Containers and evening trucks
Mail moves on the floor in containers, then leaves on a carrier or on a dock truck. There is no gaylord and no BMC in the container list. The canvas hamper is the bulk unit.
Container forms
| Form | Role |
|---|---|
| Tub | Loose letters. Place a Mail Tub stack so clerks can grab an empty shell instead of leaving bare pieces on the dock. |
| Tray | Sorted letter tray. Trays nest in tray racks, not in roll cages. Sorted trays also stage on tray carts and shelf carts. |
| Tray rack | Unloaded in place. Clerks unload without ferrying the rack. |
| Tray cart | Stages letter trays. The catalog name is Tray cart. |
| Shelf cart | Tight-aisle ferry. |
| Sort rack | Multi-slot carrier case cart. |
| Roll cage | Wheeled mesh for tubs and parcels. Carriers do not push cages, tray racks, or rolling carts. |
| Canvas hamper | Loose flats and mixed bulk. A big counter car-load can borrow one. |
| Pallet | Inbound deck of nested parcel boxes. Clerks unwrap it at Package Sort. |
| Route bin | The case bin at a carrier station (the route "pumpkin"). Carriers push full route bins. |
| Business bundle | Pre-sorted business bulk for one carrier route. |
| Parcel | A single piece that still needs a scan. |
Clerks carry sorted letter trays to the Carrier Case. Place Mail Tray stacks and Mail Tub stacks as the empty-shell supply. Older save names Cage and Stillage still load: Cage is a roll cage, and Stillage is a tray rack.
Evening dock clock
Hours are when the truck is due at the dock. Nothing is dispatched if you have no loading dock.
| Time | Truck |
|---|---|
| 14:00 | Refuse (recycling stream). |
| 15:00 | Garbage. |
| 17:30 | Outbound mail. |
| 19:00 | A second outbound, only with a regional dock charter. |
The 17:30 truck (and the charter 19:00) is called when the outgoing bin has pieces, even if nothing is staged on the dock yet. Distribution centers do not truck that bin. Garbage and refuse use their own work checks.
What the outbound driver will and will not do
- The driver loads containers already staged on the dock. They do not enter the building or sort.
- The truck may drop one empty tray rack when outbound mail is waiting, you have no fillable empty rack, and this is not a distribution center.
- The truck stays while a container is staged.
- A full trailer leaves once a short minimum dwell has passed (4 simulation seconds for outbound, 3 for refuse and garbage).
- A partial load leaves after a quiet gap with nothing staged. That reasonable idle is 12 simulation seconds (about two sim hours, roughly 90 wall-clock seconds at labeled 1x).
- An empty trailer does not snap-leave on the minimum dwell. If the bin still holds mail it waits out a longer cap of 28 simulation seconds, so clerks can fill the shell the truck dropped. Otherwise it uses the 12 second idle. A stuck errand cannot pin the bay all night.
If you miss the load, the mail stays in the building and can fail outbound clearance at day end. There is no separate game-over for missing the truck.