Hauling

Hauling is the practice of moving cargo from one place to another. Due to limited cargo hold sizes and travel times, moving things in EVE can be a time consuming and, in some places, dangerous business. Some players specialize in hauling, whether to move goods from one market to another or to bring supplies and ships to the staging ground for a null sec alliance. This can be done for its own purposes or can be done on behalf of others in exchange for ISK rewards via the contracting system. This can be a very viable way to make ISK for medium-skilled players.

This page describes how to carry cargo (hauling) in EVE. For specific advice on moving your own items, see moving your items.

Hauling craft

There are a few classes of ships designed for hauling. Each fills a type of niche, and what ship to use depends on the type of hauling.

Haulers

Main article: Haulers

The first hauling ships a player can use are Tech 1 Haulers. These are relatively cheap and fast and can haul a moderate amount of cargo. They are however also very fragile and can be destroyed by just one ganker if the cargo they carry is valuable enough. These ships can be sorted into three different classes:

• Fast transports, which are used to move low-volume, high-value goods quickly and safely.
• Bulk transports, which have a much higher capacity than the fast transports, but are slower and have less tank
• Specialized transports, which are similar to bulk transports in terms of tank and agility, but have very large cargoholds that can carry only one type of item (such as ammunition or minerals)

Haulers have the lowest skill requirements of all hauling craft. Even alpha clones can fly them, though they can only train the Spaceship Command skills to level I.

Blockade Runners

Main article: Blockade Runners

Blockade runners are Tech 2 haulers. They are the fastest and most agile hauling ship by quite a margin. They can align as quickly as a frigate, are some of the fastest ships in EVE at warp speeds, and even at sub-light speeds they can fly as quickly as a fast cruiser. Additionally, they can fit covert ops cloaking devices (and hence can warp while cloaked). This means that the only real danger to a properly fitted and flown blockade runner are the warp disruption bubbles in nullsec and w-space. With "The Great Escape" update, released May 18, 2021, Blockade Runners are at least somewhat protected from these, as well, by fitting an Interdiction Nullifier.

They can carry a little less cargo than the Tech 1 fast transports, but can be fitted to carry up to about 10,000 m³ of cargo (enough to carry a packaged cruisers) at the cost of reduced agility and/or speed.

Deep Space Transports

Main article: Deep Space Transports

Deep Space Transports (DSTs) are tech 2 haulers with larger cargo capacities than their tech 1 equivalents and fleet hangars that hold 50,000 m³ (increased by skills). They have bonuses to active tanking, either shield resistances or armor resistances, helping them to fit substantial buffer tanks. Finally, they get a unique role bonus of 100% to overheating benefits of Afterburners, Microwarpdrives, Local Repair Modules, and Resistance Modules.

They also have a role bonus of +2 warp strength: this means they can't be tackled by just one warp disruptor or non-faction warp scrambler, though they can still be caught by bubbles, gangs of tacklers, or HICs. The Great Escape update gave Deep Space Transports the ability to fit an Interdiction Nullifier, giving temporary immunity to interdiction bubbles.

Where blockade runners are meant to rely on speed and stealth to slip by the enemy, deep space transports are designed to bust their way through the enemy, relying on their warp strength and tanking abilities to escape. This probably won't work against a determined and well-prepared gatecamp, and using a deep space transport indicates to all and sundry that you have cargo you want to protect, so you should think carefully before deploying one.

Freighters

Main article: Freighters

Freighters are the ultimate cargo carrying ships, with vast cargo holds. They are often seen flying between high sec trading hubs. All freighters have no high, mid, or rig slots but do have 3 low slots, with restrictive CPU and powergrid to limit the available modules with a role bonus to Reinforced Bulkheads. Freighters also can use Inertial Stabilizers and Nanofiber Internal Structures to increase their agility. Otherwise, a freighter pilot's only other way of enhancing their ship's performance is via hardwiring implants.

