Haulers

Cargo ships are designed for hauling. They have much larger cargo holds, either general or specialized, than other ships of similar hull size.

Haulers

Haulers, previously known as Tech 1 industrials, can be divided into three 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 an extra, specialized, very large, hold that can carry only one type of item (such as ammunition or minerals)

For example, the Wreathe (Minmatar fast transport) can be fit to align in as little as 4 seconds while having 22k EHP, but would only have a cargo capacity of up to 4,622  m³. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a Bestower (Amarr bulk transport) can be fit to carry up to 39k  m³ but will take at least 13 seconds to align and have less than 8k EHP. To that end, fast transports can be fit to transport material through lowsec relatively safely, whereas bulk transports should be restricted to systems known to be safe unless accompanied by an escort, e.g. an OOC alt.

For fitting, haulers tend to have base powergrid around the level of destroyers and quite high amounts of CPU, which is mostly used by a shield tank. The low slots are often filled with expanded cargoholds, though these can be swapped out with inertial stabilizers or nanofiber internal structures for smaller hauls to increase agility, thereby decreasing align time and cutting down a little on travel time. Agility mods are especially important on fast transports operating in low security space. If you are looking to do a lot of distribution missions or otherwise do a lot of traveling, warp speed rigs (Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizers) can cut travel time by more than half.

Each race has its own haulers, which require their racial hauler skill - for example,  Amarr Hauler. Alpha clones are limited to level I of their racial hauler skill. The haulers get 5% bonuses to cargo capacity and either agility (fast transports) or velocity (bulk transports) per level of skill. You receive a free fast transport when you complete the Industrialist (Producer) career agent mission Making Mountains of Molehills (10 of 10).

The four races do not all have the same number of haulers, and which race's haulers will offer the highest cargo capacity depends on the amount of training time you are prepared to invest.

Amarr

The Bestower offers you the best potential cargo capacity for general cargo but has less than 8k EHP when fit this way. Meanwhile the Sigil is an overall poor industrial ship.

• Sigil (fast transport)
• Bestower (bulk transport)

Caldari

The Badger has the highest base cargo capacity of the fast transports. The Tayra has the least potential capacity of the bulk transports but the highest base capacity and highest tank, however it is outperformed in fast, secure hauling by the Badger and in bulk hauling by the other races' bulk transports.

• Badger (fast transport)
• Tayra (bulk transport)

Gallente

The Gallente have several specialized ships (which have vast specialized bays but can only transport specific kinds of items in them), while the non-specialized fast/bulk transports give good all-round performance.

• Nereus (fast transport)
• Iteron Mark V (bulk transport)
• Kryos (specialized ship with a minerals and a ice hold)
• Epithal (specialized ship with a planetary commodities and a command center hold)
• Miasmos (specialized ship with a mining hold)

Minmatar

The Minmatar haulers are significantly faster than other haulers in the same ship class. They manage this speed without sacrificing tank or cargo capacity, making them ideal for doing distribution missions or even for lowsec hauling.

• Wreathe (fast transport)
• Mammoth (bulk transport)
• Hoarder (specialized ship with an ammunition and a gas hold)