A while ago I diagrammed for my players a typical star port set up on a planet like a TL-12+ Earth type planet. There are two Star ports in geosynchronous orbit. There are multiple "Down" ports servicing major population/manufacturing centers. E.g. EU, Asia, AF, N.A., S.A. In this example there would also be sub-ports on the planet (where Free Traders might pick up small cargoes that aren't large enough to be shipped on the mega freighters with their locked in, huge manufacturers.

The Far Trader would dock at the "Up" port and query the Shipping net looking for small cargo. Maybe they get a hit on some cargo in Phoenix sub-port that was sold by a small manufacturer to a buyer on a world J-2 away. The PC's take their ship down to that sub-port and load it up, leaving directly from there to the destination.

Unless required to dock at the highport for a customs inspection (which could also be done by a ships boat/cutter at a distance), I would think most ships would tap into the communication system of the planet and start looking for cargoes as soon as they established a link. Then while they are maneuvering towards the planet or stations they can already have found a potential cargo and started negotiating for delivery and providing their bona-fides for review as necessary.

The more time they spend not hauling cargo, the less money they'll make. Trucking companies today have a form of automated dispatching so that truckers aren't wasting time waiting for loads when the drop one off. Companies like Schneider already have loads waiting on drivers. Their scheduling software, coupled with the GPS tracking they have on their trucks, allows them to be an uber efficient trucking company.

Your port descriptions do sound like what a busy world might have.

You're right they'd be on the .net asap. I would think that any port could handle customs rather than just the "UP" facility. So yes, time = Cr.

That seems backwards to me. If all these shipments are known to be going off-world, it seems like it would make more sense to have bulk shuttles lifting them to the highport as soon as they're ready to go, then store them in orbit while a shipper is found. Unless it's a very-high-priority shipment and a transport is found who can lift it before the next shuttle leaves, I just don't see the advantage to keeping the cargoes on the ground.

• Granted, fusion and grav make orbital lifts dead cheap in Traveller, but, still, it's cheaper to lift things to orbit if you're lifting as little as possible aside from the cargo itself and you're going to get the best ratio of cargo lifted vs. total mass/volume lifted if you use a dedicated shuttle for it that doesn't have all the jump drives, fuel storage, etc. that an interstellar trader requires. A single-pilot shuttle with a massive hold, a maneuver drive, a small fuel tank, and nothing else will be much more efficient.
  
• Speaking of efficiency, even the classic Type A Free Trader has a large enough hold that it's likely to be hauling multiple cargoes. If those cargoes originate at different downports and it has to visit each one separately, that's going to mean plenty of wasted hours. Lifting everything to the highport and finding a shipper there means you can load it and get it into jumpspace faster, regardless of whether the loads come from a single point of origin or from opposite sides of the planet.
  
• Not all ships are streamlined, so some transports will only be capable of (safely) taking your cargo on board at the highport. Holding your shipment on the ground until the interstellar shipper comes down to pick it up means that you'll have fewer shippers to choose from.

It seems backwards until you are the small business owner paying extra to haul to orbit rather than having a Free trader pick it up (at no cost to you) at the local sub-port.

Depends on whether it would be at no cost to you - the landing/takeoff cycle must cost someone, whether it's a charge passed on to the customer or absorbed by the trader in the hopes of scoring a full hold.

That said, it may still be easier to hire local couriers with a air/rafts to go grab cargoes for you (especially if they're scattered all over the planet) than take the ship down yourself; especially since you can do that remotely and then use that time at the highport to fuel and do your monthly maintenance/spaceworthiness clearance (since it's a major facility) and customs clearance (rather than have to go through customs clearance at each downport)

_________________
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I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.

Minbari Protectorate Fleet:
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For the person/company sending the freight, there would be no cost. The ship (as always) pays berthing/landing fees. Also, a roll for cargo for the players is done as normal. (once/week). The result is what is available and is at one port somewhere (UP, or, one of the Downs) and not sprinkled around. (just like the standard rules, freight isn't split when there is an Up and a Down port)

The vast majority of freight is scheduled and/or already contracted.

Remember, the rolls are simulating small operators fighting for scraps left over/too small to bother with, from the big operators.

I would suspect that on busy planets a good percentage of scheduled cargo's would be transported to a centralized point(s) on the planet and them moved in bulk by cargo lighters to orbital warehouses and stations for transit further on.

For spot cargo's you'd see a mixture of pre-positioning it on a station vs. it being stored locally groundside. Ground-based warehouses will almost always have a lower cost associated to them simply because they do not take up valuable space real estate (and on many planets they would not require anything more than an open space to park your cargo container on.

Absolutely. The bulk carriers need fast turn around.

Little more complicated than that but basicly yes. It would be the job of the Purser to locate loads for the ship. This of course would be done while the ship was in transit for Free Traders and for the big guys they would have loads that would have already been arranged waiting on them. For a Free Trader they would need to look for a Broker who has a load headed in the right direction.