Use Freighters for huge cargo through high sec and very short distances into low sec. These require proper support (someone to web for faster aligns, scouts, preferably some EW).

The four Tech 1 freighters are good for carrying very large amounts of cargo in high security space. They align and warp too slowly to be safely used in lowsec or nullsec. Freighters are very tough, but they are definitely not immune to suicide ganking -- organised and prepared groups of gankers can and do kill freighters.

All four freighters get 5% bonuses to cargo capacity and velocity per level of their pilot's racial freighter skill (Amarr Freighter, Gallente Freighter, and so on). Since you must train the freighter skill to at least level 1, the base capacity of the ship is only used to calculate the actual capacity. It is worth noting that the Caldari freighters with Caldari Freighter IV can hold more than any other freighter, even with their respective freighter skills trained to 5.

Jump Freighters

Main article: Jump Freighters

The Tech 2 versions of freighters, jump freighters, have a reduced cargo capacity but are capable of using cynosural fields to jump long distances. They are also able to use stargates like normal ships. (Since cynosural fields cannot be lit in highsec, jump freighters traveling in highsec have to use stargates.) This makes them ideal supply ships for people who live in nullsec.

Jump Freighters are used to carry cargo from the high/low sec border to wherever it is needed in null sec and back again. Caldari freighters are the largest, closely followed by Gallente, then Amarr and lastly Minmatar, which is partially compensated for by lower fuel use. The difference is not large though.

Jump freighters have much larger potential tanks than Tech 1 freighters when properly fit, but at the cost of a much reduced cargo bay. All jump freighters can exceed 500,000 EHP in tank, which makes ganking them in highsec extraordinarily difficult and expensive.

Orca

The  Orca offers 5 different cargo holds:

• 30,000 m³ Cargo Hold which can be extended to 90,000+ m³ with skills and modules
• 200 m³ Drone Bay which hold just drones
• 40,000 m³ Fleet Hangar which can also hold assembled ships
• 400,000 m³ Ship Maintenance Bay for assembled ships
• 150,000 m³ Mining Hold for unrefined mining goods, with additional bonus due to ship skills (Mining, Ice harvesting)

All holds, hangars and bays except the Drone Bay can be scanned by a Cargo Scanner. However, due to how cargo scanners work, modules fitted to ships in the Ship Maintenance Bay are not detectable by scanning.

However, the Orca requires a completely different skill set than most haulers. After the Odyssey skill changes, it will take 18d 19h 6m to train. This is a significant cut in training time from the old requirements pre-Odyssey.

Other options

There are situations where a small fast craft is better than a big lumbering beast. These include moving blueprints or other small volume, high value cargo. The best options at this size are nullified travel-fit Interceptors (so-called travel-ceptors), Covert Ops Frigates, and (for highsec/lowsec) the Hecate with a sub-1s align time fit. These can provide near-perfect safety if handled correctly.

As an alternative, a shuttle (all areas of space) or a fast T1 frigate (in highsec and lowsec) will work as well, but they are more susceptible to smartbombing gatecamps. Tactical bookmarks on-grid with gates ("perches") and insta-dock/insta-undock bookmarks can mitigate this risk considerably. (See Bookmark for an more in-depth explanation.)

The  Sunesis is a special edition destroyer that is given out to all Omega pilots once a year. Various fitting options exist, with a sub-2s fit able to hold 1200  m³ without any expensive faction modules. It is an easily accessible and cheap option for highsec and lowsec and can be used by Alpha players as well.

A  Victorieux Luxury Yacht can warp cloaked, ignores nullsec bubbles if fitted with an interdiction nullifier, can be fit with enough tank to survive smartbombs, and has very decent align time and warp speed. That is another good option for moving high-value, low-volume cargo.

