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Bulk contracts

Bulk contracts are on in every new run. A local business sits down at the Business Bulk Ledger and offers flyer mail for a set of delivery days, Monday to Saturday. Those flyers ride inside the day's inbound trucks. A day that delivers under 80% of that day's flyer quota is a short day, and too many short days fail the contract. This desk is not the outdoor Business Bulk Bay, and these contracts are not the one-time grants on the Finance Ledger. See Containers and trucks and Deals and contracts.

The desk

Business Bulk Ledger is on the Objects tab. It costs 500, shown as $500 in the default currency. Place it in a Customer Service zone. One per facility, and a clerk has to work it. A second one is refused. The notice is titled "Business Bulk Ledger" and reads "Only one Business Bulk Ledger fits in a facility." While you place it, an amber tag reads "STAFF" and a blue tag reads "CUSTOMER". Click the placed desk to open a window titled "Business Bulk Ledger". Esc closes that window. It does not pause the game.

The tabs read "Offers (1)" and "Active (1)", with the live counts. An empty Offers tab reads "No offers right now. Clients visit when the ledger is staffed." An empty Active tab reads "No active contracts." An offer that still fits the day's flyer room reads "Fits within today's mail". One that would push the signed and pending flyers past that room reads "Too big for today's mail". The piece line reads "100 flyers a day (Monday to Saturday)", using that offer's count.

An active contract shows the business name on its own line. The next line is the town, then the flyer count, the price, and the days left, as in "100 flyers a day at $3.00, 6 days left" after the town name and a colon. Under that: "Delivered today: 79 of 100", "Short days: 3", and "Advance still to earn back: $120.00". The counts, the price, and the advance are that contract's. The price and the advance are shown with cents. A failed contract leaves this list.

The Objects row is hidden in Tutorial Facility and in Open for Business. It is on the list from People of the Post onward, and in Sandbox while the box below is ticked. Street Routes asks you to accept one and run it for 3 full days. See Story and Sandbox.

Settings: Sandbox

Settings: Sandbox opens on a Sandbox run, including the Training Post preset. The line above the controls reads "These options apply to the current sandbox run. Campaign and story missions use fixed rules." The same controls are on New Facility Setup. After "Town growth", a section is titled "Bulk contracts and regions". On New Facility Setup, "Starting cash" sits between "Town growth" and that section.

The box is "Bulk contracts (Business Bulk Ledger)". It starts ticked. Hover: "Businesses bring contract offers for the Business Bulk Ledger desk. Turn this off for a Sandbox run with no contract mail at all. Story and the tutorial always have contracts." A Sandbox save that never stored the box loads with it ticked. Unticking it applies to the current Sandbox run. Campaign and the tutorial ignore it and keep contracts on.

While the box is unticked, these controls hide:

  • "Advance on signing"
  • "Contract price scale"
  • "Mis-bin chance (carrier error on deliverable mail)"
  • "Vacancy offset (raises or lowers returns)"
  • "Offer frequency"
  • "Town size variation", and only on New Facility Setup. Hover: "How different the four towns are in size. 0 gives the classic fixed towns. New games only."
  • "Bulk contract region growth and decline speed". Hover: "Applies only to bulk contract regions, not to the Town growth setting. How fast connected towns grow or shrink there. 0 keeps their size fixed."

"Town growth" stays on the page. It is the growth rule only while this box is unticked. While the box is ticked, connected towns use "Bulk contract region growth and decline speed" instead, and they can shrink. See Regions and towns.

Unticking the box stops new offers, contract mail, flyer pay, short days, and the fail and finish notices. The Objects row hides, and clicking a desk that is already placed does not open the window. Contracts already signed stay signed. The advance already paid is not taken back just because the box is off. Tick it again and a contract still inside its dates starts sending flyers again. With the box off, town growth follows "Town growth", and towns do not shrink.

Flyers inside the day's mail

The day's inbound total is rolled the same way with or without contracts. Flyers are a share of the pieces those trucks already carry. They are capped at 12% of that carry, rounded down. The trucks are measured as at most 2,400 pieces, so the cap on a full carry is 288. A bigger roll, such as 12,000, is still measured as 2,400, and the cap is still 288. A day whose carry is 500 holds at most 60 flyers. A day with nothing to carry holds none.

