow, and build a fleet you can afford to run. This is the American Truck Simulator edition of the ETS2 mod. It changes seven game files; everything listed below is adjusted, and everything else stays vanilla.
1. Freight and cashflow
Freight pays roughly 30% less than vanilla, so every job matters. Cargo damage costs $15 per 1%, while abandoning a job costs $5,000. Tows and emergency refuels are expensive setbacks. Fines are 30% lower than vanilla, with no change to detection.
2. Career progression
Levelling is roughly 2.5 times slower. Expect to reach level 5 at around 8,500 XP, level 8 at 19,750 XP, and level 11 at 35,500 XP.
3. Used trucks
Used trucks come with 25,000 to 250,000 miles on the clock and 5% to 55% hidden wear on the engine, transmission, chassis, and tires. A cheap truck might still be a good buy, but leave room in your budget for repairs.
4. Loans and garage finance
Choose from $50,000, $100,000, and $200,000 loans at 6% to 8% over three to five years. The final loan tile is a $180,000 garage mortgage at 5% over ten years.
5. Wear and repairs
The cabin, truck chassis, trailer body, and trailer chassis wear continuously as you drive. Vanilla does not apply mileage wear to these parts. Tires retain their normal wear rate. Restoring permanent wear adds a $5,000 truck or $2,500 trailer overhead on top of parts.
6. Driver pay
Hired drivers receive a flat hourly wage of around $25, plus approximately $25 for each day away. There are no mileage bonuses, job bonuses, or per-delivery payments. Recruitment costs $500 per hire.
7. Fleet operating costs
Your drivers’ diesel and upkeep are charged at real fleet rates. Decent cargo can turn a profit; cheap loads can lose money. As drivers improve their skills, they become cheaper to run. Growing a fleet takes planning, not just hiring more drivers.
Installation
Place the mod at high priority. It is incompatible with other economy overhauls because they edit the same files; whichever mod has higher priority will take precedence. The mod is safe to use on existing saves and fully reversible by unsubscribing.