Faction comparison

Amarr have the largest capacity T1 Haulers but otherwise tend to be outperformed by other races. Minmatar haulers tend to align and fly slightly faster than other factions, but don't sacrifice cargo or tank to do it, making them arguably the best haulers overall. Caldari have the largest capacity freighters, and unquestionably the tankiest T1 haulers. The specialized Gallente T1 haulers (and to a lesser extent the Minmatar ammo hauler) are extremely convenient if you regularly haul ore/minerals/PI/ammo.

To maximize flexibility, it's recommended that all new haulers train Gallente and Minmatar haulers to at least 3, and from there decide which race to train to 5 depending on what exactly it is you want to do.

Hauler type comparison

The best hauler is situational; it depends on where you are (high, low, null/WH/Pochven) combined with how large and valuable the cargo is. For example, using an Occator (DST) to move a cargo small enough to fit in a Viator (BR) is sub-optimal, as is using a Viator to move large amounts of tritanium around in high sec when you could use a Kryos (T1 hauler specialised for minerals) instead.

Below are the optimal ships for each task, assuming that the area that you're going to or through is not a place where it's clearly a bad idea to bring such a ship type and that the cargo value is low enough to be within the recommended limits (in highsec). This does not mean that only these ships can or should be used. (For negligible-volume hauling for example, a Shuttle will do fine in all areas of space, but using an interceptor is better because it gives you more protection against smartbombing gatecamps.) But if training up a toon specifically for hauling duties, these are good goals to work toward.

• Cargo with near-negligible volume: Interceptor or Cov-Ops Frigate (anywhere), sub-1s Hecate (highsec/lowsec)
• Up to 1,200  m³ in highsec/lowsec: sub-2s Sunesis
• Up to 10,000  m³ (packaged cruiser size) anywhere: Blockade Runner
• Low-value cargo up to 15,000  m³ (packaged battlecruiser size) anywhere: Fast T1 Hauler
• Low-value cargo up to 30,000  m³ (two packaged battlecruisers size) in highsec: Bulk T1 Hauler, specialised T1 Haulers
• Medium-value cargo up to 60,000  m³ (packaged battleship size): Deep Space Transport (anywhere) (if Jump Freighter is not [yet] an option), Orca (highsec)
• High-value cargo beyond 10,000  m³ in highsec: Blockade Runner doing several trips (even if you may get the job done faster with a DST, getting it there slowly is better than not getting it there at all due to being ganked)
• Huge cargo above ~60k  m³ and below ~300k  m³ anywhere: Jump Freighter (aligns faster than a Freighter and has more tank)
• Huge cargo above ~300k  m³ anywhere: Freighter (requires escort in low and null, is easily caught by bubbles/gatecamps), Jump Freighter doing several trips

