General How often does mail arrive at the local Starport?
- Thread starter infojunky
- Start date
I"ve not seen a strong answer in canon
IMTU...
IMTU...
- marked XB lines are one a day departing (and thus 0-5 arriving)...
- All A&B ports within J1-2 of a line's marked endpoint get a daily type S
- All A&B ports J3-4 off route get a weekly in and out from an XB or a S4 J4 scout courier (use naval courier from S9)
- All C&D ports get weekly couriers in and out.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Would depend on whether it's a vital link, and/or a crossroads.
Suspect a weekly basis per route, though it could also be a terminus, with a busier schedule towards the core, and a slower one to the fringes.
Suspect a weekly basis per route, though it could also be a terminus, with a busier schedule towards the core, and a slower one to the fringes.
Ok buried in Supplement 8 Library Data A-M Express Boat entry;
Time between jumps is almost always less than four hours, and can be under seven minutes.
Xboats on route it's six per day. By that.
Ok, then how do Subsidized Merchants with Mail Vaults factor in?
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Private contract between planetary governments.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
A planet not on an x boat route is reliant on subsidised mail and scout/couriers for the most part. They may see regular traffic (a couple of ships a day) if they are highish pop, decent starport but if low pop and C class starport it may be one a week or fortnight.
IMTU: X-boats do NOT carry anything physical for anyone less than landed dukes...
Canonical: The XMail/SMail routing is data only. Those freighter mail runs are the small parcel service, and subject to availability.
That is part of the paradigm, physical mail is going to be carried by the long distance shippers under contract.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Someone has to deliver the Christmas fruitcake from your great aunt in Regina, reputedly baked by some distant ancestor as Armstrong landed on the Moon.
And then there's Amazon.
And then there's Amazon.
BackworldTraveller
SOC-13
Given that mail earns so little, it will be dependent upon a ship needing to go there for other reasons too.
Given that (currently) about 1 TFEU container is shipped per year per person (I remember working it out based on UK movements and populations about a decade ago but I can't recall all the sources) then a 400 dTon mail ship needs 20 of these to make a trip. Which suggests that for populations less than level 2 the frequency is about monthly/quarterly at best - unless there is passing trade, or colonial/corporate/military/scout administrators paying for other reasons. Above population 4, you can expect daily traffic - although there may well be gaps due to the "safety in numbers" effect or larger ships assigned to the route. By population 5, the gap rate will be smaller and it will probably be gone by population 6.
Given that (currently) about 1 TFEU container is shipped per year per person (I remember working it out based on UK movements and populations about a decade ago but I can't recall all the sources) then a 400 dTon mail ship needs 20 of these to make a trip. Which suggests that for populations less than level 2 the frequency is about monthly/quarterly at best - unless there is passing trade, or colonial/corporate/military/scout administrators paying for other reasons. Above population 4, you can expect daily traffic - although there may well be gaps due to the "safety in numbers" effect or larger ships assigned to the route. By population 5, the gap rate will be smaller and it will probably be gone by population 6.
BackworldTraveller
SOC-13
They will only guarantee postage within 24 hours of receipt of order for off-world deliveries...the 3 month delay waiting for a ship that's heading in the right direction (in each direction) will not be under their control.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
Varies widely. There is no "set standard" for how quickly mail can circulate through interstellar shipping.
If you're talking XBoats, my default assumptions is that they circulate between star systems within 4 parsecs on the routes (nevermind the lines on the map, which are a simplification of how the system actually works in circulation) on a basis of at least 2 jumps per week per connection. Some locations will only have a single connection within 4 parsecs (Garda-Vilis/Vilis in the Spinward Marches, for example) while others can have seven or even more (such as Risek/Rhylanor in the Spinward Marches).
So LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION ... along with Population, Population, Population ... is going to be a very heavy determining factor in how often mail arrives at the local starport. Locations with lots of crossover traffic and high(er) populations will tend to get more mail deliveries, since they'll be "hub" location points for all kinds of pass through of stuff.
In terms of 5 ton Mail Vault for moving mail around on a commercial basis, it really depends on how often interstellar ships want to go to a particular star system. Backwater worlds with low population (Pop: 4-) are going to be "bad for business" in CT in both the cargo freight volume and passenger ticket senses, meaning that a trip to such worlds can easily result in losses rather than profits for a merchant operator. Consequently, such destinations will tend to be avoided by starships that "can't afford the trip" and expect to make a profit on the run. This is where dedicated Courier ships come into the picture ... which, incidentally, is where I started my starship design efforts here on these boards.
