Ship Rentals

Z

Zarpaulek

Mongoose
After spending three hours in the cramped cabin of a U Haul today I started considering whether it could be possible to rent spaceships in the Third Imperium. Interstellar rentals might be a stretch for the average consumer, though I can imagine corporations that aren't in the shipping business needing to move materials that they might not trust to external contractors. Or the occasional moderately-rich guy who doesn't have a personal yacht but still has a few tons of stuff to move with them. Possibly homesteaders but retrieving rented starships from a frontier world would be complicated enough that they might be better off with charters.

Small craft for intra-system travel seems a bit more plausible though. If you've got multiple inhabited planets or stations in the same star system there's probably a fair bit of interplanetary migration and "irregular" shipping to fill a market niche for rental shuttles or modular cutters.
 
It's unlikely anyone will rent out their starship, unless significant collateral is pledged.

Easier to send the stuff by freight, and you can book passage onboard.
 
Zarpaulek said:
After spending three hours in the cramped cabin of a U Haul today I started considering whether it could be possible to rent spaceships in the Third Imperium. Interstellar rentals might be a stretch for the average consumer, though I can imagine corporations that aren't in the shipping business needing to move materials that they might not trust to external contractors. Or the occasional moderately-rich guy who doesn't have a personal yacht but still has a few tons of stuff to move with them. Possibly homesteaders but retrieving rented starships from a frontier world would be complicated enough that they might be better off with charters.

Small craft for intra-system travel seems a bit more plausible though. If you've got multiple inhabited planets or stations in the same star system there's probably a fair bit of interplanetary migration and "irregular" shipping to fill a market niche for rental shuttles or modular cutters.
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Charters are more likely. You rent the ship and it's crew.
 
Baseline price for a jump ship would be the static cost of the ship plus 20 or 30 percent on top for a comfy margin.
Static cost for ships is the same all tramp freighters, PC and NPC alike.

Mortgage + life support + maintenance + 2 refuels + npc salaries + PC salaries
This give you the monthly static cost.
Divide this by 4, gives you the weekly cost.
I imagine most captains would throw in all port fees.
If you tell them they can't take on additional passengers. Extra fee.
Tell them they can't take on cargo.
Extra fee.


Going to an amber or red zone is also an additional fee.

The rental cost of a m drive only ship may be amazingly cheap.

It shares the same static cost as a jump ship, but smaller.
With rentals in the hours and day ranges.
 
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Also, cost of a Charter? Here is My idea. Not sure what it is in the real world.

Pay the cost for every stateroom and ton of cargo space per week of the charter. 1% gratuity for the crew is customary.
 
The cost of the charter has to be large enough for the owner to take the risk, and below that of buying a spacecraft.

Four times weekly operating and mortgage costs?
 
CT: The Traveller Book, p.53 had this:

Charters: Non-starships charter for Cr 1.0 per ton per hour, usually with a 12-hour minimum. Charter price for a starship is computed based on its revenue generating capacity. Starships are chartered in 2-week blocks; the charge is Cr900 per ton of cargo hold plus Cr9,000 per high passage berth and Cr900 per low passage berth. The owner pays all overhead and supplies a crew.
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agentwigggles said:
Baseline price for a jump ship would be the static cost of the ship plus 20 or 30 percent on top for a comfy margin.
Static cost for ships is the same all tramp freighters, PC and NPC alike.

Mortgage + life support + maintenance + 2 refuels + npc salaries + PC salaries
This give you the monthly static cost.
Divide this by 4, gives you the weekly cost.
I imagine most captains would throw in all port fees.
If you tell them they can't take on additional passengers. Extra fee.
Tell them they can't take on cargo.
Extra fee.


Going to an amber or red zone is also an additional fee.

The rental cost of a m drive only ship may be amazingly cheap.

It shares the same static cost as a jump ship, but smaller.
With rentals in the hours and day ranges.
Click to expand...
Right, so a pinnace would cost something like Cr1600/day and a cargo shuttle would be Cr2800/day.

That's actually pretty affordable for something like moving a house or secure documents (what I was doing yesterday).
 
To the OP:
IMTU, yes, it is possible to rent Small Craft in those systems that would allow such activity.
Given the value of the rented property, the rental conditions would be stiff. At minimum would be a 1-5% of new replacement rental fee, non-negotiable. The per-day fee would vary by world government legal structure, the renter's credit, etc. The owning agency would have several anti-theft features aboard including but not limited to a fully protected ship log, tracking and transponder system, a computer password system that changes for every renter, and a legal agreement that provides severe financial penalties for late rental return and damaged property.
Renting starships? Um, nope.

BTW, I hope your move went well.
 
Charters has always seemed the way to me that mercenary forces (or at least those not actually run by megacorps) get around to their tickets in the OTU. It just makes sense to avoid all the overheads of actually owning starships.
 
The problem with leasing, renting, mortgaging, rent to own, spacecraft, is that while Terrestrially it's hard to runaway and hide, in space it's seems to be pretty easy.

Though, the current example I can think of, is that the Russians confiscated all the aircraft they had leased and were within their territories.
 
collins355 said:
Charters has always seemed the way to me that mercenary forces (or at least those not actually run by megacorps) get around to their tickets in the OTU. It just makes sense to avoid all the overheads of actually owning starships.
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Chartering a starship is a wholly different thing than renting a starship. And, yes, that is absolutely how most merc units get around. I'd imagine that it's a significant part of the negotiation process for finding out who is responsible for unit transport and who pocket those costs come out of.
 
Condottiere said:
The problem with leasing, renting, mortgaging, rent to own, spacecraft, is that while Terrestrially it's hard to runaway and hide, in space it's seems to be pretty easy.

Though, the current example I can think of, is that the Russians confiscated all the aircraft they had leased and were within their territories.
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Uh, YUP!
That's why it's almost impossible to 'rent' a starship and crew it yourself IMTU. Small craft, yes, but starships nope.
Chartering a ship and crew is fairly straightforward however.
 
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