Why won't the #@!# teamsters move the cigars?

[rick]

I built a cigar factory, hired workers, the tobacco keeps coming in, and the cigars keep being made. I even sprang for the factory upgrades. But after 10 years, the profit is 0 while the expenses keep growing. I've lost a fortune so far!Ya see, for some unknown reason, the teamsters won't move the cigars out of the factory. I've got something like 114 sitting in the factory, waiting to be moved to the dock.Now, I thought maybe I don't have enough teamsters, but I have 2 fully staffed offices very close to the factory, as well as a 2nd dock, also very close.Anybody have any idea why this should happen? I'm drowning in cigars!!  

[MadamPresident]

Are you SURE you have enough teamsters?

Maybe you could try plunking down some more offices and see if that helps.

[rick]

Thank you for coming to the aid of a confused despot, Madame President.

I thought I had enough teamsters. I had 3 teamster offices, all fully staffed. Two of them were right near the cigar factory.

But at your suggestion, I just tried an experiment. I built another teamster office, and turned the time speed up to the highest setting. I also raised the pay for all the offices, just in case.

After a few years, the factory output went from 114 to 135, but still 0 profit. And this in a fully-staffed factory, with the climate control improvement.

I'm still baffled. Any idea what's going on?

(BTW, I've never had this problem before, and usually make a lot of money from factories)

[MadamPresident]

How about you email me a copy of the save game and I try messing around with it.

Sounds like a bug to me.....

Let me know if you want to and I'll IM you my email addy.

[rick]

Yes, that would be great!

Please send your email address...

[Junta_Joe]

The teamster problem is one the oldest hashes here at the forum. You can probably find a dozen threads here dealing with them. All the suggestions seem to help a little. The key is to use them all.

Some basic thoughts:

On a industrial style of island, don't be surprised if almost 10% of your population are teamsters. You really need that many.

Do anything you can to speed up their travel time. If planned well a teamster should be able to deliver 2 loads from factory to dock before "breaktime". Be happy with one trip from farms or mines in the interior. How do you get 2 loads, you ask? Paving. Pave it all in the industrial sector. Even under the buildings. Proper layout is critical too. Many threads discuss that here. You could spend the next 24 hours here reading every thread discussing efficiency and still not finish. I am loathe to make too many suggestions as you might take them as gospel. Certain playing styles lend themselves to certain methods better. Since it is possible to do a 70 year term in a 4 hour session, feel free to experiment.

Just remember that travel time is critical. The teamster will not be rested until he gets to his domicile first. Same thought with any of his other needs. The sooner they are done with their "other business", the sooner they get back to work. So place these stops in their normal pathways. I place hospitals, apartments, pubs, and whatever else they need right in the industrial sector.

Learn to segregate your "workers" from "nonworkers". Dock workers, teamsters, factory workers, and contruction workers need to physically doing the work to get results. All other jobs are being performed no matter where the worker is. Your banker is still skimming the accounts even when he's partying at the cabaret. By building around that thought, you can skip building certain structures in the industrial sectors. Who needs the highschool near the factory? That same space could have held a pub, market, and clinic. All things the teamster needs.

My island tends to have 3 or more sectors. Industrial: factories,docks, some housing, recreation, social services. Raw goods: farms and mines only. Tourist: hotels and tourist haunts. General: Government, military, education, and the bulk of the housing. Don't bother with placing markets, hospitals, and the like in the other sectors. Who cares if your immigration officer has to cross the island to visit the doctor? Her work is still being accomplished anyway. If your sense of asthetics is disturbed by this layout, remember this isn't a building sim. You are given no points for city planning.

Good luck and be sure to set aside some time to brouse the older threads. You will be amazed at what you find. Don't forget the Strategy and the Suggestions boards either.

[Coffeebean]

Farmers, miners and lumberjacks also need to be at work to get results, so I tend to have housing and services near these areas too. With the white collar workers the more they are actually at their places of employment the more experience they get and the more effective they are. If they have to walk too far they take ages to build up experience.

[Junta_Joe]

There is an experience trade-off to my plan, but it gets goods to the dock. This makes money. Money solves most of the problems in the game. I did mention that I place homes in 2 of the sectors. I keep homes out of tourist and raw goods areas.

Reasons:

Homes near farms take up rare and valuable production space. I would say that if you can shoehorn some housing into the odd nook and cranny then go ahead and do it.

Homes near logging camps are never necessary. Those loggers are some of the most efficient works in the game. Wish my teamsters worked as hard.  :-/  My earlier comment about farms should apply here, unless you are clearcutting space. Why build early when you can build properly when the area is cleared out?

Homes near mines tends to get the warning of island ugliness.

Homes near tourist areas are a no-no unless they are luxury homes and you have the anti-litter edict on. You must always be careful to keep your tourist areas in the "green" as far as beauty quality goes.

My big point was the location of markets, entertainment, religion, and medicine. I always place it near the industrial sector. The experience loss to govt workers, bankers, towel boys, maids, and teachers is worth the hit if you have bucks rolling in. Just how do more experienced towel boys help you anyway? I'm already getting the max income from those spas and hotels by building correctly. I can see the point about  bankers and government workers. Bankers make their real money on offshore accounts. It takes time to build up the tourists anyway so they have time to get their act together. Diplomat's skill loss can be overcome with cash. I can relate to Immigration officer skill. So just place that near the industrial sector. Who cares about teachers and proffessors? I tend to have more teachers than students anyway. Military? If you do your job right, you don't even need them.

How well do my methods work? At between 125% and 175% difficulty, I tend to score 15,000 or more. I'm satisfied with that. I get re-elected by 70% or more, and have happiness ratings about the same. My trade-offs work.

[Mike]

Thanks, Joe, very informative.  My island is generally a confused jumble...and somehow things get done.  The teamsters have more or less behaved themselves on my island.  I tend to place the offices in the exact center of everything.  It is important that they are close to home and entertainment, so that they have to spend less time fulfilling their needs.  while the industries are sometimes far away, they can usually do one run, grab a quick break, and be right out on the road again.

[Junta_Joe]

Us old-timers have a name for this problem.   BEP

That stands for Brain Eating Plague.  

That's why my industrial style islands have so many teamsers. Yes they do that a lot, Jim. But, if you place all the things they want near them and nowhere else, they have to stay close. They won't go the church on the other side of the island if there isn't one there! Thus my earlier comments about placing markets, religion, entertainment, medicine only in the industrial sector.

You guys must think I just make this stuff up as I go along.  

[Olle_Petersson]

... a load of coffee from the plantation to a cannery between the plantation and the dock rather than to another cannery at less than a third of the distance, but not in the direction of the dock.

This makes perfect sense since the total transportation distance (farm-cannery-dock) was minimised.

The trip to the cathedral can be explained by the fact that cathedrals have higher rating.

The trip to the clinic is more difficult. Perhaps it had a better rating than the hospital at the time? (Or he was just doing the right thing; not being very ill he went to the cheap clinic. If they couldn't treat him he'd be sent on to the expensive hospital...)

Cheers
Olle

[Olle_Petersson]

Homes near tourist areas are a no-no unless they are luxury homes ...

I've never noticed this.
I usually only have a thin and sparse line of (small) fountains between the luxury hotels and the staff apartments.
The hotels are thus in dark green and have a rating above 95.

Cheers
Olle