If you can "right size" a starship such that it can reliably turn a profit on a mere Cr25,000 in revenues per jump after paying for crew salaries, annual overhaul maintenance, life support, fuel, and berthing fees every jump ... you'll have a Mail Courier (likely subsidized) that can service the backwater worlds (Population: 0-4) and face remarkably little competition in those market segments (aside from pirates, so a powerful maneuver drive is recommended!). Any "spare" revenue tonnage capacity (most likely cargo hold rather than passengers) then simply gets used for freight and speculative goods to help pad out the bottom line.
Problem is, it's HARD to build a starship small enough to operate profitably on such a limited revenue stream (Cr25,000 per jump is TIGHT!) regardless of other circumstances. It CAN be done, but crew and life support overhead costs eat into the profit returns on that revenue stream FAST.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Communications is a force multiplier, or whatever the social or commercial term is, which of course bounces back to the political and economics aspects; I kinda hesitate to say infrastructure, since it's a bunch of starships, not a highway.
You get tangible benefits, if the mail route is run as a loss leader.
You get tangible benefits, if the mail route is run as a loss leader.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
xboats only travel on marked xboat routes in the Third Imperium - scout/couriers carry messages off the xboat routes. It's all described in S7
In a purely LBB2 paradigm then you would be running a tremendous risk to regularly jump to worlds with a C class or worse starport - unrefined fuel will eventually lead to a misjump and or drive failure.
In a purely LBB2 paradigm then you would be running a tremendous risk to regularly jump to worlds with a C class or worse starport - unrefined fuel will eventually lead to a misjump and or drive failure.
In LBB2, the Scouts can get ships that tolerate wilderness refueling.
So can militaries, but they are less likely to provide mail service.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The fuel comment I made was intended to highlight that regular merchant traffic is unlikely to take the risks to travel to worlds with no refined fuel available. The scout/courier can make such trips with no issue.
Which begs the question of how C starport worlds attract civilian ships - they will suffer from unrefined fuel use eventually.
Which begs the question of how C starport worlds attract civilian ships - they will suffer from unrefined fuel use eventually.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Private enterprise?
Re: parcels on the 5 ton delivery, I worked out pricing.
Assuming a 30% markup over and above for aggregating LCL and profit, it’s Cr6500 per dton.
We will call it 13 cubic meters for dton assuming wastage for packaging. So 500Cr per cubic meter.
18x18x10cm for a fruitcake package, 3.24 liters.
Looks like I can fit 300 fruitcakes in a cubic meter, so that’s Cr 1.6 per fruitcake per trip/parsec. 10 parsecs, Cr16.
Double that cost for orbit to ground routing/handling/tracking, it’s still just Cr32 across a subsector.
May not be Amazon two day, but it’s definitely a doable Sears catalog type small package delivery.
Assuming a 30% markup over and above for aggregating LCL and profit, it’s Cr6500 per dton.
We will call it 13 cubic meters for dton assuming wastage for packaging. So 500Cr per cubic meter.
18x18x10cm for a fruitcake package, 3.24 liters.
Looks like I can fit 300 fruitcakes in a cubic meter, so that’s Cr 1.6 per fruitcake per trip/parsec. 10 parsecs, Cr16.
Double that cost for orbit to ground routing/handling/tracking, it’s still just Cr32 across a subsector.
May not be Amazon two day, but it’s definitely a doable Sears catalog type small package delivery.
Amazon's equivalent will, as Amazon is migrating to now, guarantee delivery times by owning ships in their area.
Also remember: ordering from J1 away is not 1 week... it's two weeks or more.
If you have X-mail between... assuming daily traffic (per TTA) figure a day to send, a day at recieve, but with 6-8 days, so we have to allow 8, warehouse time at the far end - a day? another 6-8 for the jump, another day for landing, another 1day for customs (probably special arrangements, so we'll use 1 day instead of 1-6 that is more typical)... and then a day to get it to you... 15 to 20 days for 1 jump away.
If no daily X-mail, add another 1-7 days.
If no X-mail... well...
But at least shipping is likely only about Cr2 per kilo (aggregation and the least kind assumptions about cargo and tonnage - assumptions incompatible with TTA...)
Plus the Cr10 for the XMail.
