Cargo Simplification

[joefremont]

Now that we have lived with the cargo system for a while and seen some of the pit falls, it may be time to think of some revisions. Some of the ideas I had.

1) If a pilot loads up there aircraft and then does nothing, they usually get charged with a big 'packages not delivered' penalty in two weeks. One idea I had that might help is that if someone has packages in an aircraft that has not moved and there is no flight booked is to delete them after 24 hours, with a small 'restocking fee'. I had avoided something like that in the past, afraid VA's would keep picking up packages and hording them by cycling them in and out of aircraft until they can finally fly them, but if instead of returning them to available they are deleted, that removes the incentive to cycle the packages. Sure other VA's would loose the opportunity to deliver them but that is probably not too much of a burden.

2) The release/deliver system seams a bit hard to use and overly restrictive. I had proposed a system where instead of that, anywhere the aircraft is you can just pay to to have the packages delivered by someone else (standard rate plus 10-20%) it may make it simpler to use. I had talked about it here viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9577 and am wondering if now is the time to do it. Would like a good name for it that is distinct from Deliver or Release

3) Unloading packages from aircraft should be easier, maybe a page with similar functionally to the VA->Packages page but streamlined for a single aircraft and off the aircraft information page.

What are your ideas? What do you think of these ideas?

[joefremont]

One idea that did just come to me after reading the old thread. Right now if an airport is marked as military or private, it does not get any packages. Maybe if a VA builds a warehouse at it, it should start getting packages delivered to it, even at normal airports having more warehouses might increase its priority. This might make an incentive to build more warehouses.

This is not necessarily a simplification, but might be a useful update.

[BVU-951]

Now that we have lived with the cargo system for a while and seen some of the pit falls, it may be time to think of some revisions. Some of the ideas I had.

1) If a pilot loads up there aircraft and then does nothing, they usually get charged with a big 'packages not delivered' penalty in two weeks. One idea I had that might help is that if someone has packages in an aircraft that has not moved and there is no flight booked is to delete them after 24 hours, with a small 'restocking fee'. I had avoided something like that in the past, afraid VA's would keep picking up packages and hording them by cycling them in and out of aircraft until they can finally fly them, but if instead of returning them to available they are deleted, that removes the incentive to cycle the packages. Sure other VA's would loose the opportunity to deliver them but that is probably not too much of a burden.

What are your ideas? What do you think of these ideas?

What would stop me from loading an aircraft just to stop another va getting hold of valuable packages.?

[BVU-951]

At BVG we do exactly this, fly the A225 to one of our hubs, full of packages to be delivered within 1000 nm of the Hub then smaller aircraft make the deliveries. Was great fun, please do not change anything.

[Cat]

One idea that did just come to me after reading the old thread. Right now if an airport is marked as military or private, it does not get any packages. Maybe if a VA builds a warehouse at it, it should start getting packages delivered to it, even at normal airports having more warehouses might increase its priority. This might make an incentive to build more warehouses.

If you made the warehouse package system "airline specific", that would be a huge incentive for VA's to build and maintain warehouses throughout their route network. If the package system simply adds more packages for everyone when someone builds a warehouse, then you will have the free-loaders and bottom feeders taking packages generated via other VA warehouses without having to pay any of the warehouse expenses needed to generate those additional packages.

"Airline Specific" packages having a "shelf life" of say 2-3 weeks before they become 'public domain' might be an option too, but now we are talking about a much more complicated coding engine. So if it's possible in the coding, a VA's warehouse would generate extra packages based on it's size that would give the VA owning the warehouse exclusive rights to deliver those warehouse generated packages for a set time limit. After that they become fair game to all. An even more complex feature in the coding would be to make it where the packages can only be generated to other destinations the VA in question has routes installed to. This would stop the random international packages that are pretty much useless at smaller regional airports..

[BVU-951]

They are VA specific. we have a warehouse at all of our hubs and I hope other VA's can't see whats in them.

[BVU-951]

One idea that did just come to me after reading the old thread. Right now if an airport is marked as military or private, it does not get any packages. Maybe if a VA builds a warehouse at it, it should start getting packages delivered to it, even at normal airports having more warehouses might increase its priority. This might make an incentive to build more warehouses.

If you made the warehouse package system "airline specific", that would be a huge incentive for VA's to build and maintain warehouses throughout their route network. If the package system simply adds more packages for everyone when someone builds a warehouse, then you will have the free-loaders and bottom feeders taking packages generated via other VA warehouses without having to pay any of the warehouse expenses needed to generate those additional packages.

"Airline Specific" packages having a "shelf life" of say 2-3 weeks before they become 'public domain' might be an option too, but now we are talking about a much more complicated coding engine. So if it's possible in the coding, a VA's warehouse would generate extra packages based on it's size that would give the VA owning the warehouse exclusive rights to deliver those warehouse generated packages for a set time limit. After that they become fair game to all. An even more complex feature in the coding would be to make it where the packages can only be generated to other destinations the VA in question has routes installed to. This would stop the random international packages that are pretty much useless at smaller regional airports..

They are VA specific. we have a warehouse at all of our hubs and I hope other VA's can't see whats in them.