What is the Business Model for the X-Boat Routes?

[hal]

As the topic line suggests - what is the business model of the X-Boat business? Presumably, the business model has to be successful enough that the entire thing is empire wide. In addition, one presumes that the xboats have been around since the inception of the Third Imperium.

That having been said, these Xboats would need to be able to carry sufficient trade that is profitable enough to maintain the payroll of those involved, pays the taxes (if any) on its various aspects/assets, and must also pay for all capital involved in running the business. One would have business expenses in the form of maintenance costs as well as depreciation costs associated with equipment become more and more obsolete or worn out. The real question then, becomes one of how much would the X-Boat system charge for data, along with the cost per parsec and other related things.

With a Free trader - one has a certain amount of cargo/freight capacity, a certain amount of rentable assets in the form of staterooms and such - to where the owner of the ship has to balance expenses against income in order to remain solvent. So - how much "Memory" volume is being transmitted? If for example, one paid 1 credit per megabyte of storage per parsec - and the Xboat carries over 200 petabytes of storage space (just pulling numbers out of thin air here), then how much money can the X-Boat make overall? If the pricing is carefully balanced to where the profitability is close to the expenses - well and good.

Just curious if anyone has looked at this and maybe worked things out a little (or a lot!).

[Pomphis]

Originally Posted by hal

Just curious if anyone has looked at this and maybe worked things out a little (or a lot!).

No. I always assumed that the canonical X-Boat-Routes made no sense (except maybe historical) and were paid for by the 3I.

[Mike Wightman]

The xboat network is run by the IISS and is therefore a state subsidised business that doesn't need to turn a profit, every world in the Imperium is paying for it.

Dig into the history of the network however and you will find that the xboat network was built on top of the most used trade routes. It wasn't established until 624 by the way.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mike Wightman

Dig into the history of the network however and you will find that the xboat network was built on top of the most used trade routes.

Except the actual rules for mapping them don't make any sense, and trade routes aren't jump 4.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

No. I always assumed that the canonical X-Boat-Routes made no sense (except maybe historical) and were paid for by the 3I.

The more that people assume the government pays for something, the more the governments have to tax their subjects. If the service is operating at a loss, then there is a problem there where the Government has to make up the loss in profitability. Not saying that your answer is right nor is it wrong. But at some point in time, having so many "things" that are the results of tax monies being paid (for example, naval ships, technological research and development, infrastructure costs, etc) just means that the government has to make its money in some fashion.

2% of the profits of a corporation while it may sound like a lot, isn't really all that much in the grand scheme of things. Having starports charge fees to help handle the costs means that either the starports are self-sufficient, or they too need to be subsidized.

Now, let's try a thought experiment out - how many X-boats does the Spinward Marches require? How many pilots, maintenance crews, port crews, etc does it need? How often are the ships replaced? If one assumes that the corporation that runs this (or government entity or what have you) purchases ships outright rather than mortgage them, then the expenses of running the business change a little.

Now, borrowing from another post, the X-Boat routes weren't established until about 6 centuries after the start of the Third Imperium. I can go with that figure (as with anything else stated to be true about the Official Traveller Universe that is!). But from day one of when the founding of the X-Boats occurs - someone had to buy the ships, someone had to fix the rates for message/data/emergency transshipments. Like any other beastie - if they charged too little, they went under. If they charged too much, then competitors could undercut them. Get a Government subsidy, and then things go slightly out of whack as it isn't a pure market force environment for the X-boat company.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Mike Wightman

The xboat network is run by the IISS and is therefore a state subsidised business that doesn't need to turn a profit, every world in the Imperium is paying for it.

Dig into the history of the network however and you will find that the xboat network was built on top of the most used trade routes. It wasn't established until 624 by the way.

I'm assuming you get this from GURPS TRAVELLER FIRST IN. By chance, have you come across any other information from prior publications? Otherwise, I'm going to start looking for stuff in my PDF's I've purchased from FAR FUTURES in the way of CT, MT, T4, and possibly T5. TNE is largely about the Traveller universe after the Civil war, so I tend to avoid looking there for anything of substance.

It just seems an oddity that X-Boat services are part of the Scout Services branch.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by hal

The more that people assume the government pays for something, the more the governments have to tax their subjects.

The X-boat network isn't all that expensive to run, and can probably run on mail fees as long as it doesn't have competitors that outperform it. Which is the actual biggest canon problem for the X-boats, it does a bad job of moving mail (J4 isn't that fast, and it uses bad pathing).

[Pomphis]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Which is the actual biggest canon problem for the X-boats, it does a bad job of moving mail (J4 isn't that fast, and it uses bad pathing).

IIRC the average effective speed is about 2.6 pc/week.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by hal

2% of the profits of a corporation while it may sound like a lot, isn't really all that much in the grand scheme of things. Having starports charge fees to help handle the costs means that either the starports are self-sufficient, or they too need to be subsidized.

Per GURPS Starports, SPA starports do not have to make a profit, and many are subsidized.

How exactly the Imperium gets its money I gather is rather vague in canon.

There may be a 1% GWP income tax on planets.

There is the stock in Imperial corporations you refer to.

Increases in the money supply are given to nobles in the relevant area rather than to banks. But given the slow growth rate in the 3I, that won't be much.

But how exactly all the Imperial services are paid for is not well established, I believe.

The Third Imperium is all about trade, but I am not sure how it gets money from it.

[hal]

OK - perhaps a BAD assumption on my part, but for the sake of argument, let's assume that the X-Boat system is built using the standard rules for ships. While the original rules for CT and X-Boats went one route, let's assume that the people of the Third Imperium aren't stupid. Let's further assume, that the more "Self-sufficient" the X-Boat system is, the less of a drain it is upon the Imperium's resources. Using the Spinward Marches sector ONLY - what would it take in your opinion to make for a working system of X-Boats as a "physical thing".

For example - let's build Jump-4 ships where necessary for 4 parsec jumps. Let's build Jump-3 ships where we have 3 parsec jumps. Let's further suppose that all other information transport can be handled on a contractor basis for ships heading out to the non-x-boat locations.

How many ships will it take to provide daily transports from world to world? How much will those ships cost (you can either use traditional zero-G x-boats or use your own design).

From there? Simply determine payrolls involved, maintenance cost for the X-Boats, and any other costs you can identify in your set up. From there? Determine what the aggregate whole income has to be to maintain the entire network as you've designed it.


As a bonus? Create a NEW X-Boat scheme in which higher tech boats become available and Jump 5's and 6's come into play.

My best guess is this:

If the amount of "payload" isn't in cargo bay as such, but in Data cores - having a jump 6 X-Boat isn't going to be as cost prohibitive as it otherwise might have been. Why? The data cores are the payload, which can remain largely unchanged in size because they won't be impacted by the fuel tankage or the need to earn revenue based upon volume of space itself.

So, when I get the chance, I'll start working on a single subsector (Lunion is always my favorite place to detail) and I'll try to get a guestimate on how many X-boats are necessary to get from one end to another. Since the Sword Worlds are on the other side of Lunion, that will make things a touch simpler.

Me? I won't be creating standard x-boat tenders having to deal with zero-G X-boats. It is bad enough that a 1 G tender has to take days to round up a single x-boat if it jumps far enough away that it requires a pick up. Having to find three or four such X-boats makes it a chore to round up so many and ready them for their next jump.

Who knows, maybe a 1 G tender plus zero-G X-boats will be cheaper.

;)