Comparison table for cargo ships

Name	Level	Faction	Cargo m³	Velocity m/sec	Inertia	Warp AUs	Shield HP	Armor HP	Hull HP	Extra
Sigil	T1	Amarr	2100	125	0.86	4.5	780	1900	2400
Bestower	T1	Amarr	4800	110	0.95	3	450	850	940
Badger	T1	Caldari	3900	127	0.84	4.5	1440	750	2060
Tayra	T1	Caldari	7300	115	0.97	3	1100	550	810
Wreathe	T1	Minmatar	2900	140	0.81	4.5	1140	1000	2900
Hoarder	T1	Minmatar	500	130	0.85	3	840	800	1200	41000 ammo
Mammoth	T1	Minmatar	5500	120	0.91	3	640	600	935
Nereus	T1	Gallente	2700	130	0.78	4.5	960	1050	2600
Kryos	T1	Gallente	550	120	0.92	3	600	700	970	50000 minerals + 30000 ice
Epithal	T1	Gallente	550	120	0.9	3	580	740	1000	45000 comodities
Miasmos	T1	Gallente	550	120	0.94	3	590	710	950	42000 ore
Iteron Mark V	T1	Gallente	5800	105	0.87	3	540	650	970
Prorator	T2	Amarr	2900	170	0.52	6	800	2000	2100	cloaked
Crane	T2	Caldari	4300	160	0.51	6	2100	1000	1900	cloaked
Viator	T2	Gallente	3600	165	0.54	6	1000	1700	2700	cloaked
Prowler	T2	Minmatar	3500	220	0.485	6	1500	1500	1700	cloaked
Impel	T2	Amarr	3100	90	1.0	3.3	2000	4300	4500	50000 hangar
Bustard	T2	Caldari	5000	80	1.0	3.3	4300	2300	4000	50000 hangar
Occator	T2	Gallente	3900	110	1.0	3.3	2400	4000	5000	50000 hangar
Mastodon	T2	Minmatar	4500	120	1.0	3.3	4000	2800	3100	50000 hangar
Providence	T1	Amarr	435000	70	0.063	1.37	10000	46000	100000	freighter
Charon	T1	Caldari	465000	60	0.063	1.37	50000	15000	77500	freighter
Obelisk	T1	Gallente	440000	65	0.063	1.37	14000	40000	110000	freighter
Fenrir	T1	Minmatar	435000	80	0.063	1.37	48000	22000	65000	freighter
Ark	T2	Amarr	135000	84	0.055	1.5	12000	55200	120000	jump
Rhea	T2	Caldari	144000	72	0.055	1.5	60000	18000	93000	jump
Anshar	T2	Gallente	137500	78	0.055	1.5	16800	48000	132000	jump
Nomad	T2	Minmatar	132000	96	0.055	1.5	57600	26400	78000	jump

Hauling skills

Ship flying skills

• Warp Drive Operation: Helps with long warps. Each skill level reduces the capacitor need of initiating warp by 10%.
• Spaceship Command: Reduces align time. 2% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
• Advanced Spaceship Command: May reduce align time. Grants a 5% Bonus per skill level to the agility of ships requiring Advanced Spaceship Command
• Evasive Maneuvering: Increases ship agility and acceleration. 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.

Tanking skills

Generally useful skills:

• Shield Management: 5% extra shields per level
• Shield Operation: 5% reduction in shield recharge time per level; level IV allows use of T2 shield boosters
• Shield Upgrades: 5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs per level; level IV allows use of T2 shield extenders and rechargers
• <type-specific> Shield Compensation: 5% bonus per level for passive hardeners

Recommendation:

• Get Shield Management and Shield Operation at least to IV

Particularly useful modules:

• Power Grid Management II & Tactical Shield Manipulation IV: Allows use of Multispectrum Shield Hardener II.
• Hull Upgrades IV: Allows use of T2 Damage Control. There is a trade-off with the cargo expanders typically used by haulers, however.
• Energy Grid Upgrades IV, Power Grid Management II, and Science I: Allows use of T2 Power Diagnostic Systems. Some shield tankers prefer these over Damage Controls for the boost in shield recharge rate (that recharge will not have time to make up for the ehp loss compared to a damage control before concord arrives, even in a 0.5 with a 13 second delay, but it can be combined with a damage control).

Fitting considerations for hauling ships

The best form of tanking for haulers is not getting caught in the first place. This is especially true outside of highsec: the amount of tank in lowsec/nullsec/WH/Pochven rarely makes a difference to the outcome, because a well set up gatecamp can just spend more time getting through your ship's HP or call in reinforcements from nearby friendly pilots, while in highsec the response time of CONCORD puts an upper limit to the engagement duration. Still, fitting for maximum tank after the other crucial modules are taken care of can work against less experienced and/or single pilot attackers, giving you enough time to escape tackle, rely on damage to the attacker's ship by lowsec gate guns, or successfully burn back to the gate and jump back through. (The latter won't be an option if you used any aggressive action on your part, such as activating a Burst Jammer module, because of your own weapons timer.)