Each truck's flyer pieces stay inside that truck's piece count. Across the day, the trucks still add up to the whole carry, and the flyer pieces add up to the capped quota. A low day lowers the flyer quota to that cap. It does not add pieces on top of the carry. When several contracts are over the cap, the newest contract is trimmed first. An offer that would push live and pending flyers past the cap is refused, and the card reads "Too big for today's mail".

Sunday is not a delivery day. A delivery day with no loading dock, with intake closed, or with that town's road disconnected, schedules no flyers. That day is paused. It is not a short day.

Short days

A short day is a delivery day that had flyers scheduled, where the pieces delivered are under 80% of that day's flyer quota. 79 of 100 is a short day. 80 of 100 is a full day. A quota of 0 is not a short day. The Active line reads "Delivered today: 79 of 100" and "Short days: 3".

A short day does not change the inbound total and does not change that day's quota. The flyers that did go out are paid in full that day. The day's share of the advance is not earned. A full day clears the run of short days in a row, and it holds back that day's share of the advance, up to the flyer pay for the day. A paused day adds to the paused count. It does not add a short day, and it does not fail the contract by itself.

A failed contract

At the end of a delivery day, the contract fails in either of two ways. Three short days in a row fail it. Short days more than a quarter of its delivery days also fail it. Eight short days fail a contract with 28 delivery days. Seven do not. A full day in between clears the row of three, and the quarter is counted across the whole term.

The notice is titled "Business Bulk Ledger" and reads "Contract failed: Northwind Printing", using that business. Clicking it opens the ledger. The contract has left Active, so the tab can read "No active contracts."

The unearned advance is taken back the same night. Unearned days are the delivery days still ahead, plus paused days, plus short days, and that count cannot pass the delivery days in the term. The cash is the advance times that count, divided by the delivery days, rounded to a whole unit, then shown with cents. A term that runs 14 days from a Monday has 12 delivery days. Fail it on the third short day and those 3 short days plus the 9 delivery days still ahead are all unearned, so an advance of 120 comes back as $120.00. This charge can take the balance below zero.

Government satisfaction drops by 2. Customer satisfaction drops by 1. Operations: Status shows customer satisfaction as "Satisfaction: 82%", with that run's percent. Both meters stay between 0 and 100. Each contract applies this once. Labor relations do not change.

The same night's flyer pay, if any is left after the hold, still books. 79 pieces at $3.00 book $237.00. The notice is titled "Business Bulk Ledger" and reads "Contract mail delivered. $237.00 booked." Clicking it opens the ledger.

A finished contract

A contract that reaches the end of its term posts a notice titled "Business Bulk Ledger" that reads "Contract complete: Northwind Printing". The unearned advance is taken back the same way as a failure, and it can take the balance below zero. A finish with 0 or 1 short day raises Government satisfaction by 0.5 and customer satisfaction by 0.5, once. A finish with 2 or more short days changes neither meter. Labor relations do not change.

"End contract" stops one early. The confirm line reads "End this contract now? You repay $120.00 of the advance for the 9 delivery days not done. There is no other fee." The amount and the day count are that contract's incomplete days. "Keep" leaves it running. When cash cannot cover the repay, the button stays off and the line reads "Not enough cash to repay $120.00. Earn more or let it run." Ending it posts "Contract ended. Advance repaid: $120.00." under the title "Business Bulk Ledger". That repay stays within the cash on hand. Government satisfaction and customer satisfaction stay where they are.

Street Routes counts a contract that is still running, or one that finished its term, once it has 3 full days. A short day is not a full day. A failed contract does not count. See Story and Sandbox.

Finance Ledger

On the day the pay books, flyer pay is part of "Gross revenue:" and of "Postage, delivery, and other:" on the Finance Ledger. After midnight that day is the Last settled day tab. The advance taken back is part of "Construction and builds:" on that same day. See Government.