In all areas where warp disruption bubbles may be used (nullsec, WH space, Pochven), fitting an Interdiction Nullifier module is strongly recommended; other less-optimal options are shuttles (small cargospace, vulnerable to smartbombing gatecamps, but inherently immune to bubbles), frigates fitted for high on-grid speed (to escape from both bubbles and enemy tacklers), and cov-ops cloak capable ships such as the  Astero and Stealth Bombers that can not fit the Interdiction Nullifier modules (but can by virtue of their cov-ops cloaking device move without speed penalty while cloaked).

Blockade runners rely on good bookmarks, crafty use of their Covert Ops Cloak, and not fitting anything that would increase the signature radius (no shield extenders). Due to their use of a covops cloak, well-flown blockade runners can be almost impossible to catch in highsec and lowsec. They are thus a good choice for more expensive cargo runs, but being very flimsy can easily get ganked if left uncloaked at a gate or while slow-boating from outside the docking ring of a station.

For low-volume hauling, a ship that is fitted to align in less than 2 seconds (see Instant align for details) offers a fairly high level of protection against being intercepted by targeted warp disruption, with the added benefit that the risk your cargo is successfully scanned is also reduced. Warp disruption bubbles are still a concern however. In highsec and lowsec, the sub-1s Hecate is truly uncatchable if piloted correctly (and no game disconnects occur). For higher volumes of cargo, fit the ship to use the Cloak trick wherever possible (always on Deep Space Transports), and consider warp core stabilisers as an option if you have fitting slots to spare (highly recommended for Deep Space Transports once more, due to their innate warp core strength bonus). Outside of highsec, having a Burst Jammer module and Hornet EC-300 drones (on the few ships commonly used for hauling that have a drone bay) can work as a last-ditch effort to get yourself free from a gatecamp. Note that the Burst Jammer modules interfere with Interdiction Nullifiers, and their use in highsec is strongly discouraged due to the risk of accidentially hitting a neutral target and getting "CONCORDed".

Fitting an appropriate tank for highsec hauling

The more EHP that you have, the harder it is for the attacker to blow up your ship and steal your stuff. The calculations regarding how many ships a ganker will need to use (and lose to CONCORD) to successfully destroy your ship compared to how much value the dropped cargo will likely be are a deciding factor in most highsec ganks. Considering that a cheap T1 gank ship like the  Catalyst can cost as little as 2m ISK fully fitted, a common rule of thumb is to limit the value of the carried cargo plus the modules (but not rigs) fitted to the ship to less than 3000 ISK per EHP (3 million ISK per 1k EHP).

There are several types of tanking: buffer tanking, (shield) passive tanking and active tanking. For movements within highsec, the buffer tank is most common, as the goal is to survive the alpha strike (initial volley) of the attacking gankers and remain alive long enough for CONCORD to come and destroy the attackers. Some buffer tanks are entirely passive (no active modules), while others include active resistance modules. The active modules must be turned on after every jump; remapping them to the F1-F8 keys makes this more convenient. Still, relying on active modules for a significant part of your overall EHP carries with it the risk that you forget to turn them on in the heat of the moment.

T1 haulers ships are most often shield tanked to allow the low slots to be used for Expanded Cargohold modules. You will want to fit as many medium/large shield extenders into the mid slots as possible. This should be balanced with shoring up your weak EM/thermal resist holes using Multispectrum Shield Hardener modules or Shield Resist Amplifier modules (Kinetic Shield Amplifiers in case of a fit designed specifically against the common hybrid turret Catalysts used in ganking). In cases where you need more EHP and can sacrifice cargo space, consider adding a Damage Control Unit II module, Reinforced Bulkheads, or armor resist modules. A poorly fit T1 hauler will only have 4k to 6k EHP, a well fit T1 hauler can have 10k to 20k EHP without sacrificing too much cargo space.

Visibly active tanking (most notably the Multispectrum Shield Hardener) might discourage ganking by the discriminating ganker, but your capacitor will not allow you to keep them running at all times. Remember to turn them on when you align out of a gate and to turn them off once you are in warp. Turning them back on when you land at your destination gate is optional, but having them active as you land at a busy station like a trade hub is recommended.

Shield tanking skills are key for the above, followed by the ability to use a Damage Control II and Multispectrum Shield Hardener II. After that, armor tanking can be considered, but that takes away cargo space quickly as you use up low slots with armor plates/hardeners instead of Expanded Cargohold modules. Note that Tech 2 Deep Space Transports and specialized Gallente haulers like the  Miasmos,  Epithal or  Kryos are mostly useful for their specialized holds which are unaffected by Expanded Cargohold modules. These ships can, and should, be fitted with tanking, agility, or warp speed low slot modules, making armour tanked Deep Space Transports like the  Impel a common sight.

For Orcas, the standard fit is a Damage Control II and Reinforced Bulkhead II in the low slots and three Large Transverse Bulkhead II rigs. This takes your ship from about 150k EHP up to about 420k EHP. The addition of some passive shield resistance amplifiers (2x EM, 1x Kinetic, 1x Thermal) will increase the EHP to about 450k even at low shield skills. Replacing the passive Amplifiers with active Hardeners adds another bit of EHP but requires more attention. Using Cargo rigs is discouraged since you lose about 170k EHP for a low amount of additional cargohold. You should train Hull Upgrades IV and Mechanics IV (or better V) before undocking. Being able to use a Damage Control II gives a nice EHP boost, and since you are almost fully hull-tank, the extra 5% from Mechanics V are also very nice. You should also consider using a Inherent Implants 'Noble' MC (Slot 8) which increases hull HP by anything from 1% up to 6%.

Freighters and Jump Freighters have three low slots and can fit any combination of cargohold expanders, Nanofiber Internal Structures, Inertia Stabilizers, Reinforced Bulkheads, warp speed modules, and (in the case of Jump Freighters) fuel-use reducing modules. How you fit a Freighter for highsec hauling will depend on the size of the cargo: it is strongly recommended to fit Reinforced Bulkheads whenever possible and to not fit cargohold expanders unless absolutely necessary, as the expanders will reduce your overall tank substantially. For Jump Freighters, the appropriate fit is highly dependent on which part of a typical hauling journey you are in. Pilots for both Freighters and Jump Freighters will almost always carry a full set of modules for refitting to another setup in their cargohold.

Avoiding ganking

When hauling, you should remember the following guidelines to avoid being ganked:

• Don't fly when wardecced
• Don't fly AFK using the autopilot
• Fit your hauler well & use the right ship
• Don't haul expensive cargo in a flimsy ship
• Know your route, and know the most dangerous ganking spots
• Use undock bookmarks at busy stations
• Consider using a contractor
• Other tips and tricks

For further information consider reading Suicide ganking for detailed ganking and anti-ganking strategies for haulers

Wardecced corp

Never fly a Hauler ship (especially not freighters/jump freighters loaded with lots of cargo) when your corp is wardecced. You will become easy prey and will quickly get turned into ashes, together with your expensive cargo. If you need to haul during a wardec, drop the wardecced corp temporarily and fly under an NPC corp, or use an out-of corp hauler: Creating an Alt Hauler

AFK hauling

Flying AFK using autopilot is the #1 way that most haulers lose their ships. When you use the autopilot to fly you to your destination, it warps you to 15km from the next gate then you slowly approach the gate at 100-200 m/s (slower in a Freighter). At a minimum, this leaves you exposed for about a minute per gate and gives any potential attacker time to scan your ship, scan your cargo, then get ahead of you and setup a gank party. At worst, it gives you time to be bumped and ganked right there.

If you must fly AFK, know your route, keep your cargo value very low, and fit as much buffer tank as possible. There are areas of space where flying AFK is reasonably safe, but the longer you do it, the higher the chances that someone will notice the pattern and try to take advantage of it.

Use the right ship & fit your ship well

Use the information in the other sections to make an informed decision on which ship to use, and what an appropriate fit for the intended journey is. Many ganks happen because a player is using an under-tanked or inappropriate ship for the job or has not considered the dangers along the route and at the destination. Remember: Both using evasion and fitting a tank to your ship counts as "tanking". Don't be tempted to haul expensive faction BPCs to a trade hub in a bulk T1 Hauler because you're already in that ship anyway to pick up Tritanium for your other industry jobs, do a separate trip for those in a fast-align ship.

Expensive cargo

In the case of a "suicide" gank, the goal of the attacker is to trade their ship for your cargo. They do this by knowing how much ISK they will lose when their ship gets blown up by CONCORD and how much ISK your cargo is worth. Therefore your defense against a profit-minded attacker is to raise their costs while keeping the value of your cargo below the attacker's break-even point.

With the commonly used 3M ISK per 1k EHP guideline, if your ship has 8k EHP, you should not be carrying more than 24M ISK worth of cargo and fit modules per trip. The more that you exceed that ISK/EHP value, the more likely you are to get ganked. However, you can often get away with 4M-6M ISK per 1k EHP if you know your route, do not auto-pilot, and know the key risk factors.

Another alternative is the 50 million ISK maximum collateral for T1 haulers used by several hauling corporations. They will haul cargo up to 50,000,000 ISK and 17,000  m³ in size using T1 haulers. This indicates what they consider to be safe for high sec hauling in that type of ship.

Key risk factors (which raise/lower the ISK/EHP calculation):

• System security
• Location (some systems are frequently camped)
• AFK traveling
• How shiny your cargo is, and how easy it will be to carry the loot away (Having most of your value in large items such as repackaged hulls can give some less-well-set-up gankers pause, because they might not be able to carry them away if they drop as loot. Dedicated gankers will however have access to DSTs and other means of getting the loot away.)

For freighters, which have about 180-200k EHP, the benchmark value is around 1-1.5B ISK. As your cargo value exceeds this range, combined with traveling through systems with a security status in the 0.5-0.6 range, it becomes more and more likely that someone will gank you for your cargo value. This is a bit of a fuzzy rule of thumb, and in the quieter portions of the galaxy with routes that take you only through 0.8 and above systems, you can get away with hauling higher value cargo loads for a very long time.

When you have expensive cargo above 1B ISK to be moved in a freighter, you could consider double-wrapping it (create courier contract for some other alt of yours and then create another courier contract from this alt to actual freighter pilot). It will hide the contents of this package, but some gankers tend to gank double wrapped transports without knowing what is inside, so most people (including hauling corporations) consider this to be increasing the risk rather than decreasing it. Also, most Hauling corporations will not accept double wrapped contracts any more, due to them not being able to be sub-contracted between characters - do not do this for hauling jobs you intend to contract out.

Know your route

Your best friend as a hauler in high-security space is knowledge of the local terrain. Which systems tend to be camped by gank parties. Which systems see frequent kills of haulers? Where are you likely to be cargo/ship scanned? What is the security status of the systems along the route?

Scouting, in low-security or null-security space, is a must-do if you are carrying anything expensive, or are not flying a blockade runner. In low-security space, a well-flown blockade runner is almost impossible to catch and it can usually get past most null-sec bubble camps.

A useful in-game channel is Gank-Intel where the hauling community often shares info about frequently traveled routes. Asking about the current situation in there before embarking on a high value contract through a dangerous area can be invaluable.

Instant dock/undock bookmarks

Busier market hub stations (such as Jita CNAP 4-4) will have people camping the undock 24x7, waiting for you to undock with something shiny in the cargo hold. Your #1 defense against this is to prepare an instaundock bookmark ahead of time.

A good bookmark will get you off the station undock and out to a safe-spot before anyone has time to lock you, scan you and gank you. They are a must-have for Blockade Runners and rather important for the slower-aligning ships like Orcas and Freighters.

Instant docks are also essential. Occasionally when auto-docking, the game will place you outside the immediate docking radius, and you will need to slow boat into the docking radius. This is particularly problematic at Jita 4-4, where entering from Perimeter (one of the most common entry systems) will place you at the back of the station if using the "Dock" command. Several gankers make an excellent living from sitting at this area, and picking off lazy Blockade Runner pilots. Setting an Instant-Dock right as you exit the station means you are assured to warp within the docking radius and prevent an easy kill for a ganker.

Use a contractor

The large hauling corporations all use contractor alts to assure op-sec. Essentially this means that one character accepts the contract, then sub-contracts it to the actual hauler, who carries the package, and then contracts it back the contractor who then completes the contract. This means that:

• Without scanning every ship, no-one (neither the contract's originator nor anyone watching the contract system) can tell which Character is hauling the package - making ganking a specific contract more difficult
• As the identity (and corporation) of the actual hauler is not known, wardecs are less effective

While not strictly necessary for private haulers, this added security can sometimes be useful

Other tips and tricks

Do not be predictable in your hauling of expensive items. Vary the time of day. Vary the route that you use. Change your ship name frequently.

Hauling corporations

There are several organisations in EVE which act as dedicated Hauling companies. They tend to be more reliable, more willing to take on unusual or high value requests, but also more expensive than the public contracts channel.

Characters in EVE can use these corporations either for their own hauling needs, or consider joining them to get access to exclusive, high value contracts. If you are considering hauling as a career, the best way to make money is as part of one of these corporations.

While not an exhaustive list, some of the most common (in no particular order) include:

• Red Frog Freight
• Push X

Hauler roles

Market hauling

Speculative hauling is one way to make money from the market that's fairly easy to get into for a new player

Alt hauling

Setting up an alt hauler can be very useful to ship goods around during wartime when your main can't fly a hauler ship.

Courier hauling

If you have a high amount of ISK to devote to collateral, courier contract hauling can be a very good way to make ISK for haulers, given that you have a freighter or jump freighter to haul around the usually large quantities of contracted goods. One billion ISK (1,000,000,000 ISK) is a good estimate of how much money you will need to get started taking courier hauling.

A courier hauler can make a lot of ISK, but it's not without risk. Ganking is one problem, contract scams are another. It's always a good idea to check the contract history of an unknown contractor before accepting anything. This information can be found by opening the 'info' window of a player, clicking the three lines in the top left corner, and selecting 'Show Contracts'.

If you do not have docking permissions at the player-owned structure you are delivering to be aware that you can still make the delivery. You can warp to the structure, right-click and open a "transfer" window to move cargo from your ship to your item hangar in the dock-blocked structure. Before this transfer option was added a common scam was disabling docking permission after contract acceptance.

Another type of scam contract that appears less suspicious at a first glance involves a valuable package and overpriced collateral. These contracts are designed to make the hauler a tempting target for random gankers so the contractor can cash in on the overpriced collateral. They can be spotted by a contract history of sending the same package (same size) back and forth between two systems along a dangerous route. It could for example be between Amarr and Dodixie, which will take the hauler through both Niarja and Uedama which are both infamous for the amount of high-sec ganking going on there. For more information on scams involving courier contracts, see the page on scams in EVE.

Mining assistance

If you're using your hauler in a mining operation (without an Orca), consider fitting a tractor beam to bring cans to you faster, as well as a salvager to make something of the inevitable rat wrecks. In addition, putting out a Mobile Tractor Unit can make it easy to pick up cans from other miners and then haul them to station (Make sure to have your drones on passive!). You could also fit a mining laser, but even a good one with pilot skills won't be getting much more than 100  m³ per minute.

Other

Haulers can also be used to make ISK via missioning, as described for Level 4 Cargo Missions.